All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers Round One: Armagh v Tyrone (tomorrow, the Athletic Grounds, 1.30pm, live on RTE2)
ALL over for the losers, all things possible for the winners. It’s win or bust at the Athletic Grounds tomorrow.
After chastening defeats in the Ulster Championship, Armagh and Tyrone start from scratch again, both hoping for a performance to kick-start their season.
The Orchardmen were humbled by Donegal, the Red Hands were humiliated by Derry but both counties have had time to get their respective houses in order since and we’ll see exactly what they’re made of in tomorrow’s derby battle.
Tyrone are of course reigning All-Ireland champions but the Sam Maguire has weighed heavily on them this year. The retirement of half-a-dozen experienced players destabilised their panel at the start of the season and the Red Hands haven’t been able to find the fluency they conjured up so easily last year.
Losing four players to suspension after the melee when these counties met in Armagh back in February obviously didn’t help and so Tyrone limped through Division One but did enough to survive in the top flight.
In their Championship opener, Fermanagh stayed with them throughout the first half but lacked the belief to really challenge them at the quarter-final stage. Derry were not lacking confidence in the semi-final however and blew them out of the water at Healy Park to win by 11 points.
Can Tyrone use that as motivation? Last year, a whipping from Kerry in Killarney was the catalyst for them to go on their run to the All-Ireland and managers Brian Dooher and Feargal Logan will hope for the same reaction tomorrow.
Bringing a batch of eager and talented All-Ireland U20 winners into the panel was a smart move from the Tyrone management duo. New faces like Ruairi Canavan and Michael McGleenan will have energised training and in-house matches and Tyrone will be the better for it.
Armagh don’t have that luxury and manager Kieran McGeeney has had to dig deep into his squad after a series of injuries in the aftermath of his side’s lacklustre loss to Donegal.
The Orchardmen were without midfielder Ciaran Mackin that day. The Shane O’Neill’s clubman who was arguably Armagh’s best player during the League, had his eye socket fractured in an altercation in the aftermath of the Division One game against Donegal in Letterkenny and since then Tiernan Kelly – a bundle of energy with a cutting edge around midfield - has had to leave the squad because of a blood-clotting issue. According to reports he has returned to gym work but he won’t feature tomorrow.
This week there was concerning news that experienced midfielder Niall Grimley had broken a bone in his neck. The Madden clubman is also ruled out and, according to sources in Crossmaglen, Oisin O’Neill will miss the game due to a recurrence of his quad injury. It will be very difficult for Armagh to replace those players.
Ulster football was heavily criticised after the Derry-Donegal chess match last Sunday. Will we see a more attacking affair tomorrow?
Armagh have scoring forwards but didn’t utilise them against Donegal until they were well behind. That was partly down to Donegal’s almost complete dominance at midfield in the first half but when Armagh attacked with purpose in the second they did threaten to get back into the game.
If the Orchardmen begin tomorrow like they started the second half in Ballybofey, they have the players to cause the Tyrone defence problems and that is their best chance of winning this game so the Red Hands will keep the ball as much as possible in the early stages and suck momentum out of Armagh and drain the life out of the home crowd.
They’ll play a rotating combination of Cathal McShane, Darren McCurry and Darragh Canavan up front and look to keep the scoreboard ticking over while keeping things tight at the back.
Meanwhile, Armagh will be wary of Tyrone’s pace on the break and, with the absentees in midfield, can they afford to press the Tyrone kick-outs? Conceding kick-outs to Donegal didn’t work but McGeeney’s hand has been forced by injury issues and he’s likely to set up by packing his defence and looking to counterattack at pace by getting runners ahead of the ball.
Tyrone are minus suspended midfielder Brian Kennedy but the Donnelly brothers Mattie and Richie could feature. They must be desperate to prove they’re not one-season wonders and despite their unconvincing form they will go to the Athletic Grounds with confidence but they should be aware that Armagh have it in them to win this game.
To do that the Orchardmen have to find belief when the chips are down but there’s been no fizz when the cork has come off their bottle under their current management and they haven’t managed to produce the level of performance required to beat one of the ‘Ivy League’ in a Championship game.
Tomorrow would be the perfect time to put that right.
Armagh have home advantage and, if they can start well, their partisan support will become a factor but Tyrone often operate better outside their home patch and the Orchard injury list means the Red Hands start favourites.
Both counties have had weeks to prepare so expect regular switches of personnel and gameplans between all-out defence and attack. Extra-time is a possibility but Tyrone should be in front when the final whistle blows.
Key Battles
Darren McCurry (Tyrone) v Aidan Forker (Armagh)
WITH 10 points from two Championship outings, McCurry is the go-to forward in the Tyrone attack. He registered half-a-dozen scores in the win against Fermanagh and another four in the loss to Derry. He was marked by Chrissy McKaigue on that occasion and, even in a losing cause, his clever movement and pace caused the Derry skipper problems.
Forker, who kept Michael Murphy on a tight leash in Ballybofey, will relish the challenge but McCurry will be another demanding assignment for him.
Rian O’Neill (Armagh) v Padraig Hampsey (Tyrone)
ARMAGH need O’Neill to recapture the form he showed at the start of the Division One campaign. To do that they need to utilise his attacking strengths by getting the ball up to him but he’ll have Hampsey for company tomorrow afternoon and the Coalisland clubman has the pace and physicality to make life difficult for him. Hampsey will look to turn the tables on O’Neill by breaking forward himself and forcing the Crossmaglen forward to track back after him.
If Hampsey limits O’Neill to two or three points then he’ll have done his job. It’ll be up to his defensive colleagues to do theirs.
Cool heads required
KIERAN McGeary, Padraig Hampsey, Michael McKernan and Peter Harte were sent off when Tyrone last visited the Athletic Grounds as a result of the late melee in a bad-tempered Division One clash in February. Armagh had Greg McCabe red-carded for his part in the same incident.
The Orchardmen were also involved in a one-in, all-in tussle with Donegal in Letterkenny and had four players suspended as a result.
Tyrone had Conor McKenna sent off in the Ulster Championship win against Fermanagh and will be without Brian Kennedy (red-carded against Derry) tomorrow. In a game that could boil down to fine margins, discipline will be crucial at the Athletic Grounds.
The referee
David Coldrick
THE Meath official has been brought in to keep order in a fixture that boiled over spectacularly in February. Both sides will know vastly-experienced referee well. He refereed last season’s Tyrone versus Kerry All-Ireland semi-final and took charge of Armagh v Donegal in 2020. Has a reputation for getting the big calls right.
