February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The problem for Armagh is that when they arrive at the same destination, no one expects them to win. Until recently, that would have been the dynamic to an All-Ireland football final involving two counties with a massive gulf in success and tradition between them.
Not that Kerry aren’t suddenly strong favorites for Sunday’s showdown. They are, and deservedly so after producing the sort of scintillating attacking play that was too good for the holders, Galway, and that later bemused Cork in a hopelessly one-sided semifinal.
No matter what any Kerryman or woman tells you, the Kingdom are strongly fancied to add another title to the county’s roll of honor, but their opponents are not some makeshift outfit who have come through to football’s most prestigious day by default. Once written off as Ulster makeweights, Armagh are now a real threat to Kerry’s hopes of taking the Sam Maguire Cup back to the southwest of Ireland.
Of course, don’t forget that Armagh have never won the coveted All Ireland — their last appearance on final day was a comprehensive defeat by Dublin 25 years ago. In 2000, they lost out in a tense semifinal replay to Kerry and that spawned talk, even among their own, that Armagh simply couldn’t cut it at Croke Park.
However, a quiet revolution was taking place, one that boosted a county’s self-belief. Crossmaglen Rangers, a club that survived the occupation of the British Army, was beginning to thrive, and managed by Joe Kernan they stunned the Irish GAA community by winning three All Ireland club titles in the space of four seasons.
Kernan, who scored two goals from midfield in that 1977 reality check by Dublin and won an All-Star award, is now in his first year as Armagh manager. And now, he is on the verge of doing what he did with Crossmaglen. Unlike some of his peers, Kernan was unequivocal about his goal when he took over the job.
“The target was the Sam Maguire,” he said. “We felt that was no point in telling people that we’d take it as it comes for the simple reason that you’re taking your eye off the target that you want. You can’t con the players. The previous Armagh managers won two Ulster titles, so unless I won an Ulster with this team, my head was on the block anyway, so I had to try and go one better.”
Out of the cauldron that is Ulster, it was a struggle to get the better of Sligo in the quarterfinal. Their next opponents, Leinster champions Dublin, would give Kernan a strong clue as to whether he was on the right track. With Kieran McGeeney, John McEntee and teenage full-forward Ronan Clarke leading the way, Armagh came through by the narrowest of margins when Dublin’s Ray Cosgrove saw a last-minute free bounce off the post and back into play.
After guiding Crossmaglen to club glory, Kernan was back where he wanted to be with the county. While the team of ’77 never truly believed in itself, the 2002 model was a collective of skill and stubbornness. The risk — not to mention the cost — of a five-day training camp in Spain on the back of disappointing finish to the league campaign, the sort of in-depth preparation that was so out of vogue 25 years previously, had paid off. However, Kernan knows his players haven’t even one hand on the Sam Maguire.
It will surely be one of Kerry’s ploys to open up fast and make sure that Armagh’s strength and determination won’t influence the outcome in the final 10 minutes. With the Munster championship failure behind them — a disappointing loss to Cork after a replay in the semifinal — Paidi O Se’s team went from strength to strength in the qualifiers before gaining their revenge over Cork with a devastating semifinal performance.
If most of the scoring that day came from the precocious talent of championship newcomer Colm Cooper and Mike Frank Russell, Kerry were functioning superbly throughout the field with Dara O Cinneide, Darragh O Se and the outstanding Seamus Moynihan all playing key roles. But most of all, it was the Cork defense’s inability to contain Cooper and Russell that was the deciding factor, and if Armagh’s backs struggle in the same way, Kerry could win by five or six points.
Naturally, Paidi O Se prefers to talk up the opposition rather than heap praise on his own players. “Armagh have probably been the most unlucky team in football over the past few years and they’ll feel that fortune will have to smile on them some time,” he said. “We know how strong and determined they are from the two games in 2000 and they’re a better side now, so obviously we’ll have to find a bit too to beat them.”
Following their stutter in Munster, Kerry have produced the sort of football that has been reminiscent of the great teams of the 1970s and early ’80s. At times they have played with bewildering speed and accuracy and with an aggregate of 5-36 from the games against Galway and Cork, their shooting has been magnificent.
If Armagh win, it won’t be with the same sort of style; their triumph will not be a thing of beauty despite the best efforts of forwards Oisin McConville and Diarmuid Marsden. A Kerry triumph will no doubt be analyzed as “good for the game.” This is not quite a case of beauty and the beast, but there are one or two resonances that point to a fairy tale ending.
Propelled by McGeeney on the pitch, and inspired by Kernan off it, Sunday might just be Armagh’s day. Their time has come.