'We haven't really yet played to our full ability' says Crossmolina coach McNulty

There was little talk of Santa Claus in recent weeks in Crossmolina. With an All-Ireland intermediate semi-final coming up, conversations in town have revolved around one thing only: their Gaelic footballers.

“The buzz is great. You’re driving through the town and there’s Crossmolina flags,” says Deel Rovers coach Thomas McNulty, speaking to The Mayo News.

“Every shop you go into people are just saying, ‘How’s the match?’ ‘How’s the team going?’ ‘How’s the lad?’ ‘Any injuries?’ It’s back to the old days in the early 2000s when we were going really well in the club back then. It reminds me hugely of that. Every building in the town has a flag up.”

“We’re back where we belong,” is a quote we’ve often heard from Crossmolina players and supporters. There has certainly been a rekindling of the glorious past of not too long ago. McNulty was on the junior team back in the day when the Deel Rovers were competing for senior All-Irelands, culminating in that famous win against Nemo Rangers in 2001.

The bonds to the players from that time are still strong. If McNulty, his manager Brian Benson, or any of the coaching team need advice, the ‘old gang’ is always just a phone call away and happy to help out. You also have team selector John Maughan, who has more than two decades of experience coaching at intercounty level.

“Most days Brian and me would be speaking to each other two or three times a day,” says McNulty. “My wife would tell you that I probably speak more to Brian than I do to her. I'm just trying to keep everything up."

There has certainly been a lot of time to prepare for the match this weekend against Kildare champions Caragh. The Connacht final was played on November 24. That’s six weeks between the provincial decider and the upcoming All-Ireland semi-final. The break was good to give the players some time off, explains McNulty.

“We had one or two little niggles, but thankfully with the last few weeks, we’ve got back on the horse. We’re training reasonably hard.”

The most recent training sessions have been full on - they were even out for a kickabout on Stephen’s Day while the rest of Crossmolina feasted on turkey sandwiches.

“The hitting is as hard as it would be in a championship football match. The intensity in the sessions are huge,” says McNulty.

“Each one of them the more senior lads, Kevin [Mulhern] and Mikie [Loftus] are driving on all these young players. And the young players are absolutely answering any questions that have been asked. James Maheady and the Coggins [brothers], for example, are just going after every single session, trying to be better at every chance. When it’s one-on-one or two-on-two, everybody wants to win.”

McNulty acknowledged that it’s no longer business as usual when asked about their All-Ireland semi-final opponents.

“We know Caragh have one or two members of the county Kildare team that won the U-21 All-Ireland last year. Any team that wins Leinster is always going to be a good football team. All the quality coming out of Dublin, out of Meath, to win a Leinster Championship is no mean feat. We know we’re up against a high-quality team.”

Their main priority, according to McNulty, will be looking at themselves and trying to improve their own performance.

“We haven’t really yet played to our full ability,” he notes.

READ: Crossmolina captain Michael Loftus fighting his way back