Armagh 0-23; Tyrone 0-22
That’s what the winning habit does - it teaches you how to steal victory from the oesophagus of defeat. And it’s just how Armagh found something at the death to deprive Tyrone in a nail-biting end to a classic Ulster encounter at Clones on Saturday.
Winning Boss Kieran McGeeney later would laud his charges for how “cool” they kept their heads after it looked like Tyrone had fought back to snatch the spoils with a number of late scores - a two-pointer of which came from penalizing the same McGeeney for disputing a decision by kicking a sideline flag.
When Meath ref David Gough waved yellow in his direction and awarded the Red Hand a free which they converted, you sensed that the Gaelic world’s earth axis was about to tilt with the elimination of last year’s All Ireland winners from the Ulster series.
Heck folks, the drama was only beginning at that stage as methodically and with that “cool” head the manager spoke about, the men in red fought for, won and then used possession in the final six or seven minutes almost without a single fault in application.
A lesson for the ages completed when Rory Grugan slotted over a close in free with the last kick of the game to win the game by the narrowest of margins and Tyrone’s unhappiness aside, the only disappointment for the neutral was that we didn’t get to witness another 30 minutes of fare in extra-time.
A year on and instead of being almost always the side losing close encounters on penalties or by a point, Armagh are now the masters of such endings - think of last year’s All Ireland final when a point was sufficient to beat Galway and bring Sam back across the border.
St Tiernach's Park became the stage for veteran Stefan “Soupy” Campbell who came on as a late sub and was a very influential figure firstly by getting on the ball to drive the orchard County forward and then by leveling the game in the second last play of the 75 minutes.
There was then time for the last play when a rare mistake by Niall Morgan saw his kick-out fail to take off albeit reaching midfield where a very tired Jarly Óg Burns won possession and delivered a hand-pass forward. This was expertly advanced through safe passing before Petie Harte was adjudged to have fouled Conor Turbitt as he sprinted onto the ball on the 20m line dead straight in front of the goal.
Despite the Red Hand protests, the foul stood and Grugan tipped over the winner and ensured his side an Ulster final date with Donegal, who had little trouble overall in disposing of Down in the other semi-final played on Sunday. Jim McGuinness’s men just about had the measure of the men in orange in last year’s final and it will be interesting to see how this much anticipated game turns out 12 months on. Armagh will want to lift the cup for the first time in 17 years while you fancy McGuinness would sacrifice it if you were to offer him Sam as the swap this year. Indeed, the authorities may decide that such is the attraction of this match that it could be switched to Croke Park instead of a joust back in Clones where over 21,000 enjoyed the fare last weekend.
Said the winning manager McGeeney afterwards: “It’s good, disappointed maybe the way the game sort of petered out for us, a lot of things seemed to go against us in those last 20 minutes. But the boys kept their cool, which was a credit to them, to be able to take the scores.
“The two most important scores, Soupy and Turbo, fellas coming off the bench and haven’t had much game-time recently, so we’re really happy. They showed their coolness in the end but I thought over the 70 minutes we played pretty decent football and just maybe shouldn’t have gotten ourselves in that position at the end.”
Asked about Ulster or another All Ireland, the man known universally as “Geezer” declared: “I suppose things have shifted towards the super 16, even though they’re getting rid of those for some unknown reason. I’m not allowed to talk about that, I still can’t understand it.
"The provincial championships were pushed back to get it, but I still think it’s a mistake, but listen we have an Ulster championship final to look forward to. We’ll be going for it, but like everybody else we’ll not be taking any unnecessary chances with players if they’re not fit to do it.”
You had to feel sorry for the Tyrone boss Malachy O’Rourke who has certainly improved this squad since taking over and who may have a say in the race for Sam if they can get key players fit enough to give 100 per cent on the day.
Even though they hadn’t played as well as Armagh, they refused to go away even when six behind deep into the second half. Said O’Rourke: "We weren’t in a great position, we were maybe six points behind, Armagh in fairness probably were the better team in the second half. The boys kept going to the end, they fought really hard and got back into the game.
"When we got on top we got a couple of really good scores and were working hard, but then we weren’t just able to punish them, turned over a few balls up front and allowed Armagh to come down. I wouldn’t say they stole it in the end, in fairness to them they came back really well, but we’re disappointed we weren't able to hang on” he stressed.
In a game of many stats, one stood out - it was that Armagh won 96 per cent of their own kickouts - a major feather in the cap for club midfielder cum county netminder Ethan Rafferty. Winning 23 out of 24 even blew the numbers Dublin’s Stephen Cuxton managed in his prime under the old rules where short passes were a lot easier to get off than under the new Arc era of ball travel. And fair play to the Armagh backroom team for their planning — almost perfect with their own restarts and they snatched 11 of their opponents 27 kickouts as well.
Darragh and Ruairi Canavan will need to be fully fit going down the line while O’Rourke will need Darren McCurry to reproduce the hot form he has shown to date - nine points on Saturday was a fair return for his efforts - if they are to compete at the business end of the All Ireland championship.
Overall, Armagh were the better side, sharper in thought and action and, with possible returns of personnel, can only get stronger with this togetherness they have.
Armagh went in at the break leading 0-11 to 0-8 and maintained their dominance to push their advantage to six going down the back straight. The introduction of Harte and the brilliance of McCurry together with the energy of newly introduced Eoin McElholm who livened up the attack and landed two points put the game back into the melting pot.
Harte’s two-pointer brought the sides level at 0-19 each with 10 mins left on the clock. The drama was only starting as McGeeney conceded a free in bizarre circumstances where he was yellow carded for his previously mentioned flag-kick. McCurry punished it to the full with a two-point conversion - and betting sorts would have felt the force was with the men in white jersey to kick on.
Cometh the hour, Armagh to a man stood up and showed their character with Soupy and Turbo off the bench not just winning possession but adding to the scoring firepower as well,
Now Armagh had to show their mettle, and they found the response they needed.
Young McElholm gave his side a two-point advantage but the impressive Burns got free to kick a one-pointer and then Campbell levelled with a fine effort just inside the two-pointer mark before Grugan delivered the coup de grace with the hooter already having sounded that his kick would be the last and the most telling of the day.
GAA RESULTS
Munster SHC round 2
Cork 4-27 Tipperary 0-24
Waterford 2-23 Clare 0-21
Leinster SFC semi-finals
Meath 0-23 Dublin 1-16
Louth 1-18 Kildare 0-18
Ulster SFC semi-final
Armagh 0-23 Tyrone 0-22
Donegal 1-19 Down 0-16
Leinster SHC Round 2
Galway 2-25 Offaly 1-14
Dublin 3-26 Wexford 4-19
Kilkenny 2-30 Antrim 2-12
Joe McDonagh Cup
Carlow 3-27 Kerry 0-17
Kildare 3-24 Westmeath 2-21
Laois 6-36 Down 1-12
Christy Ring Cup
Wicklow 2-17 London 2-17
Meath 3-18 Derry 1-22
Donegal 5-18 Tyrone 0-10
Nickey Rackard Cup
Mayo 2-23 Louth 2-18
Sligo 7-20 Fermanagh 2-18
Roscommon 1-15 Armagh 0-15
Joe McDonagh Cup
Laois 6-36 Down 1-12
Lory Meagher Cup
Cavan 3-24 Lancashire 2-14
Monaghan 4-22 Warwickshire 2-15
Longford 1-14 Leitrim 1-14
