SITTING in the press box at the back of the Gerry Arthurs Stand in Clones on May 31, 2009, I knew the intense, compelling rivalry between Armagh and Tyrone that had enthralled us for the best part of a decade had run its course.
I remember watching Ryan McMenamin tracking Stevie McDonnell in the baking heat and witnessing a duel that had become far too pleasant and well-behaved, almost passive in nature, compared to previous battles.
Two sworn, but eroded rivals.
As Armagh and Tyrone get ready to debate an Ulster semi-final in Clones on Saturday evening, I dug out my match report of 16 years ago.
“This legendary rivalry that once enthralled the nation peaked some four summers ago. This eagerly awaited duel paled by comparison.
“The baking hot sun was certainly a contributing factor in an Ulster Championship encounter that never quite caught fire – but so too was Tyrone’s greater quality in front of the posts.
“The pulses quickened around the sun-splashed terraces of St Tiernach’s Park for a brief time in the second half when Ronan Clarke netted for Armagh, but there were no heart-stopping moments in the closing stages, and no comic-book finales that once typified these meetings. Tyrone’s experience and craft saw to that.
“For the Red Hands, everything about Sunday’s tangle with an old adversary was business-like. Their opponents might’ve arrived in Clones as defending provincial champions, but Armagh are not the stone on the road they once were to the Red Hands…”
There were still a couple of Anglo-Celts left in Mickey Harte’s team at that time – but they were a faded force.
Armagh’s higher age profile just meant that they had faded a little earlier than Tyrone.
In reality, Armagh’s hopes of landing a second All-Ireland crashed and burned in 2006 – the day when Jack O’Connor’s Kerry team bullied them in the second half of their quarter-final meeting at Croke Park.
In a recent sit-down interview with Stevie McDonnell, he felt Armagh’s demise came later than ’06 but nevertheless saw the writing on the wall.
“We were losing more of the influences that helped us win the All-Ireland in ’02 – leaders and strong characters,” he said.
“The more of those characters left the changing room, the chances of winning a second All-Ireland started to dwindle and that’s what happened with Armagh.”
I entered The Irish News offices in Donegall Street in January 1999. Ulster football was on the cusp of a golden era.
In sports journalism terms, what a time to be alive.
Armagh’s maiden All-Ireland win in ’02 was the stuff of dreams. After so many heartaches, ‘Geezer’, McGrane, Marsden and co finally broke down the door.
By the following year the rivalry between Armagh and Tyrone had reached fever pitch and it stayed that way for three glorious summers.
The appetite to read about two fearsome All-Ireland rivals was such that you ran the risk of not getting a copy of The Irish News in your local shop after mid-day.
In the build-up to the 2003 All-Ireland final, you couldn’t write enough about Armagh and Tyrone. There were painted sheep earning front-page fame through the ubiquitous lens of the great Hugh Russell.
There were supplements galore, player interviews, ex-player interviews, Off The Fence – every reader’s guilty pleasure – was morphing into a double page spread, there were GAA columnists on every page you turned, player predictions, and two managers in Joe Kernan and Mickey Harte who were equally captivating GAA figures, both of whom played key roles in popularising Gaelic football to an even wider audience.
Our sports editor at the time, Thomas Hawkins, swaggered around the editorial room as did his journalists. The Untouchables. Thomas was Sean Connery.
Of course, we knew it was down to the teams themselves and their insatiable pursuit of sporting excellence, but our collective swagger never faltered once during the halcyon days of the early ‘Noughties’.
We let the good times roll and shared imaginary Cohibas among ourselves every Friday afternoon.
“We took in an image consultant,” Joe Kernan told this newspaper in 2018.
“He talked about the way you walked, the way you’d shake somebody’s hand. And those [tight-fitting] jerseys,”
“They didn’t make us any bigger or stronger. We weren’t faster or stronger, but we looked it. So, they were all wee messages.”
Seventeen days out from the ’03 final, The Irish News were hosting their annual Ulster Allstar awards bash at The Armagh City Hotel.
Naturally, the final 15 selections were mostly made up of Armagh and Tyrone players.
Tyrone accepted their invites without a qualm, but it took endless behind-the-scenes negotiations between the top brass of The Irish News and Armagh to get their Ulster Allstar players – who incidentally were McGeeney, Aidan O’Rourke, McGrane, McDonnell and John McEntee – in the same room.
“In that room that night, we came across badly,” Kernan reflected.
“Sometimes you’ve got to bluff. I thought we made the wrong decision – going in and hiding over in the corner and not mixing. I knew what was happening in the room. I thought we lost ground. You’ve got to play the game.
“You’re not going to go over and start hugging [Tyrone] boys that you were going to do battle with a couple of weeks later. They wouldn’t want it, and we didn’t want it. The bottom line was we were being honoured, and we had to respect the people who were there. It was desperate. I didn’t enjoy that night at all.”
The ’03 final was only an appetizer for what was to come in 2005.
One of the abiding images in my sports journalism career was watching McGeeney pluck the ball from under the shadow of the Hogan Stand before feeding McGrane who laced the ball between Tyrone’s posts to force the 2005 Ulster final to a replay at HQ.
The games between Armagh and Tyrone back then were life-affirming events, the likes of which we’ll never see again.
While the GAA has introduced 40m arcs, two-pointers and three-up to reinvigorate a game that was clearly in decline, when you look back at the forces of nature – ‘Geezer’, Canavan, ‘Mugsy’, McGuigan, Marsden and McConville – it really didn’t matter which rules were in play.
These were primal affairs, matters of the soul, played out as sporting contests that left an indelible mark on those fortunate enough to witness them.
Saturday night’s Ulster semi-final encounter in Clones could have 50 scores by the end of it.
We will all enjoy it whatever happens – but it’ll never rival the epic duels of the past.
Nothing will.
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