Old friends, old rivals
Neighbours hopping balls with neighbours, banter on the local radio... not exactly rabid derby fever but hey.
It would appear the teams are just as hospitable with one another. Martin Clarke and Kevin Dyas are as thick as thieves after their Australian Rules forays with Collingwood.
Steven McDonnell, whose house on the Armagh side of the city is but a few hundred yards from Down’s HQ in The Marshes, counts Benny Coulter among his close friends.
Isn’t Armagh’s manager a Down All-Ireland winning captain?
Like Queen Elizabeth II visiting Croke Park, few would have thought such a thing was possible given the bitterness that existed between them in the past.
It’s a rivalry some would argue had lost a lot of its needle. But behind the scenes, things aren’t so rosy.
After last year’s Division Two round game between the counties, a few players from each team met up for a few drinks. Noticing the group, a Down panellist accosted his team-mates and asked them in the not-so choicest language what they were doing socialising with the enemies.
The animosity goes both ways, of course. In Armagh, it hasn’t been forgotten how Pete McGrath snubbed Kieran McGeeney for the 2004 International Rules.
The county captain, who later skippered Ireland under Seán Boylan in 2006, wasn’t even chosen for a trial that year.
Neither has it been overlooked what McGrath did to Philip Loughran in that same series, picking him on the squad and then electing not to name him on either of his match-day panels.
Have no fear, the fear and loathing lives strong.
For Armagh midfielder Charlie Vernon, the rivalry with Tyrone would appear to be a keener one. Moy is only up the road from him in Cathedral City. His sister Fionnuala is married to Seán Cavanagh.
But don’t tell him beating Down this evening won’t be as much. He has some fond memories of playing Sigerson Cup football with many of his opponents.
There, James McCartan was a manager of his. The challenge for him is proving they don’t have his number.
“When you’re in university you’d have been living in each other’s houses and pockets. The likes of the McCartans, Aidan Carr and all those Down boys who would have played for Queens... we all know each other.
“Then there’s James and there’s not many questions he would have to ask about me.
“The challenge for me is to show they don’t know everything.
“Both teams know so much of each other in terms of personnel, the way they play and the systems each team is using. It’s going to come down to who rises to the occasion.”
The regular amount of games they’ve had over the last 18 months has also contributed to the rivalry. After Down won the Division Two round game last year, Armagh returned the favour in the final. Following Armagh’s win in the McKenna Cup, James McCartan’s side came out on top in the Division 1 clash.
“It’s been tit-for-tat,” agrees Vernon. “I suppose the nature of the two teams at the minute, we’d like to think we’re fairly level in terms of ability.
“Down getting to the All-Ireland final last year was an eye-opener for us.
“We had beaten them in a league final and had the same quality of personnel so maybe it was just a bit of belief we were missing and tactically approaching the game in a different way.
“When Down got to it, we said to ourselves it wasn’t beyond our reach.”
According to Vernon, this evening means more to their manager Paddy O’Rourke than any of the players. He’ll forever be remembered as the man who held aloft Sam for Down in 1991 but he’s parked all his allegiances.
“I think by the time Saturday night comes around, Paddy will want to win this game more than we do. Paddy’s fervently in the Armagh camp for this one. There’s no question of divided loyalties there.”
O’Rourke has a personal axe to grind about not having his time as Down boss extended in the mid Noughties. Among the Armagh players, the grievance held is their neighbours have been lauded for winning nothing last year when the Orchard County have won seven Ulster titles and an All-Ireland since Down last won one of either.
Vernon displays none of that here but acknowledges Armagh haven’t done themselves justice in recent times.
“We just have to get on with it,” he shrugs. “Over the last few years, we haven’t achieved what we would have liked. We have kind of disappointed as the season has started to get into the swing in qualifiers and All-Ireland quarter-finals. We’d feel we could have gone on a lot further to the All-Ireland series. Last year, Dublin beat us by a point. People based their predictions on past results and in Division One this year we only got a couple of victories. Maybe it’s justified, maybe it’s not but in Armagh we always feel there’s a big championship performance in us so it’s just a matter of getting the consistency right.”
That can wait if they earn the bragging rights this evening.
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