GAELIC GAMES: GAVIN CUMMISKEYon the rivalry between Tyrone and Armagh that helped define a modern era in football

STEVIE McDONNELL remembers the welcome, or lack thereof, provided up at Healy Park back in March, 2003. Armagh seemed invincible, unbeaten for 11 months, but Tyrone figured them out.

“No, it wasn’t too friendly up there on that occasion,” smiles the Orchard County assassin. The Irish Times writer Keith Duggan, in his match report, described them as scrapping pups on that dirty spring afternoon. Without much pause, Ricey McMenamin was up the back of McDonnell. Chirping and dragging away.

“They were the first team that didn’t give us a standing ovation when we ran out onto the pitch. It will be no different next Saturday night. Tyrone are going to be pumped up for this match. It is a game we both look forward to. We will see where we are as a team but we’ll need to put in a good performance.”

To even survive, he could have added. More of the same can be expected from McMenamin this evening – a man who has done exceptionally well containing one of the most lethal finishers in modern times.

But McDonnell knows all about this meeting of football enclaves that are probably situated too close for comfort. Sure, it is Tyrone on their own patch. A local Ulster feud that between 2003 and 2005 captivated, no dominated, the complete Irish sporting landscape.

Armagh and Tyrone. It was the best of times for both counties but some – begrudgers as they are fondly called up North – felt it was the worst of times. But it was their time. Armagh and Tyrone taking turns to beat Kerry so they could get at Sam.

Something had to give. Armagh, ultimately, were forced to make way.

“That’s where the rivalry was in 2003 and the three games in 2005,” remembers Aaron Kernan, whose father Joe was a huge part of it as Armagh manager. Aaron made it into the Armagh side in 2005, just in time to experience it all before Tyrone moved out of sight. And he can admit that.

“If you’re being honest, I know we have stepped back from them days when we were competing in All-Ireland semi-finals and finals.”

As a result, someone like Stevie McDonnell must seem like a mythical creature from another era to his youngest team-mates. And in many ways he is. Armagh, from the breakthrough Ulster title in 1999 until Kerry utterly broke them in the 2006 All-Ireland quarter-final, had an invincible aura about them.

Well, unless the kryptonite-laden Red Hand jerseys shared a field with them.

Some Armagh folk may still feel bitter about how it all went. They climbed out of Ulster in ’99 only to be sent home by the dying kick of the Meath dynasty. In 2000 it was the brilliance of Maurice Fitzgerald that denied them a tilt at Sam Maguire before Galway became the third All-Ireland champions in three years to beat them.

They came again in 2002. Beating Dublin and Kerry down the home straight made it seem even more like the dawn of a new superpower in Gaelic football.

McDonnell was the artisan in a team of muscular enforcers who could also play football when the moment demanded. They were fitness freaks as well, led by Kieran McGeeney, the only man in Irish sport comparable to Roy Keane for obsessiveness.

Then Tyrone, surfing along beside them, spoiled everything. More accurately, Mickey Harte arrived with a golden generation of his own, schooled since the minor grade.

The neighbours to the north-west studied Armagh’s ways, replicated the best bits, and then developed a superior footballing philosophy. It was a style that obliterated Dublin and overran Kerry (so good that Joe Kernan’s assistant manager during this time, Paul Grimley, recently compared McGeeney’s current Kildare side to Harte’s Tyrone).

Armagh, after the 2005 All-Ireland semi-final, had to just sit and take it. Seven Ulster titles from 1999-2008 represent an era of dominance but their solitary All-Ireland tells us so much more.

Saturday provides an opportunity to see where Armagh figure in the current pecking order.

“Without doubt,” says McDonnell. “Tyrone are definitely still a top three or four team in the country. If you get a result in Omagh you will know you have certainly earned it. It is another tough place to go but it is a match we are looking forward to.

“We haven’t played Tyrone since 2009 and on that occasion they beat us in Clones. We will be well up for this match. They will be too. Over the last 10 or 12 years we have had some ding-dong battles.”

There are so many “what ifs” for Armagh people to ponder. What if Conor Gormley had not smothered McDonnell’s shot late in the 2003 All-Ireland final? What if Fermanagh were subdued in that bizarre reversal of form in the 2004 All-Ireland quarter-final? What if McGeeney had remained on the pitch to the finish of the 2005 All-Ireland semi-final?

Tyrone remain perennial contenders. In contrast, McDonnell is all that remains from 2002. But he knows the new Armagh can ruin the aspirations of a Tyrone group, still littered with three-time All-Ireland winners, to have one more glorious September.

“They have won All-Irelands through the back-door system and they enjoy building up that momentum. Hopefully, on Saturday night, we can stop that momentum.”

It wasn’t too long ago when Armagh were the most feared team on this island. Can they be it again? “That’s where we want to get back to,” says Kernan. “You never know, get over next week and it could be the launching pad for that to happen.”

Tyrone v Armagh 2000-2009

June 4th, 2000

Ulster quarter-final, Celtic Park: Armagh 0-12 Tyrone 0-8 – Outsiders presumed it was just another local Ulster feud, but this proved a scene setter for the coming decade of football. "Armagh forwards find their range in a physical affair," read The Irish Times headline. An injury to Peter Canavan (right) proved costly to Tyrone as Armagh went on to retain their provincial crown.

May 20th, 2001

Ulster quarter-final, Clones: Tyrone 1-14 Armagh 1-9 – Tyrone ended the neighbours' quest for a third successive Ulster title. Stephen O'Neill shone in his first All Star campaign while a fresh-faced Owen Mulligan pawed home the Tyrone goal in the first minute. They went on to capture the Anglo-Celt Cup.

May 19th, 2002

Ulster quarter-final, Clones: Armagh 1-12 Tyrone 1-12 – A late goal by teenager Seán Cavanagh, in his first championship outing, gave the league and provincial champions a second shot at Armagh, now under the watchful gaze of Crossmaglen's Joe Kernan.

May 26th, 2002

Ulster quarter-final replay, Clones: Armagh 2-13 Tyrone 0-16 – Yet again, an injury to Canavan proved detrimental to Tyrone's scoring return as goals from John McEntee and Barry Duffy sent Armagh down a road that saw them beat Fermanagh, Donegal, Sligo (who knocked out Tyrone), Dublin and finally Kerry over the next four months to win their first All-Ireland.

March 9th, 2003

NFL, Omagh: Tyrone 1-9 Armagh 0-10 – Armagh had not lost a match since April 14th, 2002. The Orchard County talk is already about the building of a football dynasty. Tyrone broke with tradition by refusing to give them a guard of honour onto the field. A typically feral contest, played amidst a gale-force wind, Mulligan's goal on 17 minutes essentially separated the teams. Afterwards, Mickey Harte planted the seeds of what was to come: "They had a team that was unbeaten in a long time and that run had to come to an end someday and why not us to be the team to do it?"

September 28th, 2003

All-Ireland final, Croke Park: Tyrone 0-12 Armagh 0-9 – For a split second, Stevie McDonnell looked certain to score a goal that would see Armagh retain the All-Ireland. Instead, Conor Gormley's heroic block, with just five minutes remaining, helped Tyrone copy their neighbours, 12 months on, by winning a first All-Ireland title. In an enthralling yet cynical match, Diarmuid Marsden's 57th-minute dismissal proved significant as did Harte's reintroduction of an injured Canavan.

July 10th, 2005

Ulster final, Croke Park: Armagh 2-8 Tyrone 0-14 – 60,186 attended the experimental switch of the Ulster final away from its traditional home in Clones. The rivalry demanded a national stage.

McDonnell's 69th-minute goal was followed quickly by a Paul McGrane point to force a draw.

July 23rd, 2005

Ulster final replay, Croke Park: Armagh 0-13 Tyrone 0-11 – One game too many in close proximity as the bitterness boiled over. It is a day Cork referee Michel Collins probably wishes to forget. Harte launched Peter Canavan into an already simmering atmosphere on 53 minutes. The Armagh boys immediately instigated a rumble, tossing Canavan about like a rag doll. Astoundingly, Collins showed Canavan a straight red and Ciarán McKeever a second yellow to even matters up. Five minutes later, Stephen O'Neill was also given a second yellow for a textbook shoulder on Andy Mallon. The errors overshadowed Armagh's success as weeks of committee room wrangling followed.

September 4th, 2005

All-Ireland semi-final, Croke Park: Tyrone 1-13 Armagh 1-12 – This proved the decisive meeting of this epic rivalry and 65,858 were lucky enough to be present. Of course, it fell to Canavan to kick the winning free from the left despite Mulligan being charged with that task all day. The image of former teacher and pupil smiling as Mulligan handed over the ball is part of the collective GAA memory bank. Tyrone beat Kerry 1-16 to 2-10 in the final.

May 31st, 2009

Ulster quarter-final, Clones: Tyrone 2-10 Armagh 1-10 – The rivalry returns to Ulster quarter-finals in Clones. Tyrone won a third Sam in 2008 while the Armagh team, as we knew it, disintegrated. A Conor Gormley goal and vital cameos from the McMahon brothers, Stephen O'Neill and Brian Dooher, saw them progress.