Ulster SFC semi-final: Armagh 0-23 Tyrone 0-22
As time ticked by in Clones, All-Ireland champions Armagh were looking at another chapter of extra time – at best. Had the worst come to pass, it would have been devastating. For about three quarters of this Ulster semi-final, the result never really looked in doubt for a crowd of 21,288.
It ended in a welter of excitement Kieran McGeeney’s team into their third successive provincial final – with the last kick of the match.
Armagh had greater energy and penetration and whereas Tyrone held on as best they could, they were always chasing. In the 50th minute, the lively and productive Callum O’Neill kicked his third point to put Armagh 0-19 to 0-14 ahead.
Tyrone, though, got a power surge from their bench and ran off seven unanswered points in the 11 minutes that followed. Eoin McElholm, the under-20 prodigy, had come on as a replacement and kicked a point followed by a Darren McCurry free.
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Darragh Canavan was short trying to kick a two-pointer free but got a second chance, this time at a one-pointer, after a mix-up in the Armagh defence. Suddenly it’s a two-point margin.
Few things rattle a team as much as being in control for a long period and then feeling it all slip away. There were a couple of further morale boosts. Paudie Hampsey, Tyrone’s nonpareil man marker and the All-Ireland winning captain from four years ago came on after a long injury absence.
One of his first acts was to stand up the dangerous Ross McQuillan, breaking into attack and drawing a foul from the Armagh wing back. From the turnover, the ball got to Peter Harte – icon of lost causes from last January’s club final that he nearly salvaged – who kicked a walloping two-pointer. Level at 19 each.
It got worse. After some backchat from the Armagh bench, referee David Gough showed a yellow card to manager Kieran McGeeney and McCurry brought the free out beyond the arc and popped it over to leave Tyrone two ahead.
McGeeney acknowledged his transgression but added: “I thought my temper was pretty good on the line.”
His team showed cooler heads on the pitch and after Armagh replacement, All-Star Conor Turbitt and McElholm had swapped points, the All-Ireland champions took charge of possession whereas Tyrone fumbled and turned over a couple of attacks.
Eventually Jarly Óg Burns, who had an excellent match, injuring his shoulder in the act of effecting an heroic turnover on the very last kickout, kicked them closer and a bout of possession play enabled another replacement Stefan Campbell to shoot the equaliser with seconds left.
Niall Morgan, who came off second best in the battle of the modern goalkeepers with Ethan Rafferty particularly on kickout stats, saw his restart intercepted by Burns. The resulting possession ended up with Rafferty passing to Rory Grugan whose handpass into the onrushing Turbitt ended in a foul by Harte.
Grugan applied the coup de grace.
McGeeney paid tribute to his players and explained the priority.
“Not giving away possession, Tyrone are very quick on the counter. They excel when they’re given space and they’re some great runners. We did well, they stayed calm on the counter because a lot of things were going against them at that stage.”
He also gave special mention to the hooter clock.
“The buzzer actually acts as a good thing. We’ve done that three times before. People tend to let other teams have chances. You never know when it’s going to be up. It’s good to have a rule in Gaelic football that’s definitive, whether we like it or not. It is definitive. It’s very clear cut.”
The first half had left Armagh with a three-point lead but also the momentum of having had the better of exchanges. Paddy Burns did well marking Darragh Canavan and Tyrone’s efforts to be patient against the wind sometimes broke down.
They struggled to contain Armagh’s forwards and Oisín Conaty posed regular menace getting inside the defence for his four points. Andrew Murnin worked hard in deeper positions but also kicked a couple and Calum O’Neill also contributed mightily.
Michael McKernan supplied Tyrone’s only first-half two-pointer and Darren McCurry was flawless.
Both teams were entitled to feel upbeat at half-time. Tyrone had the wind to come but Armagh had been more dominant and in the third quarter, continued to be so, pushing the lead to six by the 47th minute.
They were particularly superior on the kick-outs, winning all but one of Rafferty’s restarts whereas Tyrone only retained 16 from 27.
McGeeney name-checked several of his players and revealed that Burns might have damaged his AC joint.
Malachy O’Rourke was happy with the battling second half but said the overall performance had been disappointing.
“There was good character shown and that’s what our number one aim, is to have that, first of all – that we’ll fight right to the final whistle. We got that but we’re just obviously disappointed the quality of our play wasn’t what we would have liked.
“We struggled on both kickouts a lot of times. So, there’s a lot of things that we need to get much better but at the same time, we got ourselves into a great position to win the game. We’re just disappointed we didn’t quite end it.”
He acknowledged that Croke Park had indicated there would be a crackdown on certain infractions, most obviously in David Gough’s performance, overcarrying.
“We got an email during the week just telling us that there was a certain number of the rules that were going to be enforced or had been looked at and to be aware of, this weekend, so we were conscious that there was a possibility that the referees would be enforcing the four-step rule.”
The venue for this year’s final will be decided after Sunday’s semi-final between Down and Donegal.
Armagh: E Rafferty (0-0-1); P Burns, B McCambridge, T McCormack; R McQuillan (2: 0-0-2), G McCabe, J Óg Burns (2: 0-0-2); C O’Neill (3: 0-0-3), B Crealey (0-0-1); D McMullan, O Conaty (4: 0-0-4), P McGrane; R Grugan (3: 0-0-3, 2f), A Murnin (2: 0-0-2), O O’Neill (3: 0-1-1).
Subs: C Turbitt (0-0-1) for O’Neill (52 mins), J Hall for Crealey (54 mins), C McConville for McMullan (62 mins), S Campbell (0-0-1) for Murnin (63 mins), S McPartlan for McGrane (67 mins).
Tyrone: N Morgan; C Quinn, P Teague, N Devlin; M McKernan (2: 0-1-0), R Brennan, K McGeary; B Kennedy (capt), C Kilpatrick (2: 0-1-0); A Donaghy, J Oguz, C Daly; D McCurry (10: 0-1-8, 1tpf, 4f), D Canavan (4: 0-0-4, 2f), R Canavan.
Subs: S O’Donnell for Donaghy (42 mins), B. McDonnell for Oguz (48 mins), E McElholm (2: 0-0-2) for R Canavan (48 mins), P Harte (2: 0-1-0) for Daly (54 mins), P. Hampsey for Quinn (59 mins).
Referee: D Gough (Meath).
