WHEN OISIN O’NEILL takes to the field for Crossmaglen against Clontibret in the Ulster club SFC quarter-final on Saturday week, he’ll be going up against the man who handed him his club debut.
John McEntee won five All-Ireland medals and 14 county titles during a legendary career with Crossmaglen and gave O’Neill his senior bow when he was joint-manager of the club earlier this decade.
O’Neill grabbed 1-5 as Crossmaglen pulled off a come-from-behind win over Ballymacnab to retained their Armagh crown on Sunday and now their focus turns to the provincial campaign.
McEntee is in charge of Clontibret who enjoyed a surprise win over Scotstown in the Monaghan decider on Sunday to set-up a showdown with his home club.
“John was my first manager with Cross along with Oisin (McConville), they were joint managers at the time,” says O’Neill.
“I will always be grateful to them for giving me the opportunity to play for Cross. Look John is a legend in our club, he has captained Cross to an All Ireland club title and he still does a lot of work with underage and stuff.
“It will be strange, but if we prepare properly and come out to play like we did in the second half the other day, hopefully we can get over the line against Clontibret.
“Any team with Conor McManus in it is never going to be easily beaten. It isn’t just McManus, the likes of Dessie Mone, Vinny Corey, the experience they are going to bring is something that will be a challenge for us, but we are looking forward to it.”
O’Neill has fond memories of travelling around watching his uncle McConville in action with Cross as a youngster during a dominant era for the club.
“If you ever need anything or you need to give him a shout about something on the field or maybe off the field it’s always good that you know that he’s got your back and you can always talk to him,” the St Mary’s final year student says of McConville.
“He’d always give us small wee things (of advice) if he thought we weren’t doing something he would always point it out.”
He was always likely to follow in his footsteps.
His father Gareth lined out for both Armagh and Louth and took charge of Crossmaglen in 2016 after McEntee and McConville stepped aside.
“We’re lucky we come from a family with a great tradition of football and we’d be lost without it. It’s what we talk about and it’s just what we do.
“With the background I have, we would have been in the field when the boys were training, kicking balls back out to them. It was always a privilege to watch. Some of the things I’ve seen those boys do on a training field, things that people wouldn’t get to see them do on game days.
“There’s no other sport. There’s no rugby, soccer, we don’t have a swimming pool, we don’t have anything else. If you are going to play sport, you’re going to play Gaelic football and you’re to be down the football field.
“It’s probably something that works to our advantage in a way, that we don’t have the distraction of other sports. That bears fruit. Our underage structure is good. We have good organisation there. A lot of people do a lot of good work and that would help us.”
O’Neill’s younger brother Rian enjoyed a breakout campaign with Armagh after shining during Cross’s run to the Armagh title last winter.
Oisin broke onto the Armagh squad in 2017 but endured a frustrating 2019 after undergoing surgery to repair ruptured ligaments in his ankle in January which ruled him out for 15 weeks and ultimately saw him miss the inter-county season.
“I ruptured three ligaments in my ankle last year in the county semi-final and then I played on through the rest of the club campaign.
“But then I needed an operation, I just couldn’t keep going anymore. I got that at the start of January and I was sort of only getting back to full fitness as Armagh were in the championship and I probably hadn’t the same work done that the rest of the lads had to be able to feature for Armagh.
“(I had it) heavily strapped. I probably knew that if I did play the rest of the club season last year that I was going to need surgery.
“Rian had a great year and he just backed up his club form that he brought from the last couple of seasons. Anyone who watches club football in Armagh would have known what he’s capable of doing so it was good to see him do it on the bigger stage.
“We are pretty close. We’re in and around the same age and we have the same friends and we’d socialise together all the time as well.
“Personally, it was a frustrating season but I could fully understand why Kieran (McGeeney), Jim (McCorry) and the rest of the Armagh management team didn’t probably trust me enough to put me in.
“Like I said, I probably didn’t have the same work done that the boys had but hopefully now I’m in a better place for the 2020 season.
“Whenever that season finished I knew I was going to have four to six weeks to get some real good training done before the club championship started with Cross and so far that’s stood me in good stead.”
In the absence of Jamie Clarke who switched his club allegiances to Neasden Gaels in London this year, the O’Neill brothers are carrying a greater scoring burden for Cross.
“Yeah but we have lots of other good forwards aswell,” he says. “You’d see from the scorers on Sunday a couple of our defenders came up to get scores.
“That is something we pride ourselves on, that we can get scores from all over the field. It doesn’t necessarily fall on one or two men at any time.”
The pair both underwent trials at an AFL Combine in the past, but a move Down Under was never a realistic prospect for either youngster.
“I just had trials and stuff. It wasn’t something that ever got to the decision stage. It was an enjoyable experience and it’s something you can learn from. Me and Rian still have the Aussie Rules ball at the house and we’d bring it out now and then.
“It was probably just the same (for Rian), to be honest. He never would have had an offer.”
He’s hopeful the current youthful team emerging can follow in the footsteps of the legends who’ve gone before the and enjoy some provincial success.
“We have come together with a new group that can hopefully push on now in the coming weeks.
“There has definitely (been an evolution), 10 of our starting team on Sunday were 25 or younger. So we have sort of built a new group, we still have the experience, the likes of Tony Kernan, Paul McKeon, and Johnny Hanratty being able to come off the bench to be able to help us see games out.”
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