IT’S REASSURING THAT you can still rely on Crossmaglen people to be as forthright as they come.
When asked about Jamie Clarke, by now the Crossmaglen captain having had an on-off relationship with his club due to his wanderlust, and his chances of ever playing in Armagh orange again, his clubmate James Morgan says it straight out; “I would take Jamie back. He’s a competitor, he’s a quality footballer and he’s injury free. We’ll see what happens.”
That last, ‘We’ll see’ sounds suspiciously like that bit of business has already been boxed-off for what appears to be a last-chance season for county manager, Kieran McGeeney.
The appointment of Clarke as captain is an interesting one.
When former player Anthony Cunningham returned to the club and was named manager back in November of 2022, Clarke’s football career was in a grey area.
Some time before, he had signed to play soccer with Newry City. But Cross have always held firm on their own in-house policy.
Playing soccer is not ‘banned’ per se, but playing soccer then makes a player ineligible for selection for the club senior team. Simple and straightforward.
The rule led to Clarke being left on the bench last season. It hasn’t been an issue this time around. And handing him the captaincy has been great for the club, Morgan insists.
“I’d be very friendly with Jamie and I like being around people like him. You want to surround yourself with like-minded people and Jamie’s a competitor,” Morgan explains.
“He’s ambitious and he wants to achieve things in football and outside of football. I kind of branched a few times career-wise outside of football and I would never begrudge doing a bit of travelling because I took a year and experienced that as well.
“Having people like that in a successful team, everybody kinds of rubs off on each other and you can look at good things that Jamie is doing and learn from them. Whether it’s the type of training he’s doing or the work he’s doing outside of football, he’s someone you can bounce ideas off.”
When the Rangers returned to their clubhouse on Sunday, as custom demands, the microphone was handed to the captain. Usually softly-spoken, the force of Clarke’s message pinned people back.
“The way he projected his voice was something I wouldn’t be used to hearing from Jamie. He’s usually more relaxed and a calm speaker,” recalls Morgan.
“He spoke a wee bit harder in trying to get his point across and spoke about going away in particular and being in a bubble within Cross prior to that. You get used to winning county titles, but when you step back and look at what you’re missing you really start to appreciate.
“I think stepping away gave him the motivation to come back and tie in with the boys so we could win that county title. I’d say it was a proud moment for him and his family with the captaincy.”
A couple of years back, Morgan was captain in one of those freakish years that Crossmaglen didn’t bring the Gerry Fagan Cup back out of the Athletic Grounds. He had to make his own speech, but found that just as many people turned up as they would have, if they had won.
On Sunday, Morgan was not able to tog out. Over the summer he tore his plantar fascia (sole of his foot), he got a second hip operation five weeks ago and had some reconstructive surgery on his right wrist.
A positive force, Morgan believes he is lucky that all his injuries came at once. For a time he was off his feet after the hip operation. For the last fortnight he was able to drive again and went in to watch Crossmaglen train. Sitting in the crowd on Sunday, he gained a supporter’s perspective that softened the blow of not playing.
That’s the tenth title he been part of a Crossmaglen team for, and the third that he has lost out on playing in.
Still only 31, he takes all this in as motivation to get back playing, with January earmarked as a return date.
With a bit of luck, Crossmaglen might still be playing.
“It is difficult watching them but one thing I understand now that I maybe didn’t when I was younger is that the players on the pitch are doing it for a lot more than themselves,” he explains.
“Whether I’m in the dugout or the crowd, I still feel part of it because it’s your club or your community. I think a lot of clubs say the same, you’re doing this for your friends, your family, for everyone and when you step away or you get injured for a while you can understand what they mean by that.
Seeing Rian (O’Neill) kick a big score or Rico (Kelly) driving out with the ball, you can feel that a wee bit when it’s the people you grew up with it.”
He’ll be ready for county duty too.
Ask him about Kieran McGeeney and the opposition within the county, and he puts it bluntly.
“Geezer got the majority of votes from the clubs and he got all the backing from the players. So there’s a want for McGeeney to manage Armagh and there’s a belief from the players, that he instilled in us, that we can achieve something,” he said.
“We’re on that journey, we started it with Geezer and we want to finish it.”
