Kernan says there’s still life in Armagh’s ‘under-achievers’
Kernan, the man who led Armagh to their first All-Ireland SFC title, has never won a League title either as a player or manager.
Then there’s the fact that it’s Wexford who stand in their way - the only side to beat them in this year’s competition. And, of course, there are the lingering doubts about Kernan’s team with claims that they are but a shadow of their earlier selves.
The latter irks him most. Mid-week, he made reference to the fact of Wexford “being written off many’s the time,” adding: “our boys have been written off every week and we love coming back.”
And he has continued to preach that message: “the players want to be winners. And we do know we probably have under-achieved. When teams go out and beat us, we feel ourselves we could have played better.You always want to win more, that’s the challenge for every team. The worst thing to do is to look back and say what we should have done. We are now in the position where we can win a National League and that’s a great position to be in. If we perform, I can ask no more of the players.”
Armagh’s last appearance in the final was in 1994, after they had defeated Laois in the semi-final and went under to Meath by nine points. In 2001 (in Division Two) and the following year - when they were back in the premier division - they lost in consecutive semi-finals to Laois.
Bearing in mind that they only avoided relegation on points difference last year (after getting a lesson from Limerick in their last outing in the Gaelic Grounds), Kernan says he couldn’t be happier with the way the season has evolved. They postponed a planned trip to La Manga this week because of the final having to be delayed by a week, but beating Mayo clearly softened the blow.
Armagh had the misfortune to be drawn to play in the preliminary round in the Ulster championship - against Fermanagh, who put them out in the All-Ireland quarter-final last year - but Kernan is looking on the positive side. He believes tomorrow’s game will be worth much more than the couple of challenge games which they might have had to look for otherwise. And, he acknowledged that Tyrone and Kerry had proved in recent years that winning the League ‘does not harm’ a team.
“We were taught a lesson down in Wexford Park in the first round. A defeat any day is a wake-up call, especially when you are six points up at half-time. If our fellows thought it was going to be easy that day, it wasn’t. In fairness to Wexford, they came back at us strongly in the second half, but I can only look at my own players. We were disappointed and it hurt the players, but they came out the following week and won (against Galway). We have won every game since. Now we have to finish it off. ”
It’s obvious that Kernan and his players (34 of whom have played in the campaign to date) have a better appreciation of the type of threat which Wexford pose because of having come up against them already. And, it’s not as if the Model county have appeared overnight. As back as the 2001 qualifier championship - when they drew with Westmeath in a memorable game in Wexford Park - they have been showing continuing promise.
Remember the hammering they gave Galway in Pearse Stadium last year and that they qualified for this final by beating Tyrone in a gruelling contest two weeks ago. It shows that how comfortable they are in top-class company and how much more they have developed under the guidance of new coach Pat Roe.
The mutli-talented Mattie Forde is the player most readily associated with their revival - with a remarkable 4-46 to his credit in their eight outings - it’s noteworthy that the team’s regular full-forward John Hudson has totalled 7-7.
Kernan, clearly, has a much bigger incentive to succeed, because of his personal experiences in the competition as a player, but he says it won’t make up for anything that happened in the past.
“The satisfaction I would get would be to see the boys walk up the steps ... because without them we are no good!”
Verdict: Armagh to win because of their greater experience on the big stage.
