Evolving Orchard will have to trust new foundations

MOST of them are only players in our minds now. On DVDs, decaying VHS tapes and in old photos.

By now, only a few pillars remain of the team that Big Joe built, the team that ruled Ulster for almost a decade almost through sheer force of will.

The slow road to disintegration began almost as soon as their greatest triumph when Benny Tierney finally hung up his gloves in the wake of the county’s first and only All-Ireland title in 2002.

Other bricks came loose as the years moved on. Guys like Diarmuid Marsden, John Toal and John McEntee slipped quietly from the spotlight and then Kernan himself decided it was time to go after the 2007 season.

Kieran McGeeney, the personification of Armagh football in modern times, followed him within weeks. Oisín McConville was next to go after last year’s crushing All-Ireland quarter-final loss to Wexford.

Through it all they remained resolute. A hat-trick of Anglo-Celt Cups came their way between 2004 to 2006, a first-ever NFL title was added to the swag in 2005. Armagh won Ulster again last summer, this time under Peter McDonnell, but the sense that an era was ending was pervasive and accelerated alarmingly last month before what was supposed to be just another routine Tuesday night training session.

Rumours of Francie Bellew’s retirement had been flagged but then Paul McGrane and Paddy McKeever stood up and announced that they too were clearing out their lockers. Aaron Kernan admitted afterwards to being “stunned”.

One or two, like Stephen McDonnell and Ronan Clarke, remain from that 2002 team but an era is all but over. The leaders on the team now are people like Aaron Kernan who only debuted in 2004. Ciaran McKeever is captain. His first game was in 2005.

“Already we can see the dynamics of our group changing,” says McDonnell. “There are people taking on things and getting involved off the field as well as on it.

“What isn’t apparent to the public outside our circle is who exactly those men are. They are there and they will emerge. They are bringing with them their own dynamic, their own enthusiasm. I wouldn’t be in the slightest bit worried about leadership. It is there. We know it is there and it will be revealed in due course.”

Tomorrow’s tie with Tyrone will be the judge of that.

What isn’t up for debate is that Armagh are a team in transition. How quickly they can complete that phase in their development remains to be seen but their reaction to last month’s retirements will be interesting.

Bellew and friends weren’t the only ones to leave camp around that time. A rump of fringe players, five in all, ended their involvement with a lack of playing time acting as the common denominator.

These too were announced in one fell swoop but McDonnell saw that as the lesser of two evils when compared with the blow to morale that a succession of leaked departures has had on many a county before.

“During the course of the national league you have players coming in and moving on and, rather than go with an announcement, one this week and another next week, we got to a stage where we could evaluate where we are at and then make the announcements.

“The bottom line is that people have things to do in the panel. Many pride themselves on that. Many found the going quite difficult. What we have now in place is a panel that has worked very hard to be there and we are very happy with it.”

They missed out on promotion in the league but the competition still served its purpose. As so often in the past, Armagh found themselves with one hand strung behind their backs for long spells because of Crossmaglen’s club championship campaigns.

It took time to blend the returning county champions back into the pot but the flip side was that it allowed the management chew over others who might not otherwise have been given an opportunity. Youngsters like Kevin O’Rourke and Tony McClelland proved that they were up to the pace of inter-county football this spring. Young Charlie Vernon too until he suffered a broken jaw which has sidelined him tomorrow.

Relegation was never a concern and the faint prospect of promotion to the top tier was still attainable until a heavy defeat to Cork in the last round that has somewhat overshadowed the rest of their spring.

The rest of Ulster will study them closely tomorrow. Tyrone too, of course. The pair have carved up the last 10 provincial titles between them and their first round meeting will serve as a useful barometer for all of Ulster.

Even if McDonnell is wary of loading one game with such import.

“I always think it is very, very dangerous to put too much weight on a fixture. Regardless of who we drew we would have been taking it very, very seriously. There have been too many instances of almost, nearly got there.

“Last year clearly demonstrated — and the year previous — that we could take no opposition in Ulster lightly. Yes, Tyrone are All-Ireland champions and there is a tradition of rivalry there. Those things have not gone unnoticed.

“But the bottom line for us is we have to concentrate on our own game and get that right. If we can get that right maybe we can compete and, if we can compete, then we are in with a shout. If we are there or thereabouts anything can happen.”

The future starts now.