Armagh legend Oisin McConville may quit football after his club Crossmaglen saw their bid to make history fall short in Saturday’s AIB club football semifinal defeat to St. Brigid’s from Roscommon.
Rated the best club team in the annals of the GAA, Crossmaglen were stunned by a 2-7 to 1-9 defeat to the Roscommon champions in Mullingar.
Afterwards McConville told the Irish Independent, “I don’t really know whether I’m going to come back or not. I have a lot of thinking to do. It’s not just my decision any more.
“I have family at home and I’ve given a lot of years to it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed every single minute of it and when I do go there’s plenty of young fellas there to come along. For me, that’s the heartening thing. There’s another generation coming.”
Injury forced McConville out of the semi after just 22 minutes. “Even though we’re a very successful club, we’ve been beaten down the years plenty and we’ve had to recover from it,” he said.
“It seems like the end of an era and all that, but we’ve been here before, it’s not the end of anything. This club will always go on.”
Veteran St Brigid’s goalkeeper Shane Curran, who will play in the All-Ireland final at 42 years of age, paid his own tribute to McConville and the Crossmaglen club after the win.
Curran told RTE radio, “They are one of the greatest teams of all time, inter-county or club team. Joe Brolly said you could have a real All-Ireland final between Crossmaglen and Donegal and that motivated us,.
“But you can’t take away from Crossmaglen, they’re just a magnificent club side.
“To be on the pitch today and beat them in an All-Ireland semi-final is an honor for us as footballers."
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