ULSTER SFC PRELIMINARY ROUND:For Derry and Armagh, the momentum of the summer can be fuelled by their clash tomorrow at Celtic Park, writes KEITH DUGGAN
YOU KNOW it must be May when you start hearing talk about Ulster being the hardest province. Ulster football men have a conflicting relationship with their provincial championship. Pragmatism encourages them to point to the relative ease with which strong teams in the southern counties emerge from their competitions.
They wish it could be so easy for them. And yet, they take collective pride in the fact the Anglo-Celt Cup is such a slippery prize; that in an era when the value of provincial competitions has been loudly questioned, winning it still feels substantial.
Armagh and Derry meet tomorrow in the preliminary round of the Ulster championship and a match that is, by far, the most attractive in the early stages of the championship. That Peter Canavan, whose championship analysis is always studied and under-stated, felt emboldened to write off both counties’ chances of going on to win the Ulster championship was not down to a rush of blood. He was simply relying on the empirical Ulster championship statistics.
All managers insist the national league is the ultimate preparation for the championship. It does not matter whether a team has had a rough spring and suffered relegation, as Derry did in their final match from Division One despite recording a win over Galway. Nor does it matter if a team displays a tremendous arc of improvement, as Armagh did in emerging as champions of Division Two.
The draw paired them for this preliminary round tie and history suggests neither will go on to win the title. The only exceptions are Cavan in 1945 and Tyrone in 2005. But that is a broader worry for Armagh and Paddy O’Rourke. Of more pressing concern is Derry, who have looked like they could achieve but have not for most of this decade, have not coughed up a championship game on their home turf at Celtic Park since 1994. “The classic!” says Jimmy Smyth, the former All Star and captain when Armagh won their most famous Ulster title in 1977. “Against Down. The statistic is probably slightly misleading in that they haven’t played there every year since but there is no question they are formidable there.”
For both counties, the momentum of the summer can be fuelled by this game. Derry have become one of the most unreadable teams in modern football. A succession of managers, from Eamonn Coleman to Mickey Moran to Paddy Crozier all seemed to be taking Derry in the right direction but at some point or another, things fell flat.
The appointment of Damian Cassidy augured well. The Bellaghy man has All-Ireland vintage as a crafty and ball-playing wing forward on the celebrated 1993 Derry team and proved his ability on the sideline with his club and, more notably, guiding Clonoe to a Tyrone senior championship. He has freely admitted to being a student of what Mickey Harte has done with Tyrone and has vowed to instil something of the same ethos back into Derry football.
Echoes of Cassidy’s repeated mantra could be heard in the words of Gerard O’Kane after he was chosen as Derry captain ahead of this year’s league. “Some of the boys have played in five Ulster semi-finals and five years and got beaten by five different teams,” he said in February. “It’s not as if we have a mental block with one team that keeps turning us over. No matter how much optimism we have, some team has come and swept us of our feet.”
Last summer the culprit was the most improbable of all; a Donegal team that had been beaten at home by Antrim and just about showed signs of life in the qualifiers. Derry had come to Ballybofey as warm favourites. They had come out on top of a gruelling tie against Monaghan at Celtic Park before been smothered by Tyrone in the Ulster semi-final losing by 0-15 to 0-7.
The qualifying draw, with its habit of cruel humour, paired them with Monaghan in the qualifiers. This time, they cut loose, winning by 3-16 to 0-20. Their reward was a meeting with another Ulster team, albeit one that was presumed to be awaiting a mercy killing. “I had seen Donegal in a few of the qualifier matches and they were fairly atrocious,” says Smyth. “Nobody would have thought they would have been capable of challenging them. And afterwards, the reaction was ‘Oh, typical Derry’. But Donegal were kicking points from all angles.”
But overall, Derry’s championship experience underlined just how claustrophobic the Ulster arena can be. Cassidy has yet to have the novelty of preparing for a championship game against opposition outside of Ulster, small wonder he is among those advocating an open draw in the championship. Against Monaghan in Celtic Park last year, Derry did what was required in a match that produced a series of off-the-ball squabbles that so often has provided a stick with which to beat the province. But the win offered evidence Cassidy had introduced some of the purpose and toughness of mind he believed had been missing.
Last year, Derry enjoyed a strong opening to the league and prior to hosting Kerry, Cassidy elaborated on his vision for Derry. “We certainly had a lot of good strong players but that comfort on the ball was maybe something we needed to improve on. You do need to have strong, physical players in certain areas. But today’s game is about defending and attacking in numbers. Tyrone are the blueprint.”
This year, Tyrone and Derry were relegated from Division One but Tyrone’s reputation means they are favourites for the Ulster title and regarded as one of the few teams with the potency to halt Kerry. Derry have it all to prove again. It does not help they are playing a county who have developed the fine habit of dominating Ulster.
“We are getting used to Armagh doing the unexpected,” Smyth says. “Two years ago, the team wasn’t supposed to do anything and they won the Ulster championship. They met Fermanagh in the final and they were favourites but they did what they had to do. And when the Ulster council is keeping its options open in terms of bringing the Ulster final to Croke Park, well, with all respect to other counties, they are basically talking about a Tyrone-Armagh final.
“I know that is a long way down the road . . . But I suppose people are quietly optimistic Armagh can go to Derry and get a result.”
Monaghan make a dubious dessert. It is as if nothing changes but the date. Armagh looked like the real deal in closing out their Division Two title, destroying Donegal before again showing their fondness for Croke Park in out-shooting Down. In ways, they resemble the old Armagh, sweeping forward and looking to hit the killer ball early and often.
But Steven McDonnell has tapped into his best form and if he gets to renew his partnership with Ronan Clarke, Armagh have a front two to match anything in the championship. O’Rourke has converted Aaron Kernan, probably the most influential on the team since the senior brigade departed, to centre-half forward.
“I think Paddy felt he had two half backs in Finian Moriarty and Paul Duffy who would overlap and attack as Aaron had done and he needed a greater attacking presence in that line,” Smyth says. “But I think Aaron is still feeling his way into that role . . . But it has helped in terms of our reliance on Steven McDonnell for scores.”
O’Rourke’s sombre observation about the quietness of Derry’s build-up to his match was well made. Even as the results began to stack up against Derry in the league, Cassidy maintained the season would revolve around the championship. Suddenly, it is here. This is a huge day for Derry. The chutzpah that defined their style in the 1990s has faded and they have never quite recaptured it. All-Ireland semi-finals in 2001 and 2004 and a decent quarter-final showing against Dublin three summers ago have offered glimpses of their potential. But there has been no Ulster title since 1998 and no Ulster final appearance since 2000, the Oak Leaf county has been pushing for a long time.
Armagh will turn up at Celtic Park ready to play. Resilience defined them in the decade that saw them land six Ulster titles in a decade and even though many of that team have departed, they seem to have reinvented themselves with indecent haste. There is no comfort zone. Promotion to Division One will pale against the reality of being out of Ulster in mid-May. Derry have not been beaten at Celtic Park since 1994. Surrendering that record is not an option. The Ulster final is a distant land and a punishing journey starts here.
