Kernan salutes special bunch of players

Quotes: Joe Kernan very nearly lost the run of himself after yesterday's historic result. "When they are writing the history books about this present Armagh squad . . . " Big Joe never finished the sentence, but he didn't need to.

Yes, Armagh still need to win the second All-Ireland title that has agonisingly eluded them for three years, but six Ulster titles in eight attempts is a scarily exceptional achievement, especially in the current climate.

When the GAA historians do actually reflect on this Armagh team they will rate them on a par with the Down three-in-a-row side of 1959 to 1961.

"I hope it's not for a while yet," continued Kernan, instantly back to himself. "There are a lot of great men in that room and they proved that over this last 10 years. To win six championships, especially in Ulster, in eight years, is an unbelievable feat. None of them were handed to us.

"We had to fight for every one. We had dodgy days at the start of each championship and were lucky to get out of jail a couple of times, but that's what character-building is all about.

"Donegal are a good side. I was just telling them in there if they can get their heads right tomorrow they will cause people problems in the back door."

Kernan was not going to change the topic that easily. Joe, has this Armagh team finally achieved greatness?

"I'll leave that to you wiser men to say that. We're happy with what we've done but at the end of the day those boys can only give 100 per cent every time they go out. Some days it works and some days it doesn't.

"For somebody to do it for 10 years . . . they are definitely a special bunch of players."

With Armagh, even at this moment of euphoria, it always returns to the burning issue that drives them forward. That makes them ignore the old age jibes. The second All-Ireland title remains the only motivation.

"We've been here these last three years and we haven't done it. That is the question mark we have to answer to ourselves now. I like to think we have brought (some) new fresh faces into the team and sweetened it up, but the next day is a whole new ball game. We'll just take it one game at a time. An awful lot of things can happen from here to September. Wait and see."

Enda McNulty (who is 29 years young by the way) spoke for his team-mates when referring to the irrelevancy of age. "What is relevant is how many points you can score, or how many goals you can score. Many people say our experience is our Achilles heel. I think it is our biggest asset."

The corner back also refused to stall on this victory. In 2004 they obliterated Donegal in the Ulster final only to be caught by Fermanagh in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. That probably hurt more than any other defeat before or since. "Two years ago the win was probably more emphatic than it was today in fairness. We realise we will have to improve massively on that performance to win anything more never mind an All-Ireland."

Brian McIver kept his reaction extremely concise: "Armagh are very strong. Very experienced. We found them very hard to open up, as we knew was going to be the case, but from Donegal's perspective there is no harm in losing to one of the top sides. Any side that wins three-in-a-row in Ulster football is some side. Hopefully we will learn a hell of a lot from that today."

Oisín McConville had a special reason to be chuffed as he surpassed Peter Canavan's scoring record in Ulster. However, he was keen to play it down: "I wouldn't be that happy with my own performance, but there was a wee bit of pressure coming into the game because of that. I'm happy enough that's out of the way. There will be no more talk of that thank God."