“It’s a special club” - Ruairi Lavery hails Clann Eireann after League and Championship double success
They ended Crossmaglen’s bid for a hat-trick of titles and, on Saturday evening, they won their second Armagh SFC title in four seasons as Clann Eireann powered past local rivals Clan na Gael.
Ruairi Lavery’s team might have been workmanlike in the earlier rounds, but they showed all their class with impressive wins over Cross and the Clans to return to the Ulster Club Series.
They’ll face surprise Derry winners Newbridge at Celtic Park in the provincial quarter-final, although their manager insists they’ll savour their victory for a few days before turning their attention to Ulster.
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“We’ll enjoy this for the moment. It’s a League, Now the Championship,” said Lavery.
“Our seconds’ team got to the semi-final of the Championship, our minors won their Championship and I’m hoping the U21s will give it a good rattle as well.
“It’s a special club, a special group of players and it’s an honour for me to be associated with them. I’m really proud.”
““It doesn’t matter who it is in the final. The fact that it was the Clans and we’re both from Lurgan and the Clans are coming back for the second year in-a-row…. Look it was a highly-anticipated game, but that’s all it was – a game.
“That’s how we tried to treat it, we tried to play the game and not the occasion and I thought the boys were brilliant. To a man, everyone of them and whoever came on were brilliant.”
Clann Eireann were given an early boost when Conor Turbitt’s quick free set up Emmet Magee for a goal while the Armagh star finished the game with 0-8 to his credit, including six from play, in a man-of-the-match performance.
While Turbitt’s contribution was telling, Lavery was quick to praise a number of the team’s lesser-known heroes.
“Big players do it on big days. As the championship has gone on, ‘Turbo’ (Conor Turbitt), Barry (McCambridge) and TK (Tiernan Kelly) have really grown into it and gave the performances that we all expect from them.
“Turbo will get the headlines but I thought there were a lot of other brilliant performances. I thought Ryan Owens had a fantastic game on Niall Henderson who does a lot of the unseen stuff for the Clans.
"He makes them tick but I thought Ryan was extremely disciplined and kept Niall quiet which went a long way to us winning the game.
“I’m delighted for Ryan because he has come through serious injury problems – he wasn’t able to play in 2023. Same as Rioghan Meehan, those lads have really come through a difficult time but we kept belief in them and they kept believing and I’m glad both of them were on the field today.”
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