‘I absolutely love being from Crosserlough’
As Shauna Lynch turned the car for Breffni Park for the county final media launch, her Crosserlough clubmates were already hard at work back home, putting up flags and bunting in preparation for Saturday’s showdown.
That sense of community is something the Crosserlough and Cavan captain treasures.
“I absolutely love being from Crosserlough. I’m being biased but it is one of the best club set-ups that I know. Every team gets behind each other. The men get behind the women, the underage get behind everybody. We all get behind the underage, it’s just fantastic. The sense of community within the club is just class,” she told the Anglo-Celt.
“I was driving in the road there and they’re starting to put the flags up for us for next weekend, and obviously, hopefully the lads as well, I know that is a bit premature, but it just gives you such a buzz. The community within the club is just amazing.”
Crosserlough are back in the senior decider against Lurgan, just as they were last year. Lynch says the players are relishing the chance to put themselves to the test again.
“It’s great to see how close we were last year in the final. It’s great for Cavan and us and everything like that, to see Lurgan push on and go to the Ulster final, which was fantastic, like I said, for us and for Cavan football as a whole. But yeah, back again this year, same as last year. We’re really excited for next weekend. And I’m sure it’ll be looking forward to the same battle as last year, no doubt.
“And definitely, personally, I always look forward to playing Lurgan. It’s always just a good, hard footballing game. There’s no messing, there’s no other craic that comes with it, and it’s just honest football, both teams going out to play a game and putting their heart out there and trying their best. So any time I’ve played Lurgan, it’s always been an outrageous battle, and I’ve no doubt that next weekend will be the same.”
The Crosserlough captain believes the standard across the county continues to rise, with younger players driving the improvement.
“Yeah, definitely, and it’s only getting better every year. You see it coming up through your underage, you can see the structures in your underage county teams.
“Then that’s obviously coming into your senior set-ups, the younger girls coming into our senior team at the club are pushing for their place, they’re pushing on. So that’s only making Cavan football better.”
Crosserlough swept aside Mullahoran in their semi-final while Lurgan were pushed to the limit by Killygarry, a contrast Lynch feels could be looked at in different ways.
“I suppose you can look at it two ways. It’s great to get a battle at that point, Lurgan being pushed all the way by Killygarry and coming out on top, and then the other side, us winning convincingly over Mullahoran.
“I suppose there were things to take into consideration there, with the weather and everything, did we get a true reflection of both sides? You know, you can always take that into account too.
“I do think we’re coming into good form and we had a really good performance against Mullahoran, regardless of the outcome, so we’d be happy with that going into the final.”
For all their consistency, Crosserlough feel they could have even more titles to their name. Lynch agrees that high standards are now embedded in the group.
“Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you there, I think, and Mark only pointed it out during the year there that we’re such a young team, but I think we’ve set the bar so high for ourselves that that’s what we expect of ourselves. We’ve two senior championships behind us now, and we’re definitely looking for a third, and that’s just the level that we’ve set ourselves to and that’s what we’re pushing for.”