New heroes Cross’ into winner’s enclosure

The third time’s a charm for Crossmolina. Having failed to overcome Moy Davitts on two previous occasions this season, they finally found a way to get the job done last Saturday evening. This one looked like it was going all the way as the clock ticked into the red with the scores tied. However, cometh the hour, cometh Niall Coggins!

Coggins’ early goal last weekend and late one this time round bookended these cracking final games. His name will join the likes of McDonald and Nallen and Gardiner in Crossmolina folklore after his palmed effort meant that we were finally going to have a winner in one of 2024’s biggest rivalries.

After a season of slow starts, the talk all week was that bookies’ favourites Moy Davitts needed to fly out of the traps to assert their dominance. They had been finishing games very strongly so surely a strong start would lead to utter control and allow them to play the game on their own terms. They got the start they desired but thereafter, Crossmolina had other ideas.

After throwing it away late on last week, one would forgive the Cross’ players for feeling that their chance was gone when Moy Davitts raced out of the blocks. The way they clawed it back and finished so strongly will make this victory even sweeter.

In a ding-dong battle of fine margins, the game was won when Jordan Flynn was black-carded heading into the last quarter. In the lead on the scoreboard and with a man extra, it looked certain that Moy Davitts would kick for home. Crossmolina’s final quarter was stunning, though, and Flynn’s teammates really bailed him out.

Moy Davitts failed to score again after his black card and in the absence of one talisman, another stepped forward. Conor Loftus grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and looked every inch the county star in that last quarter. His pace, skill, finishing and work-rate were a joy to behold. There is something very satisfying about seeing a county player turn it on for their club in the biggest moments. In their decorated history, the Deel Rovers have always had stellar county men who would consistently produce for their club in key moments and Loftus now joins that illustrious list.

I was delighted for Brian Benson, my old Mayo minor and under-21 teammate, who worked the oracle this season. He was a really smart and dangerous corner-forward and his fingerprints were all over Crossmolina’s attacking and expansive style of play. His counterpart, James Mulderrig, was also on that minor team with us and is another great fellow with a massive football brain. You’d have to feel a bit sorry for Moy Davitts in that they were probably the best intermediate team all year up to the final but they didn’t really produce their best stuff when it mattered most on either final day.

Both Mulderrig and Benson are 38-year-old men, born in 1986 and in a week when Manchester United appointed a 39-year-old as their youngest ever manager, you could be forgiven for thinking that sports management is now a young man’s game. I’d imagine John Maughan would beg to differ, though.

Once again, the legendary Maughan patrolled the sideline of a club winning team. He has now been involved in successful management setups in Mayo club football at senior (Crossmolina ’02), intermediate and junior level (Lahardane 2018). Each of these successes also happened in three different decades showing the longevity of the man. Is there any other individual in Mayo football who has been connected to victories in all three grades? Answers on a postcard, please.

On a weekend of good things for Crossmolina, they got another break as the Galway intermediate final ended in a draw. St Michael’s and Caltra mirrored the excitement in Mayo and played out a cracking encounter in Tuam. Their replay is next Saturday which means that the Galway champions will play Crossmolina on the weekend of November 16/17. That will be St Michael’s or Caltra’s fourth weekend on the bounce as there was only a week between the semi-finals and finals in Galway. Added to the fact that this game will be in a Mayo venue and Crossmolina have to fancy their chances of progressing. They are a talented, well-drilled team so the sky is the limit for them outside of Mayo.

It would be ironic were it to be a Crossmolina versus Caltra Connacht intermediate semi-final given the fact that both of these clubs were kingpins in the senior grade in the early noughties. Cross’ won the All-Ireland Club title in 2001 and Caltra repeated the dose in 2004. It’s hard to believe that within 20 years of those victories both clubs would be relegated from senior but football is cyclical and both are well and truly on their way back.

Indeed, it was third time lucky for Cill Chomáin at the weekend too. Having lost the junior final in ’21 and ’22 there was a sense of now or never for this Cill Chomáin team. And, oh, how they delivered in another tense, tight and topsy-turvy affair. Cill Chomáin have been everyone’s tip for junior for the last three or four years and that can weigh heavily on a group. These titles are never won easily and Cill Chomáin have more socio-economic factors to contend with than most other clubs.

I was glad that their day finally came and especially pleased for their star man, Justin Healy, that he came up trumps on the big day and will get a chance to showcase his talent at a higher level. How they’ll fare at intermediate is tough to say and population and emigration may have an impact on future prospects but that’s all for the future. For now, they just have to enjoy this one as it was a long time coming.

No more than Crossmolina, I think they could give the Connacht series a good rattle. Their experience of having played teams from other counties in the Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta should stand to them when venturing further afield. In the Galway junior championship, another Gaeltacht club, An Cheathrú Rua, prevailed and having played senior football only two seasons ago will be no mugs. Speaking of the cyclical nature of Gaelic football, An Cheathrú Rua beat Killererin in the Galway junior final in Tuam 10 days ago. This was a repeat of the 1999 senior final which Killererin won in a replay. All of these teams have had their ups and downs but are proper, traditional GAA clubs and it is great to see them enjoying success again.

So, after all the jigs and the reels, the Moclair Cup, Sweeney Cup and McDonnell Cup will reside in North Mayo for the winter. He probably wasn’t talking about Glenamoy or the banks of the Moy or the Deel but Kevin Keegan was definitely on to something when he said that “the North is a tough place, full of good people”. Good footballers too, Kevin.