ULSTER SFC ARMAGH v CAVAN: Keith Dugganon whether Armagh's current crop of players still entertain the grandest ambition

IT IS NOT so long since Armagh was regarded as the new model army that all other serious championship counties had to emulate. During six remarkable years under Joe Kernan, they played fast and hard and apologised to nobody for that.

They won one All-Ireland, they kept Ulster under virtual wraps - without ever quite getting to grips with the slippery brilliance of Tyrone - and it was no coincidence their big-time defeats tended to be the most memorable matches of the last decade.

With their sternness, their zeal (has any other county declined, out of respect, to take a drink from the Sam Maguire?) and their sheer muscle mass, they were never going to become national darlings. Arguments will long rage over whether they let slip a second All-Ireland in 2003, 2004 and 2005, but it was not for the want of discipline.

During that period, reports from Armagh suggested they thrived on constantly pushing and demanding more of themselves with more extreme purges led by their granite co-captains, Kieran McGeeney and Paul McGrane.

It was Armagh that took off for warm-weather training, Armagh that pumped weights with the intensity of gridiron defensive tackles, Armagh that drew on the psychology and experiences from sporting luminaries around the world and Armagh that made the business of the All-Ireland feel as though it was more solemn than mere sport.

Anyone who thought that, after their stunning second-half raid on Kerry in the 2002 All-Ireland final, they would be content to disappear again was badly disillusioned.

In the following years, Armagh demanded they be counted as contenders. One thinks of their repeated crushing of Donegal in the Ulster championship, of the day they made Dublin fall apart in Croke Park, of the unforgettable Ulster final and All-Ireland semi-final clashes against Tyrone in 2005 and that definitive encounter a year later against Kerry, when they played a fantastic half hour and then, in the second half, found themselves overwhelmed by the hunger and skill of the Kingdom men.

The joyous reaction of Jack O'Connor that day was proof enough of how the Kerry men regarded Armagh. This was a giant - of the imagination as much as the field of play - slain for them. After that day, Kerry re-established the old order and Armagh's grip began to weaken until, in a rush, it seemed, it had all ended. Armagh were dumped from the All-Ireland championship with indecent haste last summer, taking back-to-back punches from Donegal and Derry.

Joe Kernan stepped down and McGeeney was suddenly gone too, installed as Kildare manager before his distinguished playing career had been appraised and the plaudits handed out. After such a drive for excellence, the retirement of Kernan and the dissolution of "McGeeney's Armagh" seemed to happen with breathtaking speed.

And now they face into tomorrow's championship perceived as a mortal team with mortal weaknesses. Perhaps there was an element of tongue-in-cheek about Steven McDonnell's assertion the collective ambition now is to "see if we can actually win a championship game". But just two years ago, it would have been unimaginable an Armagh player would have had to resort to such gallows humour.

In Cavan, the old blueblood county of the Ulster game, there is high anticipation Armagh's fierce reputation can be further weakened tomorrow.

"If you look at the squad, there is still a formidable team there. But Cavan in Breffni Park is always an awkward fixture. For whatever reason, they seem to lift their game against Armagh teams. And this being the first game of the competition, Armagh will be a bit apprehensive. So no, Armagh winning here is not a foregone conclusion," says Brian McAlinden, who, with Brian Canavan, coached the team to the breakthrough Ulster title of 1999.

McAlinden has a clear recollection of showing the Ulster medal he had won in 1982 to the squad on the Friday evening prior to that year's final against Down. Jarlath Burns, the team captain, vowed he would have a replica by Sunday evening and, predictably, Clones turned bright orange after they duly won. A year later, McGeeney was captain as Armagh defended their title and he memorably declared the Anglo-Celt was not the only cup he wanted to lift that year.

"That was the ambition they had," acknowledges McAlinden. "And they got there. They played in a lot of top games from 1999 onwards and maybe we never quite got our full potential out of that time. But a team like Armagh can only sustain that kind of pressure for a certain period.

"Other teams look at you while you are up there and devise different ways to crack your game plan. So they were up there to be knocked off. And if we are honest, we do not have the strength and quality in depth that a county like Kerry has. So Armagh had a limited time and unfortunately it ran out and losing narrow games started to become a feature."

Of course, it is possible to look at this very differently. You could forward the argument Armagh are just another well timed push from ruling Ulster again. A cursory examination of the Armagh squad shows plenty of quality. Ronan Clarke, a forward of limitless potential, is healthy again and may have his best seasons ahead of him. Steven McDonnell is blue chip. Oisín McConville, although absent tomorrow, clocks up championship points for fun.

They have midfield options for Paul McGrane. Francie Bellew is motoring again. They have consummate ball players like Andy Mallon and Aaron Kernan.

"As well as that, now Joe is gone, the new management have been able to have an indiscriminate look at the players that are out there," reckons Burns. "Stephen Kernan has begun to flourish this year. If you go back to the under-21 team in 2004, Stephen was probably the outstanding player on view that year and it has taken him a while to realise that at this level.

"I watched Brian Mallon forensically this year. Here was someone who had a great season a couple of years back and I think he is coming back into his own at centre-half forward. Also, Charlie Vernon is going to explode one of these days. He is a player with great potential.

"You have Aidan O'Rourke back and Kieran McKeever developing as a centre back. I still think the Armagh half-back line has the potential to be strong, and when that unit is strong, then Armagh is strong."

Burns agrees with Brian McAlinden's opinion there has been a marked levelling off in the standard across Ulster. But he feels this is something that could work to Armagh's advantage. He has not see any team that strikes him as unbeatable.

The team still has plenty of players who know how to win a close match. And although he acknowledges the absence of McGeeney must be strange for the players who have been around the Armagh dressingroom for a few years, he places big confidence in the emerging number six.

"I feel Kieran McGeeney was unselfish enough to have started grooming his successor last year. He really took Kieran McKeever under his wing and he has moulded him in his likeness. You look at them now and there are a lot of similarities. Except McKeever is more of a traditional, holding-type centre back. He won't go forward as much as McGeeney.

"Even in my time playing midfield, when Geyser attacked you knew it was your duty to drop back and cover that space behind. Kieran McKeever will stay put and that means there won't be as much need for the half-forwards to cover back. He is a young player and a great reader of the game too."

There must be a sense of trepidation, however. One of the abiding images of the twilight days of Armagh's supremacy caught McGeeney and Paul McGrane in conference after a bad league mauling at the hands of Derry in Crossmaglen. True, the team were playing without the Crossmaglen contingent, who were confined to All-Ireland club duties. But there was a deadness about the Armagh play that was worrying.

Joe Kernan said as much afterwards, gloomily predicting Division Three football for the team unless they reversed their form. League games are quickly forgotten but that day seemed significant. And now, little over 12 months on, Derry are shaping up as the brand leaders in Ulster. Quite what Armagh have become is more difficult to pinpoint.

The trick of the Ulster football championship is that a team has to start at one hundred miles an hour. There is always a degree of the unknown about a team on the first day out. Armagh is a team of veterans and young players: there is always a vague worry the older men will find they have stayed on for a summer too long and the younger men will flounder under the pressure of having to carry the day.

"I do feel Armagh supporters will have to learn to be patient again because we are in a transitional period at the minute," says McAlinden. "With Kieran gone, the present management are reluctant to break it up completely because they want that experience out on the field but the older guys will probably be filtered out over a short space in time. So there is that sense of change. It cannot happen overnight. And I know Cavan won't be showing too much respect to Armagh, and anything - an indecisive referee, anything - could cause problems. I don't see a runaway victory."

There is no question the figures who shaped the modern Armagh team have begun to fall away, from the perennial joker Benny Tierney to the McEntee twins, whose immense contributions to the brightest years were perhaps not recognised as they might have been. Nonetheless, eight of the team who started the 2002 All-Ireland final are available for selection this year.

Add those to the 2004 under-21 side, who looked like a youthful incarnation of the senior team that year, and you have no mean senior squad. That is why there is still considerable reason to be optimistic and ambitious, according to Burns. He still believes Armagh are All-Ireland quarter-final material, and once you reach that stage, you are, in effect, in a fresh competition.

"Absolutely," he says. "I feel we will grow this year. This is a big test against Cavan. They weren't fully tested against Antrim and I think we will probably see them deploy themselves differently tomorrow - the use of Dermot McCabe at full forward probably didn't quite work.

"They are a good championship side but I think if Armagh are to go places this year, there might be a five-point gap between the teams at the end. It won't be easy but plenty of teams have looked vulnerable this year and there is no reason why Armagh, if they give it a good go, couldn't win Ulster."

After all, from 2004 to 2006, they simply couldn't lose in the province. The big question is whether they still entertain the grandest ambition.

After 2002, Armagh pursued another All-Ireland with an openness that made their narrow failures appear painstakingly raw.

"No team wins its quota," says Burns. "You talk to a Kerryman with five All-Irelands and he will tell you it should have been six.

"Should Armagh have won more? I am not so sure. I do think winning one after over 100 years of trying was the important thing. They did that."

They did. And the question now is not whether they should have followed that up in the recent past. The question is whether they can ever hope to match that incandescent ambition in the days and years to come.

CAVAN v ANTRIM
Seán Moran

THERE is considerable interest in Armagh's first championship foray under the management of Peter McDonnell, but few enough believe they won't be able to catch up pretty quickly with his second. Cavan were deserving winners against Antrim in the preliminary round but the match wasn't played at the sort of tempo that tomorrow's visitors will hope to strike.

Armagh's evolution continues with just six of the All-Ireland winning starters lining out although Oisín McConville is out with a back injury. The debutants are Finian Moriarty and Charlie Vernon. Although he is named at wing back the likelihood is he'll play slightly farther forward with Aaron Kernan dropping back into more familiar surroundings from his listed position at wing forward.

Dermot McCabe will be an important figure for Cavan as usual. His battle of the veterans with Paul McGrane at centrefield is one aspect and the other is his potential switch to full forward where he turned the key against Antrim last month. Francie Bellew will be a tougher lock to surpass should the switch happen.

Armagh played out the league assessing what they had while treading water in Division Two from which Cavan were relegated. A danger for the home side is if Ronan Clarke and Steven McDonnell hit the ground running.

ARMAGH:P Hearty; A Mallon, F Bellew, F Moriarty; C Vernon, A O'Rourke, C McKeever; P McGrane, K Toner; A Kernan, S Kernan, M O'Rourke; S McDonnell, R Clarke, P McKeever.

CAVAN:J Reilly; M Hannon, R Dunne, P O'Reilly; B Watters, A Forde, M Cahill; M McDonald, D McCabe; M Reilly, M McKeever, C Mackey; S Johnston, R Flanagan, J O'Reilly.

Referee:D Coldrick (Meath).

GUIDELINES
In the last episode:This is only the second meeting between the counties in 30 years. The previous match took place in 2004 and Armagh were lucky to emerge 0-13 to 0-11 winners after Cavan had been reduced to 14 men after 30 seconds.
You bet:Cavan are 11/4, Armagh 4/11 and the draw 8/1.
On your marks:Huge focus has been trained on Cavan's top scorer Seánie Johnston and in the opening match of the NFL he caused problems for Finian Moriarty and it's likely Andy Mallon will take up the marking duties tomorrow. If he's kept quiet there's little likelihood of the home team putting up a viable total.
Gaining ground:Kingspan Breffni Park shares with Croke Park the distinction of having been one of two venues where Kerry's five-in-a-row ambitions came unstuck — in 1933.
Just the ticket: Covered stand €27; Uncovered stand €25. Terrace €18. Family ticket €30 (1 adult €25 plus child €5) with an additional €5 per extra child.
Crystal gazing:Although Cavan have the advantage of having played the preliminary round of the championship that won't be enough to stop the post-Joe era getting off the ground.