NOT long off the plane from Australia, Jack Grugan returned to action for Ballymacnab on Sunday and helped his club breeze past Maghery in their first championship skirmish of this year.
How long Jack, younger brother of Armagh playmaker Rory, remains on his native sod depends on Ballymacnab’s longevity in this competition. Obviously he wants to be here until the end.
“I got back on Thursday morning,” he said after Ballymacnab, down to 14 men when midfielder Paul Meegan was red-carded just before half-time, had beaten Maghery by six points.
"I love it out there but I couldn’t stay away from the football.”
The mobile full-forward has been playing with the Wolfe Tone’s club in Melbourne after finally making it Down Under. He originally planned to go to Australia in 2020 but that adventure was scuppered by Covid.
After finally making the trip, who knows, he might have stayed put but, as he says: “The football always pulls you home, I couldn’t stay away.
“Me and Kate (his fiancé) are getting married next June so we’ll be home for good then but we’ll go back out once the football is read-up here. Hopefully it’ll last for a few months – that’s the plan – I don’t want to be going back too soon.
“I’m glad to be back with the boys and I got blowing off the cobwebs there.”
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From Sunday’s evidence, Grugan – like his brother a fully-fledged county player – hasn’t lost much, if any, of his sharpness. Countless back garden games mean he has a telepathic understanding with Rory and the pair of them combined to set up Ryan Watters for the second half goal that was the clincher at Sean McDermott Park.
“I played out in Melbourne, it’s a bit different, it’s a bit more laid-back – maybe a better balance?” he explained.
“The football is a good standard out there. Wolfe Tone’s are a good team, we were beat in the championship final in the middle of June and then I had a couple of months just training by myself. Training on your own is a hard slog but I knew I was coming back here so that made it a wee bit easier.
“I definitely didn’t feel at top pace out there but hopefully I’ll get there.”
Ballymacnab rose from junior obscurity to become an established senior outfit and they reached three county finals in eight years including back-to-back deciders in 2018 and 2019. That 2019 final must still stick in Ballymacnab’s craw because they looked to be on their way to a first-ever senior title until a late Crossmaglen comeback dashed their hopes. This year the ambition is to finally make that elusive step from contenders to champions.
“We are a small club but we’ve had a good crop of boys coming through since 2006 when we won the intermediate championship,” Grugan explained.
“That team really lifted the standards and we got up to senior. The 2011 final (the club’s first senior decider) came too soon for us, we weren’t ready for that one and Cross beat us well and they went on to win the All-Ireland that year – it was a brilliant Cross team.
“Over the years we felt we were never far away and I suppose we’ve been labelled ‘nearly men’ and that’s fair; that’s a fair label. We feel that if we can get things right, we have threats in different places on the pitch but again it all depends on us and what way we approach games.
“If we approach games the way we did in the second half I feel we can give most teams in Armagh a good run.”
Last year Maghery knocked Ballymacnab out of the championship at the quarter-final stage. Sunday’s win was an important one for Barry Dillon’s team who include the experience of former Antrim goalkeeper Chris Kerr at one end of the field and former Armagh forward Gavin McParland at the other.
“We were very, very disappointed with last year,” said Grugan.
“We were 11-8 up with a minute left of normal time and we felt we let them back into it and they went on and beat us in extra-time. That one really hurt.
“Today we were moving really well for the first 15 minutes but we left a lot of chances behind us and we weren’t happy coming in at half-time only a point up. I suppose, when we went a man down we actually lifted our energy levels and that maybe helped us in a way. We got the goal at a good time and we held on. Maghery have serious threats there with Aidan (Forker) and their other forwards but we held on well.”
