After cantering to a 46th county title, Armagh champions Crossmaglen have fired out an early warning to the rest of Ulster - the best is yet to come.
That’s the view of their star attacker Cian McConville, who scored 0-8, 0-4 from play, in a Man-of-the-Match display in Sunday’s 1-19 to 0-10 win over first-time county finalists Granemore at the Athletic Grounds.
Cross stuttered in the early rounds of the Armagh Championship and were taken to extra-time by Dromintee in the quarter-finals, but they powered clear to win by a comfortable 10-point margin.
Read more: Crossmaglen v Granemore RECAP as Rangers regain Armagh SFC title with facile win
They then had 15 points to spare over 2020 champions Maghery, seen by many as their biggest challengers this season.
Caolan Finnegan scored a stunning goal after 20 minutes of Sunday’s final while Rian O’Neill pitched in with 0-4 from midfield, three from play, as Cross booked an Ulster Club SFC meeting with Monaghan champions Ballybay back at the Athletic Grounds on Saturday, November 5.
Strikingly, McConville feels Rangers haven’t peaked yet despite double-figure victories in their last three Championship outings.
“If you are going to peak towards the end of the Championship, that’s probably good timing,” said McConville.
“We’d two good games in a row and we played well against Maghery. We were delighted with that performance.
“We were happy enough with parts of today (against Granemore), but there’s definitely loads to work on. We don’t think we are at our final level.
“We think we can push on even more so, hopefully, we can do that in the next few weeks.
“We started at 100 miles per hour and it is going to be hard to live with any team who plays like that.
“We are delighted to get over the line after failing at the final hurdle in the last two years.”
The most successful side in the history of the Ulster Club series, Crossmaglen won the last of their 11 provincial titles back in 2011.
They face Ballybay in the preliminary round with the winners set to take on current Ulster and All-Ireland champions Kilcoo in the quarter-final.
Cargin (Antrim) will host Naomh Conaill (Donegal) at Corrigan Park in the only other confirmed fixture.
Derry champions Glen await the Tyrone champions, Errigal Ciaran or Carrickmore in their quarter-final while Cavan kingpins Gowna will take on either Enniskillen Gaels or Erne Gaels after the Fermanagh SFC Final was postponed on Sunday due to a waterlogged pitch at Brewster Park.
Having kicked a combined total of 4-34 in their wins over Maghery and Granemore, Crossmaglen won’t abandon their attacking instincts in pursuit of provincial glory and McConville says they’ll relish the challenge of facing Ballybay in the Ulster series.
“That’s just the way we like to play. It is not common that you see a team play like that, but that’s how we love to play and we wouldn’t change it for the world,” added McConville, whose father Jim is part of Stephen Kernan’s management team.
“I think it shows there today, you can win playing that way.
“(The Ballybay game) is one we are looking forward to. It is our first outing in Ulster for a couple of years.It will be another tough test again.”
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