Revenge will be Armagh's most powerful weapon

As Donegal face into an Armagh team high on the waves of euphoria from a win over Tyrone, they become the latest team to have to face a side they conquered in the provincial series.\

Armagh's Rory Grugan after their Ulster SFC quarter-final defeat to Donegal in MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey. The sides meet again in the All-Ireland Qualifier series on Sunday.

THE new wave of coaches and managers are generally disinclined to see revenge as a major factor in teams meeting, but those on the inside see it different.

As Donegal face into an Armagh side high on the waves of euphoria that a win over Tyrone brought last Sunday in a packed Athletic Grounds, they become the latest team to have to face a side they conquered in the provincial series.

Familiarity has bred contempt. Including this one, this is the third time Armagh has faced Donegal in their last four games.

This scenario was only made possible by the introduction of the qualifier series in 2001. Back then, Derry reached an Ulster semi-final by knocking out Antrim, before they fell to Tyrone.

They got back on the road with backdoor wins over Antrim, Laois and Cavan before they were pulled out of the hat for an All-Ireland quarter final.

Tyrone. In Clones. For Derry wing-back Paul McFlynn, it couldn’t have been any more perfect. They won 1-9 to 0-7.

“No matter how much you try to get yourself ready and say, ‘it’s the same team,’ the psychology surrounding it all is huge. We had that edge of revenge. And they don’t have it because they beat you the last time so however you try to dress it up, there is an element you cannot legislate for,” he explains “I think it’s the same this weekend and to be honest, I can only see one winner in that. There have been examples where that hasn’t happened but Armagh will be very disappointed in their performance the last day. They expected to win it.

“And so they bounced back with a win and now Donegal is still suffering from the Ulster final defeat. Their psychology is totally different and their mood.” Derry were blessed with having Eamonn Coleman as manager. His trade was bricklaying, but any of his players feel he missed his true calling as a psychologist.

He and his trainer Martin McElkennon poured all of this into the players as they steeled themselves for Tyrone.

“I remember the team bus coming into Clones that day. They played a few video clips of the semi-final defeat to Tyrone. It was my first experience of that motivational side of things,” says McFlynn.

“Coleman would have thrown it up to us that Tyrone bullied us that first day. There was a tackle that Peter Canavan did on me that day that he was booked for. On the bus coming in, the last clip on the video was of that tackle. And then it was repeated, and repeated and so on. We watched it about ten times on repeat and then wee Coleman got up and turned off the video and said to us, ‘See today boys, that wee baldy so and so – he used a few other words – if he does that today, I want someone to take his head clean off.’” 

The level of aggression targeted at Canavan had his head astray. In 2016, he recounted that game himself, saying, “I soon realised that I had a bullseye on my back. Every Derry player wanted a piece of the action. No matter where I went, I had a Derry hand on me. I couldn't move, and I retaliated at the end of the first half. I saw red, and we saw the end of our championship. Derry won by five.” 

Talk of revenge almost seems unsophisticated in this age of GPS trackers and Key Performance Indicators. But McFlynn, a Doctor who lectures in University of Ulster on PE, believes it to be a crucial ingredient in the mix.

“Yes, you have your tactics and you have your game play and all the rest of it, but that desire, hunger and attitude to put every ounce into it, is what makes the tackles, makes the blocks,” he maintains.

“Those elements in the game that are interwoven with the tackles is what gets you over the line. And I think that desire and hunger and attitude to work hard, I think it is a big thing. Some people think that is all rubbish. But when you have experience and you have been there and been on the receiving end of a bad defeat, it helps.” 

It’s for that reason that he cannot see any other result this weekend only Armagh reversing the result of the Ulster quarter-final in Ballybofey. Back on March 27th, these two met in the final round of the league and Armagh felt they were pulled into a row at the final whistle that earned suspensions for Stefan Campbell, Aidan Nugent, Rian O’Neill and Connaire Mackin, of which all but Mackin were cleared.

After Donegal won the Championship game, it was said that Armagh spent too much energy on the appeals process.

They head to Clones seeking to have the final word on that. It’s sitting up beautifully.