IN the blink of an eye, nine years have passed since Oisin O’Neill made his senior football debut for Crossmaglen. O’Neill broke into the side that won the club’s 19th title in 20 glorious seasons in 2015 and of the 21 Rangers who featured in that year’s county final, only himself and Paul Hughes played against Silverbridge on Saturday evening.
With Rico Kelly ruled out for the rest of the season through injury and James Morgan and Jamie Clarke not at match fitness, O’Neill is undoubtedly one of the leaders of a largely inexperienced pack that featured Aaron Haughey, one of his pupils at St Colman’s College, in last weekend’s five-point win.
“We’re a very young team,” says O’Neill.
“Young Aaron (Haughey) came in, he’s still a minor and that was his first ever start for the senior team. He was brilliant out there and our Aaron (O’Neill, his youngest brother) did well too.
“The challenge for those boys is to go out and do it again the next day. This win only puts us in the quarter-final and we have a step up coming next week. It’s a tight turnaround for us and we need to recover and push on.”
His brother Aaron hit goals in either half against Silverbridge. The first dragged Cross back into the game after their rivals had gone 1-4 to 0-1 ahead. The second killed off the battling ‘Bridge men and saw the defending champions through to a quarter-final against Cullyhanna.
“We knew they were going to come out in the first 20 minutes and throw everything at us and they did,” said O’Neill.
“They had the wind in the first half and it was a strong wind – I don’t think people in the stand realised how strong it was, but you could see the effect it had on the game.
“The goal just before half-time was massive and then we were happy-enough going in just a point down at half-time and we were able to push on in the second half.
“Anyone looking on from the outside can see that we have been through an awful lot in this team and the whole community. Even the teams that we’re playing: Caolan (Finnegan) was very close to a lot of boys from Silverbridge, or Cullyhanna… Everybody around our part of the world is still in this grieving process and we’re using football as a bit of a release and trying to get better every night we’re training.”
St Colman’s College has a connection to the GAA that goes back to when Michael Cusack taught there before he went on to found the Association in 1884.
The school has produced many superb footballers over many years including Greg Blayney, Paul McGrane, Diarmuid Marsden, James McCartan and Benny Tierney so Armagh’s class of 2024 were in good company when they returned to the school with the Sam Maguire last Friday.
Past pupils Oisin, his brother Rian, Peter McGrane, Cian McConville, Conor O’Neill and Sean McCarthy were given an enthusiastic welcome back to the Violet Hill school.
“It was a great few hours,” said Oisin.
“I’m fortunate to be back teaching there and for the rest of the past pupils coming back, St Colman’s will always be a special place.
“It’s where we learned a lot of our skills and we were able to develop and mature as people. It was great for all the students in the school – especially the Armagh ones, they maybe enjoyed it more than the Down lads.
“But it’s memories for all of those young people and hopefully it inspires them.”
