Kernan’s sharpshooters to refocus for Tyrone challenge

“LIKE a bloody morgue in there!” was Joe Kernan’s muttered description of the winning Armagh dressing-room to the assembled press.

Big Joe is an eloquent and open media-guy, but that little aside was probably more revealing than anything he said over the following ten minutes.

This time 12 months ago, Armagh had never won an All-Ireland SFC title, something which hung like a massive millstone round the neck of a truly powerful football county. Weighing even heavier, however, was the fear that on every visit to Croke Park, the boys from the Orchard County choked, froze, lost their bottle.

That all changed with a semi-final win over a hotly-fancied Dublin, and the county went mad. Not just the county, but their manager also. “Last year’s All-Ireland semi-final was something special, the emotions that came out after that game was as good if not better than for the final, for the simple reason that we’d got to the final. That was our target, those boys had never got there before, so for that, for them, that was most satisfying.”

Twelve months later and what a contrast. Satisfaction yes, but any elation was firmly put on hold. As reigning All-Ireland champions, the perspective has changed, as has the attitude. There was real disappointment at their own less-than-conclusive display. One emotion, however, had remained constant. “While there’s a bit of calm after this one, there’s still a resolve there, there’s only one thing thatmatters and that’s retaining the All-Ireland,” Kernan stressed. The primary reason for the Armagh disappointment was their poor shooting, and the fact that ultimately their victory was shaped by the dismissal of Donegal full-back Raymond Sweeney. Kernan agreed with such sentiment.

“It was a struggle, without a shadow of a doubt. I don’t know how you boys saw it, but how many wides were there? Twenty-one? I wouldn’t mind but we’ve been working on our shooting!”, he added with grim laughter.

“It was always going to be a hard game. Donegal were sitting there waiting on us, everybody had us set up for the big fall. You know the boys will work their socks off, but when you see them going up so far, the simple thing is to kick the ball over the bar and they don’t, it was poor that way. We were shooting with our backs to the goal a couple of times, even with a man outside. The simple thing was to push the ball out to him and let him stick it over the bar.”

Kernan showed great patience and didn’t make any change until halfway through the second half, at a time when the champions had just fought their way back to parity.

“That’s right, but we felt the boys who were out there were in control. We did an awful lot of good things, some great fielding, great tackling, but we gave the ball away too many times, took the wrong option earlier on with the long ball in but it didn’t work, they had that covered,” he said. “By running at them, using the wings, we got more joy out of them. But our shooting was the big problem today. It is something to work on, certainly. I’m laughing and joking here that we won, but the bottom line is that we wanted to be in an All-Ireland final and we’re there. From day one that was the one thing we had in our heads. We might have huffed and puffed a few times, got the rub of the green, and that all goes with it. But the effort the boys put in will never be in doubt.”

Tyrone now await. They are bitter rivals and near neighbours. The Ulster champions are envious of what Armagh finally achieved last year, while they still carrying the tag of nearly-men, probably the best side never to win an All-Ireland title.

A battle royal surely looms.