TEN YEARS in the famous Crossmaglen colours have left Johnny Hanratty laden down with medals.
But the 28-year-old has no intention of letting up just yet.
With “nine or ten” Armagh SFC medals, “six or seven” Ulster club medals and three All-Irelands to his name, he is now one of the elder statesman at St Oliver Plunkett Park.
Hanratty is not being disingenuous – he genuinely does not know the exact figure off the top of his head, and when it is put to him that this is a nice problem to have, the affable farmer jokes: “I’m not sure [how many there are] – my mother would be able to tell you better than that.
“But sure I’m not worried about counting at this stage – I’ll look back when I’m sitting over a few pints maybe some Saturday evening.”
The quest to add another Armagh title to that list continues tomorrow when Cross meet Tir na nOg in the second round, having disposed of Dromintee in the opening round.
The South Armagh club are, naturally, huge favourites to progress and Hanratty concedes that there will be bigger challenges ahead.
Not that their opponents, however, can expect any less than an onslaught when they take to the field.
“We will go down and we will give them the respect they deserve,” he said.
“It’s hard maybe for us to get up for it than if it was one of the bigger teams in the county.
“But we have a job to do, we have to go down and get the win and back up the road and that’s our game plan.
“Put it this way – we’re not going to be easy on them. We’re going to go at them hard and give them their fill of it and see and see how long they can last and stay with us.”
That sort of voracious appetite is of course a hallmark of the perennial champions, and that hunger has been kept keen by two developments this season; the re-engagement of Oisin McConville with the squad and the introduction of new faces.
“We’re only getting motoring now…you can see it even in ourselves in training this last couple of weeks – it’s picked up. There is a wee bit of championship bite about us,” declared Hanratty.
“And the young fellas are pushing on now this last couple of weeks.
“There’s the likes of Oisin O’Neill, Rian O’Neill and Stephen Morris. They make you go and push on because if you see them trying hard then you’re pushing yourself alongside them.”
McConville joined up with the squad again in the summer as assistant to Gareth O’Neill after he and John McEntee stepped down. Hanratty is thrilled to have the Crossmaglen and Armagh legend back involved.
“It’s great to see Oisin back in,” he insisted. “He loves Cross and I’d say he probably feels it’s maybe unfinished business after last year – after we got beat by Castlebar.
That defeat clearly still rankles with Hanratty.
“We were very close,” he recalled.
“Before half-time we had a goal chance – and if we had scored that goal before half-time we would have killed the game off.
“But we didn’t and they went up the field and scored a point just right before half-time and it gave them a wee extra inch to their step going into the changing rooms.
“If they had gone eight points behind – there was no coming back. But instead of that they went in maybe four down and after 10 minutes of the second half – I think it was all square.”
Missing from the Cross ranks are, of course, several important players through being abroad and also injury. Paul Hughes, Aaron Cunningham and Jamie Clarke are in America, whilst James Morgan is out long term.
“Paul Hughes is a big miss for us,” said Hanratty.
He could even be a bigger miss than Jamie at times because the engine he has is unbelievable – up and down the field. Plus he can play football Paul – he’s not only a good defender – he can score a goal or he can score a point for you at any stage in the game.
“Obviously Jamie is another huge miss – if you have Jamie playing you are guaranteed four or five points a game with frees and that.
“[James] Morgan is a big miss – he’s just a pure solid rock in there. If there’s a danger man on any other team – you just put Morgan on him and you don’t have to worry about him.
“We are just going to have to dig in deep – everyone know there’s a lot expected of us but there are other boys stepping up to the mark too.”
