Football

It's time for the National League so let the fun and games begin

Derry manager Damian Barton and Tyrone’s Cathal McCarron tussle during the McKenna Cup final at the Athletic Grounds on Saturday night. Five Ulster teams will go toe-to-toe in Division Two of this year’s National League which will see a reacquaintance of the feisty Sperrins rivalry    
Derry manager Damian Barton and Tyrone’s Cathal McCarron tussle during the McKenna Cup final at the Athletic Grounds on Saturday night. Five Ulster teams will go toe-to-toe in Division Two of this year’s National League which will see a reacqu Derry manager Damian Barton and Tyrone’s Cathal McCarron tussle during the McKenna Cup final at the Athletic Grounds on Saturday night. Five Ulster teams will go toe-to-toe in Division Two of this year’s National League which will see a reacquaintance of the feisty Sperrins rivalry    

TWENTY years ago the Armagh team I played with were in action against Derry in Celtic Park in the first round of the Ulster Senior Football Championship. 

That was normally as far as we got at that time. Genuine aspirations were based more in hope than expectation and we were quite a few years from making the breakthrough which Derry had made some years earlier.

I have still quite a few friends from that Derry team and while they were the benchmark at the time and a supremely talented outfit, they were also a ruthless and, dare I say, somewhat cantankerous bunch, quite adept at mixing it physically if required. 

It is an opinion I am sure will be challenged by a few past players this morning as they read these words.

During the course of the match, anyhow, a shemozzle broke out and there was a fair bit of snorting and male bravado on show. Like lions in a pride, everyone jockeyed to be the alpha male. After a short stand-off, it became a wrestling match with about 10 participants from each side involved and a few sly digs raining in every now and again – mostly from the Derry side, of course.

I took my normal stance of voyeur (coward) as opposed to protagonist. I didn’t want my pale complexion altered in the slightest so I stood watching alongside Joe Brolly who, like myself, had little heed in the black art of pugilism. 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, this action was taking place near enough the Armagh dug-out. I watched as Barney Canavan, our assistant coach, made his way slowly to break up the nonsense that was going on. That surprised me as Brian McAlinden would have been my favourite to end up in the thick of it.

However,  when I next saw Barney, he was crawling out of the melee looking for his glasses which had been unceremoniously removed from their resting position by a straight jab from an opponent.

Now, I’m not one for casting spurious accusations (big words) and I’m definitely not saying  Damian Barton was the guilty party in removing Barney’s glasses. However, let’s just say, as they say in south Armagh, that he was certainly in the vicinity...

So when I opened the sports pages of The Irish News on Monday and saw the Derry manager sitting upright on his posterior just to the side of a melee between Derry and Tyrone on Saturday night, I afforded myself a wry chuckle. And I’m sure Barney Canavan may have done the same on the basis of what had happened two decades earlier.  

Joking aside, what we witnessed on Saturday night was a good old-fashioned Ulster derby encounter – and perhaps also the possibility that the sleeping giant that is Derry has woken up from their recent slumber and are once again prepared to announce themselves onto the big stage.

Eighteen yellow cards and three reds would lead to believe it was a bloodbath. And yet it was a hugely entertaining game which ebbed and flowed with Tyrone’s greater experience and knowhow being the difference in extra-time. 

Once again, Ulster games, regardless of what competition they are played in, are always played at a more frenetic tempo than any other province. That maybe explains why our Championship is the only real competitive one from the four these days.

Tyrone are to be congratulated on winning their fifth consecutive McKenna Cup title. They always use this time of the year to blood new talent, but they  never take their eye off the prize on offer and are well placed for a decent tilt at regaining their place in Division One. 

We move straight from the McKenna Cup into the National League fray and I don’t expect the action to be any less intense – especially in Division Two where we have five all-Ulster derbies. Derry are set to meet Tyrone again.

A simmering rivalry between Armagh and Cavan resumes and with the ever-improving Fermanagh in the mix, Division Two looks extremely enticing from an Ulster perspective.

Down and Donegal, meanwhile, both occupy Division One berths. However, I think it may be a little too early in Eamonn Burns’ tenure to wave the magic wand.

The Mournemen, I feel, are going to have to take both points on Saturday night against Donegal to have any chance of maintaining top flight status.

Mayo bring in a new management team and will be looking to hit the ground running following the unfortunate managerial debacle in the wake of the Championship.

However, the fact that Castlebar are still in the club championship might just go against them which would leave the Dubs, who normally start slow, to win another Division One crown. Monaghan and Donegal should safely avoid the drop.

Division Two definitely looks like an improving Tyrone’s to lose, but they will expect stiff competition from Derry once again, while Galway will probably also be challenging towards the end. The Tribesmen could well benefit from the fact that practically all of Ulster will be pummelling each other most weekends.

From a relegation perspective, because of the Ulster bias in this division, current form will mean very little.

I would like to think that Armagh would survive in this tier, but if recent results are anything to go by then they are going to need vital home points. However, the Athletic Grounds is not the fortress it used to be. 

Fermanagh were many people’s team of the year in the last 12 months.

Yet they are slightly over-dependent on the mercurial talents of Sean Quigley and, alongside Cavan and Armagh, Pete McGrath’s men are going to need to finish strongly to avoid the dreaded drop.

The only other Ulster county left to account for is Antrim. Every year I big the Saffrons up in their quest to get out of Division Four. And time after time, they disappoint me and, more importantly, their supporters.

Great work is being done by Frank Fitzsimons and Gearoid Adams and I genuinely believe that should they secure an away win to Carlow this weekend. Then they could be genuine challengers to Wexford in the shake-up come April.

:: I WOULD like to express my sincere sympathies to the family of late sports journalist Micheal McGeary, a fellow Armagh man and a true gentleman in the world of GAA. During my career I was interviewed by Micheal on quite a few occasions and the biggest compliment I can pay him is that it felt more like a chat than an interview. 

It always read the way you had said it as there was no inclination to twist, conceal or possibly grab a headline. When some journalists ring you it is all about the story or the column. But with Micheal, after the business of the interview was over, the conversation lasted every bit as long such was his casual and affable manner where politeness and respect was always to the fore. Ar dhies de go raibh a anam.