Armagh Senior Football Championship semi-final: Clan na Gael v Madden (Saturday, BOX-IT Athletic Grounds, 5.30pm)
HIS grandfather – the late, great Brian Seeley who played and scored for Armagh in the 1953 All-Ireland final – always told him to enjoy his football.
Yes, tactics. Yes, training. But enjoyment, the pure love of the game… That’s the most important thing because if you love it, you’ll give your best to it.
Throughout his playing career and now into his coaching days, Ronan Austin always held his grandfather’s words close.
He has a busy weekend coming up. On Friday night there’s the 20th reunion of Armagh’s All-Ireland U21 Championship-winning team of 2004 and then, on Saturday evening Clan na Gael take on Madden in the first of the senior football championship semi-finals at the Athletic Grounds.
So, from reliving old memories to making new ones, it’s all happening.
THE 2004 U21 campaign got off to a painful start for Ronan Austin. He tore his hamstring in the early stages of the Ulster championship and didn’t get back into contention until just before the final.
“We had an A v B game in Derrynoose,” he recalls.
“I was just back from injury and I was on the B team. I scored a couple of goals and at half-time they moved me onto the A team. I did well again and for the Ulster final the following week I was named to start at full-forward.”
He takes understandable delight in recalling how Armagh were largely written-off for that final. Derry were heavily-fancied but an Orchard whirlwind blew the Oak Leafers’ away at Casement Park.
“That was a good one!” he says.
“All the experts of the game told us not to bother turning up – Derry were going to hammer us… I think we beat them by 15 points (2-12 to 0-4). We just blitzed them – the way we set up and played, they couldn’t handle our pace and strength.”
Austin scored 2-4 in the first half. Both goals came from long balls which he leapt to grab and then turned his marker and slotted into the net.
“I just closed my eyes and hit them as low and hard as I could,” he says.
“Steven Kernan could have put the ball through the eye of a needle for you. A great footballer with a great football brain, he knew when to put it in and to put it to your good side… There were loads of quality players: Gregory Loughran, Ciaran McKeever, Aaron Kernan to name a few.”
That win was only Armagh’s second ever Ulster U21 title and they had to wait from April until early September for the All-Ireland semi-final against Munster champions Cork in Salthill.
“It was probably the best game of football we played,” says Austin.
“We were up against it but we were very confident in ourselves, in our line-up, our subs, our tactics, the management… We knew everything was in our favour if we did the business.”
They did the business against the Rebels and won by six points to set up an All-Ireland final against Mayo in Cavan’s Breffni Park.
Again Armagh started brilliantly and again Austin found the net but again they were pegged back and the game was level in injury-time before scores from Stephen Kernan and Dromintee’s Shane O’Neill got Armagh over the line.
“From one to 29, everybody contributed in that campaign,” says Austin.
“Training was epic, it was fantastic. The quality… The year before Andy Mallon had started the All-Ireland senior final against Tyrone, Ciaran McKeever, Malachy Mackin and Aaron Kernan were on the senior panel as well, so we had a great mix.”
HE has an All-Ireland medal but although he gave his club exemplary service over 22 years, he never won an Armagh senior championship with Clan na Gael.
A semi-final was as close as he got and it’s 30 years’ now since the Gerry Fegan Cup went to Davitt Park.
‘The Clans’ did return to the final last year and they are back in the semi-final again this season with Madden Rapparees their opponents on Saturday. Holders Crossmaglen take on Clann Eireann in the second semi on Sunday (5pm) and Ronan says it’s genuinely a four-horse race.
“Any one of the four could win it,” says Austin, part of the Clans management team with Ronan McMahon and Eamon McEvoy.
“Crossmaglen are Crossmaglen and they’re going to do what they do – they’re favourites and they’ve earned that. You’ve got Madden who have been a joy to watch this last three or four years – they’re a formidable force and with Mark Harte over them they’re extremely disciplined and very well set up.
“Whenever you’ve quality footballers in all your lines you’ve got a chance against any opposition.
“With Clann Eireann – you’ve got the household names now in Barry McCambridge, ‘Turbo’ (Conor Turbitt) and ‘TK’ (Tiernan Kelly) and alongside them Clann Eireann have had great underage success this last 10-15 years, great structures and they are a club that is going to win championships. Will they win this year? We’ll know more on Sunday after they play Cross.”
As for Clan na Gael, without denouncing the chances of his own club, Austin points out that the Clans are relative newcomers to senior football.
“In 2021 we played Crossmaglen Seconds in Cross in a knockout intermediate championship game and we got out of there by the skin of our teeth,” he recalls.
“In the three years’ since then we’ve got to the senior final (last year), we beat Cross in Davitt Park (this year’s group stage) and we’re back in the semi-final. Where we were and how far we’ve come can’t be underestimated, we’ve no medals yet but we’re very happy to be in the mix and we deserve to be there.
“We have our stars in ‘Soupy’ (Stefan Campbell) and ‘Buzz’ (Shane McPartlan) and then we have our clubmen who would get on any team in the county. The average age of the panel is 21 and-a-half and we have young fellas who’ve come through the underage ranks in Armagh winning everything in front of them.
“They’re fearless, they live and breath Gaelic Football and Clan na Gael and a lot of them have big careers ahead of them.
“They belong at this level and I hope they can stay there and do themselves justice and, most importantly, I hope they can win.”
RONAN’S son James is one of the talented batch of Clans’ young guns coming through at the club. He’ll hope to match the achievements of his great-grandfather Brian Seeley by becoming the latest in the footballing dynasty to win a senior championship medal.
Sadly, Brian passed away in August aged 90 with club and county legend Jimmy Smyth describing his contribution he made as a player, manager and supporter as “beyond compare”.
Right up to his final moments, Ronan kept him in touch with the club.
“Granda was a massive part of my career,” he explains.
“He was a big loss to the family and the club. When he was on his deathbed I went over to sit at his bedside and I watched the Clans played Granemore on a laptop. He wasn’t lucid or awake but I was commentating the whole way through the game to him and letting him know how it was going.
“I wanted to keep him up-to-date, that was important to me.
“If we can get over Madden – which is a massive challenge for us – and get to the final and go on and win it, I’ll be able to go to his grave and tell him: ‘We did it granda’.”
He’d love that.
Armagh Senior Football Championship semi-final: Clann Eireann v Crossmaglen (Sunday, BOX-IT Athletic Grounds, 5pm)
STAR-studded line-ups clash on Sunday as the last two county champions come together in the second of the semi-finals.
Clann Eireann beat Crossmaglen to become champions in 2021, but Cross regained their crown the following year and beat Clan na Gael 12 months’ ago to retain it.
Both sides reached the last four by winning nip-and-tuck quarter-finals. With seven minutes’ left of their clash with Armagh Harps, Clann Eireann were behind.
Barry McCambridge equalised with and then Ruairi McDonald broke into the Harps’ square and drilled a right-foot shot into the top corner of their goal. That was enough to send the Lurgan men through.
Pitted against them on Sunday is a Crossmaglen side that will have breathed a huge sigh of relief when the final whistle blew in their quarter-final against South Armagh neighbours Cullyhanna.
After Rian O’Neill’s virtuoso goal, Cross were looking in command at half-time but they found the running power and pace of Cullyhanna’s Jason Duffy and Ross McQuillan almost impossible to combat. With the underdogs in charge, the game was level in injury-time but Odhran Kieran was the hero with a fine finish that sent the Rangers through.
Backboned by three Sam Maguire winners, Clann Eireann have no shortage of skilful runners while Cross can count on the physicality and quality of the O’Neill brothers, Rian, Oisin and Aaron, alongside Stephen Morris and Callum Cumiskey.
Creating chances hasn’t been a problem for the defending champions, taking them has been and they may need Cian McConville, and perhaps Jamie Clarke, to find their shooting boots to get through this test.
