Armagh’s All-Ireland SFC final record reads:
Played four, won one, lost three.
On Sunday, when Seán Hurson chucks the size five beyond even the palms of the GAA’s giants, all of that will be forgotten.
But when the whistle kisses his lips for the final time, the Tyrone man will close the casket on a fourth defeat or he will put the seal on a second ever victory.
Unless of course there is to be extra time and a replay for the first time ever on Gaelic football’s greatest day.
How the sport has changed since Armagh first graced this stage over seven decades ago. And yet, the same claustrophobia will cloud a packed out HQ.
The pandemonium and childish hysteria remains in the build up.
A circus of the most wholesome sense. What’s rare is wonderful.
Here we go again, take five. But first, we’ll go reeling in the years.
1953
Even over seven decades ago, there was a Brosnan with his stamp all over it. Jim Brosnan and his wing-forward compatriot Tadhgie Lyne combined for 0-8.
On this occasion, 13 points was sufficient for victory, yet another one for Kerry.
It was, however, The Kingdom’s first title in seven years. They probably call that a famine. They don’t know the true meaning of it. A silver-strewn life can talk little of starvation, of suffering.
Still in defeat there were strides for the Ulster champions. Far north of a land that knew and knows little other than winning the ultimate prize, Armagh became the first side from the six counties to make the All-Ireland final.
The magnitude of the occasion was reflected in the hysteria that surrounded it. 7,000 people broke their way in ticketless, three gates buckled down as supporters took the any which way approach.
Armagh led at the break, Mal McEvoy notching the only goal of the day on 17 minutes. How Bill McCorry would love to change that fact, his crucial second half penalty drifting agonisingly wide.
Though 24 years would follow before a day of similar importance was to come again, The Orchard would pave the way for the mighty All-Ireland winning Down outfit of the 1960′s.
In times of societal upheaval, football was the great pacifier, and now success was coming with it.
1977
All-Ireland final day is a day to break records. Having never taken home Sam before, Armagh ended up in the history books 47 years ago, if not for the reasons their supporters would have hoped.
The eight goals scored remains the joint-record for majors in a Gaelic football showpiece, as Dublin batted a brave Orchard challenge aside on a scoreline of Dublin 5-12 3-6 Armagh.
One of the standout shots of the day features Joe Kernan chasing the late, great Brian Mullins. Little did Armagh know what was to become of the former.
Even on that occasion, he scored two goals for his side. To do it once is the stuff of dreams, twice unfathomable, and still he came out comfortably on the losing side in the twisted fantasy that is All-Ireland final day.
A Jimmy Keaveny effort for a point looped into The Orchard goal, symbolic that it wasn’t to be their day.
Nine points down at the break, Sean Devlin was denied by the butt of the post. Up the field Dublin went. Nine points could have been six. Then it was twelve.
Game on to game over all in one sweeping, fatal phase of play. Armagh and Kernan went home with the runners-up plaque.
Chasing shadows the size of Mullins’ was the moral of the story for the Ulster side. That was Dublin’s third All-Ireland title in four years. They would go on to make six deciders in a row, Kerry beating them in three of those.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Retired Lurgan solicitor Paddy Moriarty is one of the soldiers of ‘77, and as recently as last year he backed Kieran McGeeney and the current troops:
“Although they have tough matches ahead, I expect Kieran McGeeney and his management team to get the best out of these guys.”
Takes one to know one. A new era, a new dawn. No plaque, but the very same trophy on the line.
2002
22 years have slipped by, 22 years bookended by seismic wins over Kerry. The team of ‘02 smashed through the glass ceiling that twice shook but would not shatter. Third time lucky as they say.
Among them was Enda McNulty, who just this week stated that team “will go to their graves” with the regret of not having won more:
“I literally, every single day, think about how we never won more All-Irelands.”
Arguably the most talented group The Orchard has ever seen, it goes to show how rare this day of days actually is. But a little over two decades ago, Armagh were not to be denied.
This time Joe Kernan was at the wheel. Revolutionary wouldn’t describe it. A warm weather training camp in La Manga was risky and rogue. When you win, anything is forgiven.
Dave Alred held sessions with Armagh’s free takers. Among his other clients none other than Jonny Wilkinson, who led England to a maiden Rugby World Cup just a year later.
Trailblazers in almost every way imaginable in pursuit of glory. But they had only intent in trailblazing one undiscovered path.
Remember that plaque of ‘77? How could Kernan forget?:
“Every time I looked at it I felt like a loser. I showed it to the boys and I hopped the plaque off the shower wall.”
Losers no more.
The archetypal game of two halves ensued, never to be the easy way.
Oisín McConville, the Bill McCorry of his generation, a penalty missed on the grandest stage. But Armagh were not to be denied.
Teenager Ronan Clarke outplayed the great Séamus Moynihan, while Diarmuid Marsden burst into life after an opening half hour that belonged to Marc Ó Sé.
Three points for Marsden, three for Clarke, and the jugular for that man McConville. He could have been excused for lashing the leather out of the ball in frustration, but no.
Under a despairing Declan O’Keefe he rolled it in as if it was just another day at the office. But it wasn’t. It was a million miles from the mundane.
History. Armagh and Sam intersect for a day, a year. They intertwine forevermore.
2003
The Ulster dominance of the early 2000′s led to a Tyrone Herald piece entitled: “For many of us, football is the new religion”.
The Armagh-Tyrone rivalry became one like no other. It remains that way, a hatred borne out of similarity, so intense neither would be inclined to admit they’re any way alike the other.
County boundaries, family ties, your very blood cells would never allow it. Pride of place above all.
So close to an era of trouble, 2003 was a different kind of violence but a violence all the same. Football the new religion, love thy neighbour out the window.
An all-Ulster final for all of Ulster and all of Ireland was in store. Armagh the hunters had become the hunted.
For Marsden, it was a complete role reversal, so unfortunately sent off for raising the hand at Philip Jordan, the first red card in a final since the shambles of 1996. Earlier Marsden had missed a crucial goal chance.
Then there was that Conor Gormley block. Steven McDonnell was forced to put the champagne on ice when he thought for all the world the party was going to roll on for another year.
But this was a new era. Tyrone led 0-08 0-04 at the break, and although a young Seán Cavanagh missed a goal chance of his own, Cormac McAnallen and The Red Hand stood tall.
Peter Canavan was on and off like a Hollywood relationship. Neither he nor Owen Mulligan registered a single score from play. Sometimes you just have to fight tooth and nail.
Super sub Stephen O’Neill kicked two scores as Tyrone eventually prevailed on a scoreline of 0-12 0-09.
7,609 days will separate that final whistle of ‘03 and the throw in of ‘24.
Aaron Kernan, Jamie Clarke just two who never got a taste of it.
At the final frontier, you seize your chance or you watch it pass. The only guarantee is your first All-Ireland final might well be your last.
