O'Dwyer's long campaign ends as Armagh prepare for battle

Armagh 2-9 Wicklow 0-10:MICK O'DWYER knew a gaggle of reporters and photographers were entrenched outside the Wicklow dressingroom. He came out and politely requested we keep it short.

With the snappers clicking away, just inches from his face, O’Dwyer was already edging backwards. A small window existed to ask him The Question.

Micko, will we see you on the line again? “You never know. That is another day’s work.” A typical O’Dwyer response. Another followed about his future involvement with Wicklow: “I said earlier this year it would be the last year (with Wicklow). Don’t mind what I said last year, this year is this year and God only knows where after that. I made up my mind I was finished with Wicklow.”

So, it is over. The great Kerry man’s odyssey through the Leinster outposts of Kildare, Laois and finally the Garden of Ireland appears to have drawn the curtain on a magical managerial innings.

Well, maybe.

“It would be pretty hard to leave football no doubt. I’m going to take a good rest and think about it and I’ll let ye know then.

“I’ve plenty of time, I can watch games now. Of course you have to be a bit mad to be involved as you know and I am a bit mad and that’s the reason why I am in it and as long as the legs and the body will work for me I’ll keep going – you never know.”

He looked tired on Saturday night. Not because 75 taxing years are behind him but rather the manner of defeat to Armagh seemed so draining. The spark Micko has imbued in intercounty teams for 54 years was missing from Wicklow.

Their best players, Tony Hannon and Leighton Glynn, struggled badly when the contest was still swirling in the breeze.

“I’m disappointed because we could have been a lot closer and when you get frees you expect to put them all away and to miss five coming near the end and then went for two goals and both of them were saved so they are the little things that make the difference.”

Probably the last day of a life’s work, Dwyer seemed gripped by the rhythmic flow of this contest. His first season as Kerry manager concluded in September 1975 with a dismissal of Dublin at Croke Park. The end may well be a damp July evening in Aughrim. It was the same man though. Perched on the sideline, chin jutting over the whitewash, programme rolled tightly in a clenched right fist. Rory Hickey’s full-time whistle was cruelly anti-climatic. But sport tends to spit out its legends like paupers on cold, windy and wet days in isolated places like this.

We pressed for some last words.

“I can’t go on forever you know. But you never know. God bless.” And he was gone.

The championship moves onwards. Paddy O’Rourke will have little difficulty refocusing Armagh for a trip to Healy Park next Saturday and reigniting a fierce rivalry with Tyrone. Mickey Harte will have peered in on the Armagh tactics in this encounter with interest.

Stevie McDonnell was surprisingly switched out to centre forward. Although subdued early on, the veteran sharp-shooter came alive with some clever foot-passing and a vital score on 48 minutes that made it a four-point game.

Poor Alan Byrne was instead struggling to master the height of Malachy Mackin near the Wicklow square. Mackin broke the high balls for Jamie Clarke’s two goals. Both arrived at moments in either half when Wicklow threatened to overrun Armagh.

Seánie Furlong got 2-4 the last day but such was Brendan Donaghy’s dominance, he was lucky to register a single point.

Darren Hayden and a clearly unfit James Stafford ran heroically into a strong second-half breeze but, in response, a familiarly belligerent Armagh reappeared. They committed 20 second-half fouls. Tyrone and Harte will have noticed alright.

“We have a decent team but we have an awful step up next,” said O’Rourke. “Tyrone are still definitely in the top two or three and we will know where we are next week because there is no hiding place in Omagh.”

From one battle to another. A new Armagh against an old Tyrone.

ARMAGH: 1 Paul Hearty; 5 A Kernan (0-1, free), 2 A Mallon, 3 B Donaghy; 7 F Moriarty, 10 C Dyas, 4 P Duffy (0-1); 8 J Laverty, 24 J Hanratty; 17 T Kernan, 14 S McDonnell (0-2, 0-1 free), 9 C Vernon; 15 J Clarke (2-2), 12 M Mackin, 13 M O’Rourke (0-2). Subs: 21 BJ Padden for Hanratty (51 mins), 23 D McKenna for Duffy, 19 G McPartland (0-1) for T Kernan (both 57 mins), 22 V Martin for Moriarty (61 mins), 18 C Watters for O’Rourke (70 mins).

WICKLOW: 1 J Flynn; 2 C Hyland, 3 A Byrne, 4 S Kelly; 5 A McLoughlin, 6 B McGrath, 7 D Hayden; 8 J Stafford, 9 R Finn; 18 A O’Malley (0-1), 11 T Hannon (0-4, 0-3 frees, 0-1 45), 12 N Mernagh; 13 P Earls (0-2), 14 S Furlong (0-1), 15 L Glynn (0-2). Subs: 19 C McGraynor for Mernagh (20 mins), 20 P Dalton for McLoughlin (58 mins).

Referee: R Hickey (Clare).