BABE RUTH did as he pleased. Being the greatest name on the greatest team of them all afforded him such luxuries. The 1927 New York Yankees were unstoppable and so was he, on and off of the ball park. One evening a police man in a suburb saw a car driving the wrong direction down a one-way street.

Ruth was inside and when pulled over he screamed, "I'm only driving one way." "Oh, hello Babe, " the cop replied. "I didn't know it was you. Go anywhere you like, but take it easy."

We're not questioning Oisin McConville's driving ability, but know any one-way streets in Crossmaglen?

The secret of Rangers and McConville's success is that they've never lost their enthusiasm for playing ball. This All Ireland means every bit as much as the others they've picked up during a decade of dominance and it's why self praise is only praise when Crossmaglen are champions.

McConville's well-taken goal the first day looked to have sent Rangers on their way to that fourth All Ireland crown, his superb stoppage-time point brought them back from the brink.

But for teams like Cross, to be in that position to begin with is not good enough. "The feeling when the point went over was just one of relief, " he says. "We didn't play well at all and that was disappointing. Obviously today the result is what matters but unless we play much better we are not going to get that."

"We know that and we knew it the minute we came off Croke Park last time out.

Trust me, there was no pats on the back in the dressing room and no feeling that we've escaped and Crokes' chance of winning this is gone.

"It just wasn't good enough from all of us and maybe we were built up too much. I'm not saying that was the media or anything, rather a little bit of ourselves thinking this is there for the taking and not giving Crokes the respect they deserve. This time we have just shut our mouths, kept our heads down and are really focussing hard on what we can do better and on areas that can tip things in our favour."

One area they'll have looked at closely is distribution. The ball into the forwards the last day was slow and sloppy for the most part.

The 1-9 they scored on St Patrick's day won't win this game and the experience of the McEntees, Francie Bellew and McConville will make that very clear to the younger heads on the team.

But it's up to some of those bigger names to throw themselves about more.

The Munster champions looked the hungrier and were dominant when it came to breaking ball in the middle of the field during the drawn encounter.

That can't happen again, especially on a tighter pitch like Portlaoise.

They are the areas Cross can do something about. But when it comes to Colm Cooper they can do little. His role for the Killarney side is very different to the game he plays with Kerry.

In this campaign, especially the semi-finals against Moorefield, he has proven himself an extremely effective ball-winner while holding up play when needed and laying it off sweetly time and time again. The big scores are presumed but he's making sure others have the chance to knock over points as well.

The news that both Eoin Brosnan and Brian McMahon are fit is a huge bonus to Crokes, keeping a solid team spine from shattering.

But even with the two in place it won't be enough to stop Crossmaglen from winning. Only then will McCoville and company afford themselves any luxuries as part of the greatest club team of the modern era.

ALL IRELAND SF CLUB FINAL REPLAY
CROSSMAGLEN RANGERS v DR CROKES

Portlaoise, 2.00 Referee E Murtagh (Longford) Live, TG4, 1.45