McEntee twins bring end to Cross careers

The father-of-two added: "We haven't told the club formally. But there is no need for that. It wasn't a job."

John also insisted that he wasn't overly perturbed at his team's failure to set a new All-Ireland record of 14 successive county titles.

"Records are not that important to me," he said. "If we had set a new record we would have been delighted.

But we got beaten and that's it. We didn't perform. We are disappointed, but Cross will regroup and they will probably be favourites for next year's championship."

And it's the future development and continued success of Crossmaglen that was the main reason why the twins decided to move aside.

Explaining their decision, McEntee said: "When we were young, our uncle used to tell us about a Crossmaglen side that won championship after championship. But after years of winning everything the club endured a long time when it won nothing.

That happened because too many players stayed on too long. It meant that a lot of younger players never developed, or never got the chance, so they moved on.