Freshness may be Armagh’s key card
The probability is that we won’t really know until the last quarter, when the more critical issues of finishing and fitness will come to the fore. And, on the evidence of their two meetings in the Ulster final, there is every indication of this game being just as close.
Of course, the other issue that will come into play relates to how well the game is refereed by Paddy Russell, whose performance will obviously be influenced by how the teams approach it. The perception is that decisions made by Pat McEnaney and Michael Collins previously conspired to deny Tyrone victory. Specifically, Collins’ unfortunate error in sending off Stephen O’Neill in the wrong near the end of the replay was very costly, although whether or not it lost them the game is debatable.
Various opinions have been expressed about this being a ‘grudge’ match and one in which each team ‘owes’ the other something - with Tyrone feeling they were ‘denied’ victory in Ulster this year and Armagh remembering how the 2003 All-Ireland title slipped through their hands. The reality, of course, is that even without this recent history, games between these neighbouring counties are invariably played at an intensity rarely witnessed elsewhere.
Their style of play takes a punishing physical toll on players because so much energy is expended in tracking players and so many hits are made in tackles.
But where players step outside the rules, as we have seen happen recently - but hardly to the extent that some would have us believe - it stops being sport.
Clearly because of the huge scoring threat posed by the respective front lines - Stephen O’Neill and an in-form Owen Mulligan on the Tyrone side, Ronan Clarke and Stephen McDonnell with Armagh - the priority for both managers will be to reduce their effectiveness. In raw terms that means ‘stopping’ them.
It involves limiting the flow of possession from outside (something Cork failed dismally to achieve against Kerry) and minimising the danger through blanket covering.
It’s an intriguing game and next to impossible to call because nobody can be sure which side will achieve the greater balance in performance from the full-back line forward. Undoubtedly it will demand a punishing level of consistency and the maximising of possession during periods of dominance.
Armagh beat Laois with nine points to spare in their quarter-final and were never in any danger of losing. Tyrone and Dublin drew 1-14 each the first day and while Dublin finished with the same total last week, the Northerners put up a more respectable score of 2-18. Mulligan’s share of this was a goal and seven points, after a performance which marked a return to his best form.
“A lot of our people seemed to doubt him, but we didn’t,’’ says Peter Canavan. “He’s a terrific player and yet again last Saturday he produced it on the big day.’’
It has been a frustrating season for Canavan, apart from his tour-de-force in the Ulster replay with Cavan, when he overtook Down legend Paddy Doherty as the highest cumulative scorer in the province in over 60 years. Introduced late in the Ulster replay “to enhance” Tyrone’s advantage, in Mickey Harte’s words, he was sent off without touching the ball, he played the second half against Monaghan, played just the last 20 minutes in the drawn game with Dublin and missed the replay because of a stomach bug. Again confined to the bench tomorrow, he’ll be itching to get into the action and who knows, once more he could prove a trump card for Tyrone.
Nevertheless, as impressed as I was with their overall display last Saturday, I feel that Armagh have been more consistent and should benefit from having a two-week preparation. For that reason I give them a narrow vote to advance for a meeting with Kerry.
* The curtain-raiser is the Tommy Murphy Cup final between Wexford and Tipperary, an opportunity to see Declan Browne and Mattie Forde, two more modern greats of the game, in action.
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