Former Crossmaglen and Armagh star Stephen Kernan sees Ulster club championship as best competition in GAA

STEPHEN Kernan views the world through Gaelic Football-tinted spectacles.

How could he not?

After all, he’s from Armagh where football is king and you can double-down on that by factoring in that, more specifically, he’s from Crossmaglen where the game genuinely is a religion.

Then, and probably most important of all, he’s from the Kernan family and you’d imagine his bedtime stories from infancy were tales of his dad Joe’s great days in the black and amber and the orange.

Being so absolutely steeped in the game he admits that things that are normal for him might seem, well, a little crazy to some of us.

You want the measure of his commitment? Well, his brother Paul got married in Australia 10 days ago and Stephen, assistant-manager to Enda Muldoon at Magherafelt, wasn’t there because it was the weekend of the Derry final.

It wasn’t that Magherafelt were already in the final and then he cancelled his plans to go to Melbourne. No, he looked at the date of the wedding and the date of the county final and when he realised there could be a clash the football came first.

And Magherafelt aren’t even his club!

But that’s the way he is: all-in or not in and, by the way, his brothers Aaron and Tony didn’t make it either also due to other football commitments.

That’s the way the Kernans are, they work around the football and that is understood.

“We’re all shaped by our families and our clubs so things that would be extremely normal for myself and my brothers and my mates from Crossmaglen may not be considered normal in other places,” he says.

“I knew earlier in the year that it was the weekend of the Derry county final so I couldn’t make it to the wedding and Tony and Aaron are both planning for a new season so taking a fortnight or three weeks out to go to Melbourne wasn’t really on.

“Paul was the full-back for Crossmaglen, he won three All-Irelands with us, so he fully gets it and it wasn’t totally accepted that we wouldn’t go.

“That is normal in our house – it’s not something that would start an argument. He’ll come home on a holiday and we’ll have a do at home.

“Mum and dad went out, they were able to go to it, and they were all watching the Derry county final at four in the morning from Melbourne! These things happen and the weekend we’re after having in Magherafelt was absolutely priceless.”

He missed the nuptials but he was there in Owenbeg to help Magherafelt wrestle the John McLaughlin Cup out of Newbridge’s grip in the Derry decider with a six-point victory over the three in-a-row chasing reigning champions.

“Newbridge really turned up and that’s what’s so satisfying about it – we had to win it, it wasn’t handed to us,” says Kernan.

“They were going for three in-a-row and there’s no team doing that in Gaelic Football anywhere that is not at the peak of their powers.”

Since the Derry final his focus has been on this weekend’s clash with another reigning champion – Scotstown in Sunday’s Ulster club championship quarter-final at Clones. He was brought into the Magherafelt management team by Enda Muldoon, a former adversary at club level with Ballinderry and county level with Derry.

“We met for a chat in December last year and Enda didn’t have to win me over, not at all,” says Kernan.

“Myself and Enda played in Ulster championship matches against each other so we’d know each other well and his brother is married into Crossmaglen. We’ve had plenty of battles on the pitch so there’s great respect between the two of us and we’ve got on really well since we started working together.”

Kernan brought a lot of experience to a camp that also includes former Tyrone All-Ireland winner and current Louth manager Gavin Devlin.

An All-Ireland U21 and Ulster championship winner with Armagh in his county days, he also won Ulster and All-Ireland titles with his club and propelled Crossmaglen to the county crown in 2022 during his time as manager of his native club.

He see similarities with his Crossmaglen days in the standards the Magherafelt players have set for themselves.

“I couldn’t be any more impressed with them from all their county players right down to the club boys,” he said.

“They’re very committed. They’re at the same level that would have been expected from you in Crossmaglen whenever I was playing. When the county boys weren’t with Derry they were down at the club every single night. Even if they weren’t doing the training they were there which meant the standards were higher.

“So it’s a great environment to be in and hopefully now that they’ve won a championship they’ll get the self-confidence that goes with that and have the appreciation that they are good enough and what they are doing is good enough.

“They continue to raise the bar and hopefully they can maintain the standards that they’ve set this year against Scotstown.”

MAGHERAFELT battered at the Derry door until they finally forced it in. The O’Donovan Rossa club were champions of the Oak Leaf county in 2019 but lost three finals before they repeated the feat against Newbridge this year.

Their reward is a Clones quarter-final against a formidable Scotstown unit that captured their fifth provincial title, the first since 1989, last season.

Kernan, who was part of the Crossmaglen side that beat Scotstown in the thrilling Ulster final of 2015, says the opportunity to take on the reigning champions will inspire the Magherafelt players.

“It’s brilliant in one way that we’re getting to play the current Ulster champions and one of the clubs that have been the flag-bearers of the Ulster club championship for a decade,” he said.

“They have players who have double-figures of county medals and had great county careers so if you’re going to go into a competition and you have any aspirations of winning this competition these are the games that you want to be involved in so you can test yourself against the best players in other counties.

“We’re looking forward to it but we’ll be under no illusions about how tough it is. They have some great footballers and arguably the most inspirational player in Ulster football at the minute in Rory Beggan, he is doing phenomenal things.

“We’re very excited about the game and we’re doing all we can in training to make sure we put a performance in that’s going to be up to our standards.”

Magherafelt ran into Kilcoo on their last foray into the Ulster theatre in 2019 and went no further than the quarter-final stage. There is a lack of experience on the pitch on Sunday but they have players who’ve had success at county level and three mentors who have been there and done it.

“Hopefully myself, Enda and Gavin can get across our experience,” says Kernan.

“Myself and Enda both view the Ulster club championship as being the best competition within the GAA. We loved playing in it ourselves with Ballinderry and Crossmaglen and when we were playing in it we always thought that there was a real freedom to it.

“When I played for Crossmaglen I always felt that the pressure was off us when we were in Ulster. You had already achieved the primary goal for the season in winning the county title and now it was about seeing how good you could be against the best players in other counties.

“It doesn’t get bigger than against the current Ulster champions and a team that has maybe 10 Monaghan footballers.”

And should Magherafelt get past Scotstown and Crossmaglen beat Gowna, there could be a very interesting semi-final in store…

“There’s no way we’re looking past Scotstown,” says Kernan, grinning.