Reflecting on past Armagh hurt

Ian O'Riordan talks to Joe Kernan about Armagh's determination to alter an unwelcome Croke Park tradition.

Of all the close ties between Joe Kernan and the Armagh team, there is one mutual experience with particular bearing on Sunday's All-Ireland football semi-final.

Back in the 1977 final, coincidentally the last time Armagh met Dublin in the championship, Kernan came away from Croke Park putting a small curse on the place, something the current players can well relate to.

For the last three years in succession, Armagh were left wondering why Croke Park was an unhappy hunting ground.

Twice they lost All-Ireland semi-finals - including the 2000 replay against eventual winners Kerry - and last year they missed out by a single point in the qualifiers against eventual winners Galway. GAA headquarters brings bad memories for most of the current team.

When Kernan was on the losing side of the 1977 final, he felt much the same way.

Though he scored two goals on the day and was awarded an All-Star at midfield for the season, his own memories of Armagh in Croke Park aren't exactly special.

"I remember that as a very bad day," he says. "Like most players on a big day like that, a lot of it by-passes you, and it's all over before you realise it.

"But even looking back now, I feel it was one of those games we were never going to win.

"The gap between ourselves and Dublin at that time was immense. A year or so after that the great Kerry team came along, so unfortunately Armagh had a good team around then but didn't win a whole lot.

"And like most teams in the country then, we were well behind Kerry and Dublin."

Even the reminder of his heroic effort to try and claw back Dublin's early goals does little to alter his reflection.

"Well I think if we'd scored five goals that day Dublin still would have won. Dublin were always that bit better, and were always well in control. After half-time we missed a goal chance that would have brought it back to three points.

"Instead, Dublin went up the field and scored a goal, which brought it back to nine. It was one of those games where we were outplayed in most positions, and unfortunately, it was never going to be our day."

So, 25 years on, and in his first season as Armagh manager, Kernan finds himself trying to orchestrate a peak performance in Croke Park with a county that has a history of failing to peak there.

"We always want to win, first and foremost. But this is only our fourth summer up there in 20 years, so it's not like we've been up and down the road every week.

"But if you don't play well enough you don't deserve to win, and I think, in all fairness, Armagh didn't play well enough on those few recent occasions.

"We know if we don't perform now the same thing will happen again. But I think the boys are still hurting from what happened these last two or three years, and hopefully that hurt will spur them on."

There is also the perception that Armagh haven't made it easy on themselves in Croke Park by starting out hard, establishing a big lead, and then sitting back on it.

Kernan disagrees: "Well, I'd say a lot of teams have that problem at certain stages of matches. Sure, our experience of that has haunted us a few times, but there are very few teams that will dominate for 70 minutes.

"I know we have to up our game to have a chance of winning.

"And if we don't, we go back down the road disappointed like we have in the last few years."

1977 All-Ireland final Dublin 5-12 Armagh 3-06

1980 All-Ireland semi-final Roscommon 2-20 Armagh 3-11

1982 All-Ireland semi-final Kerry 3-15 Armagh 1-11

1999 All-Ireland semi-final Meath 0-15 Armagh 2-05

2000 All-Ireland semi-final Kerry 2-11 Armagh 2-11

2000 All-Ireland semi-final replay Kerry 2-15 Armagh 1-15 AET

2001 All-Ireland qualifiers Galway 0-13 Armagh 0-12