Respect and rivalry recalled

Kerry or Tyrone, Tyrone or Kerry — the debate about the Team of the Noughties continues to rage.

Privately, Tyrone’s footballers felt the 2008 All-Ireland final and a third defeat over Kerry in five years confirmed them as the best of that particular decade. Yet Kerry, like they did after their two previous Championship defeats to them, recovered the following season to win an All-Ireland title.

From 2000 to 2009, they collected four Sam Maguire titles — one more than Tyrone’s haul. Yet Tyrone were the one true pioneering force and Mickey Harte bettered Páidi Ó Sé, Pat O’Shea and Jack O’Connor in those 2003, ‘05 and ‘08 games.

As he faces O’Connor again, four past players recall their memories of a trilogy that helped define the footballing decade.

Declan O’Keeffe — 2003 All-Ireland semi-final (Kerry goalkeeper)

“It was swarming stuff from Tyrone. After Armagh the year before, we knew the tails of the Ulster teams were up but we didn’t expect that.

“There’s that famous cameo of Dara Ó Cinneide, Eoin Brosnan and Darragh Ó Sé getting man-handled by a siege of Tyrone players.

“For me, it was the start of referees not giving the breaks to the man on the ball. The player in possession used to be considered more but fair play to Tyrone, they brought huge intensity.

“Páidí had spoken about forwards defending at the time when not many forwards were thinking like that but what Tyrone did was a full court press.

“They did it all together, they attacked en masse, they defended en masse.

“It was nine points to two at half-time but they struggled to beat us after that and we were woeful on the day — we only kicked four points in the second half, which was awful. For all their possession, it was our inept performance that fed into the whole thing. We weren’t prepared for it. Maybe we should have half-expected it — we had shipped four goals against Roscommon in the quarter-final.

“Páidí was a traditionalist in every sense, very much the purist. He had an idea and an ideal. That game against Tyrone would have suited a player like Paul Galvin.

“We’ve adapted since to that style of football Tyrone played to the extent that now people say we have done too much of it, which is funny.

“Had we played defensively, I think we would have had a great chance because we would have caught everybody by surprise.

“It was the end for me. I was doing an awful lot of travelling, was 32 and had just got married that year.

“There were fellas in the county who had a lot more going for themselves and I had lost a bit of desire. You have to have the stomach for battle.

“It was a disappointing note to go out on but I’ve no regrets. Very few players do get that happy ending.”

Peter Canavan, 2005 All-Ireland final (Tyrone corner-forward)

“Any time you win an All-Ireland is sweet, especially when you’re not known as a county accustomed to winning many All-Irelands.

“What was important about that was a lot of people in Tyrone felt we didn’t get the credit or due recognition for winning the first one (2003) and other people were complaining about the style of football not being easy on the eye.

“The two teams played some great football that year and if anyone cares to take a look at it again they will see the great fielding and quality of scores from both sides.

“The win brought a great sense of satisfaction to us. With Cormac (McAnallen) having passed away the year before, we had extra motivation and winning for him made it so special.

“It was against Kerry too. We would always see Kerry as the standard bearers and Gaels in the county would very much look up to them.

“I knew going into the game that, bar a replay, it was going to be my last. I didn’t need that extra motivation but perhaps subconsciously it added more pressure to things. The very fact that we had won an All-Ireland gave us great confidence, though, and like every team going out to win it the first time you think you have to do something out of the ordinary to do it.

“We were much more assured and even when Tomás (Ó Sé) got that second goal for Kerry we managed to keep our noses in front until the end.”

Mike Quirke, 2008 All-Ireland final (Kerry sub)

“By the time 2008 had come around, the rivalry had turned into a media-fuelled frenzy. Kerry were being beaten with this stick that they couldn’t cope with the northern style. It had been conveniently forgotten that we had beaten Monaghan on a desperate day in Croke Park. The fact we had beaten Armagh in 2006 was brushed aside as well. It was Tyrone that was used against us and it is still spun that the lack of a win over them had somehow tarnished the legacies of fellas like Tomás, Marc and Paul Galvin.

“The players don’t see it that way. If Kerry were beaten by Cork it would be equally as bad.

“Tyrone were a fantastic team and the meeting in 2008 was one between two teams at the height of their powers.

“In 2005 they got the better of us no question but we viewed 2008 as the one we were primed for. We felt at that time our team was marginally better than theirs.

“It came down to small margins in the end. Pascal McConnell’s boot deflecting Declan O’Sullivan’s low shot away happened with just a few minutes left and it would have changed everything had it gone in.

“It was probably the toughest of the three defeats to take because we felt we were so close and yet so far from beating them.”

Enda McGinley, 2008 All-Ireland final (Tyrone midfielder)

“As soon as Peter went, there was always going to be this accusation that we wouldn’t win one without him.

“He had played big roles in both 2003 and ‘05 and the feeling among some supporters and others was that we needed him.

“That year we had been beaten by Down in a replay in Ulster — and Down weren’t a great team at that stage — and had a poor league campaign.

“To come back and beat a superb Kerry team was a big win for us. The impression in ‘03 was that they’d been caught on the hop and not fully prepared for us. In 2005, they were ready and we were ready but still there was this idea out there that we’d been lucky so we knew if we beat them a third time it would add value to the two previous ones.

“The game was so tight and our game plan was to stick with them as much as we could because they were playing so well coming into the final.

“But once it came down to the last five to 10 minutes we knew we could eke out the win. Like in 2005, we had played a lot of games coming into the final and drew confidence from them.

“Our substitutes — (Kevin) Hughes) and Tommy McGuigan — made a huge difference. Declan O’Sullivan took it to us at the end but Brian Dooher scored a massive point. He had a poor game up until that but when you see your talismanic captain, who had been struggling, doing that? All I could think was ‘Wow’.

“The difference it made was massive. It showed the strength of the man to do that but it also gave us the inspiration we needed.”