Kerry every bit as physical as Armagh, says Tierney

FORMER Armagh keeper Benny Tierney believes the winners of Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final will face a different Kerry in the final.

Tierney is part of Joe Kernan’s backroom team as they prepare to face great rivals Tyrone for the third time this season. But whoever emerges from the Battle of Ulster at Croke Park knows a beefed up Kingdom will await them.

Tierney understands how Kerry would feel they owe each of the two counties something after having lost to them in 2002 and 2003.

“I heard Jack O’Connor being interviewed after the Cork game last Sunday, when he said there would be a major contrast in styles if Armagh got to the final again. I found that quite humorous to the extent that he called Armagh a big, physical side.

“I don’t think there is such a great contrast in styles,’’ he insisted. “Kerry are very bit as physical and have adopted the same football approach as Armagh and Tyrone have used over the last few years.”

Tierney said that, apart from Colm Cooper, four of the country’s best five footballers will be in action in Croke Park on Sunday. And he disputes the notion that the game will be negative and dour. He certainly expects it to be much more entertaining than last weekend’s Kerry-Cork game.

Tierney thought he was retiring from inter-county-football when he opted out after Armagh won their first All-Ireland title three years ago. But he had made a promise he would come back to help with the goalkeeper coaching. When he did he was coaxed into looking after stats and analysis. With that type of commitment, he takes criticism of the team as personally as Kernan or the players.

“After the Ulster final both Tyrone and Armagh came in for a lot of criticism, but the teams proved in the intervening period in the games against Laois and Dublin they can play football. I watched the All-Ireland semi-final between Kerry and Cork and you could paint the wall and watch it dry,” he said.

“At least with the Ulster final, you had edge-of-the-seat excitement. All right, there was a bit of nastiness - but the nastiness that people are comparing it to was nothing to what we saw in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. People have become hung up on video analysis and ‘picking holes,’ but really the games aren’t that bad.”

Critics of Ulster football - retiring Donegal player Brendan Devenney described it as “cynical” during the week - should take account of the historical rivalry which exists between counties like Tyrone and Armagh. In his view, Devenney’s comment was “a cheap shot.”

“If Donegal were in an All-Ireland final, would he be retiring? Players often retire if after a long time they haven’t won anything. Peter Canavan hasn’t retired because of ‘cynical football’ but because Tyrone are still winning. People will stay involved while things are going good and unfortunately for Donegal things aren’t going well.”

Tierney explains that Armagh are such a driven team because of the feeling they have under-achieved. While they did make the breakthrough in 2002, there’s been a feeling they could have won a title before then and maybe one since. “The fact that we only won one, there’s a sense that maybe this team won’t be remembered as a great team. If it’s left down to Paul McGrane, Kieran McGeeney, Oisín McConville, Steven McDonald and these guys, there are no more driven men in Ireland to win another All-Ireland.”