Ex-skipper defends Armagh ‘physicality’

Jim O’Sullivan

That's the firm conviction of former captain turned BBC analyst Jarlath Burns.

For him Armagh 'physicality' can be attributed to a weights regime that was initially forced on Ulster teams during a period when they were shut out of Croke Park on All-Ireland final day.

Between Down winning their third title in 1968 and a fourth in 1991, only two northern counties Armagh in 1977 and Tyrone in 1986 contested a final.

Specifically, Burns defends the disciplinary record of Paul McGrane after the controversial incident in the Ulster final replay which threatened his involvement in today's game.

"In Paul McGrane's case, what you have to remember is that the midfield I would have inhabited was a completely different place to the midfield which he and his contemporaries inhabit.

"You can now have anything up to 10 or 12 players congesting the area. You will see five, six or seven pairs of hands going up for the ball, maybe two pairs of hands genuinely going for the ball and the other 10 or 12 fists going up to take man, ball and everything with it.

"When you come down with the ball you have all these fellows around you. You have so many half-forwards and half-backs playing around the middle of the field, so there are no wide open spaces. Midfielders belatedly have had to learn the skills of tackling and dispossession and all the rest, something that defenders have always had to 'hone.' That has come about in the latter years of Paul's career and he would hold his hands up and say that tackling is something he has had to get to grips with recently.''

The description of the incident in the Ulster final replay which Burns offers is of the Tyrone player Philip Jordan losing his balance as he is tackled and of McGrane's arms 'not rising above waist level. "If you look at the rule, it states that when the ball is in or about the person's body it is wrong to tackle with the fist. But when the ball is going from toe to hand there is nothing wrong with fisting the ball away and there are many examples of where Paul McGrane has done that effectively. He knew nothing of any of this. For him it was just the 'half of the blink of an eye' part of the game, until he went home and people started to talk to him about it. Then he started reading the commentary in the papers and he was very upset about it.

"Premiership players are getting 50 or 60,000 pounds a week and one of the occupational hazards is that they are going to get shouted at by the crowd and they are going to get reflected upon negatively in the press. As a teacher in my profession, my results are my baseline and if I get bad results I have to accept criticism. That is my job. But Paul is not getting paid, nor is anybody else.

"I would defend the rights of him and Ryan McMenamin and all the other players who would have had their characters pulled through the sewers these past weeks by people who are very latecomers to the game.

"In order to win Sam Maguire or the Liam McCarthy Cup you have to be ruthless. And that's not only on the field for the 70 minutes but ruthless in the pursuit of abstinence, the denial of your entire social life and everything you would enjoy.''

Reflecting on his own playing years, Burns says that when teams would have emerged from Ulster it was akin to 'a last man standing' time. Competition was so fierce that winning a championship took so much out of the team that it was like an All-Ireland 'in itself.' "You were 'knackered' and you had almost run out of steam by the team you had got to an All-Ireland semi-final.

"I have seen us going down to Croke Park in League finals and championship matches and being run all over. There was always a statement around our part of the country, 'youse are too soft, you wouldn't get that in Croke Park.'

"Ulster teams have just risen to that and have become more physical. The morning after Armagh won the League final this year Kieran McGeeney was doing weights at 10 o'clock. And, by half eleven about eight other of the team were there with him. That's how these guys are programmed. The weights they have been doing have made them physically stronger because skill, stamina and all that is not maybe enough. You have got to go the extra mile. They have gone the extra mile!"