Missing Gardai, Dublin traffic, the Tribesmen in command, a thrilling fightback from the Orchardmen and then a cruel sting in the tail… The first-ever Championship meeting between Armagh and Galway in 2001 was an unforgettable rollercoaster ride. Where did it go wrong for the Ulstermen? Brian Canavan provides the answer in conversation with Andy Watters.
THIRD time lucky? The Armagh faithful hoped so and, despite the crushing disappointment of All-Ireland semi-finals losses to Meath in 1999 and Kerry (in injury-time of extra-time in a replay) the following year, they travelled to Croke Park again in their droves to watch the Orchardmen take on Galway in 2001.
Over 60,000 souls flocked to Headquarters, this time for a round three Qualifier which was the first Championship meeting of the counties. Armagh had lost their Ulster crown to Tyrone but, with Stevie McDonnell posting 1-2 in both games, they recovered lost ground in commanding wins against Down and then Monaghan.
The determined spring was back in their step as they went through a pre-game warm-up routine at the Na Fianna grounds. Kieran McGeeney and the McNulty brothers, Enda and Justin, played their club football with Na Fianna so Armagh were regulars on those Mophi Road pitches back then. After the warm-up was completed and the cones, bibs and balls were in the boot, the players and management boarded the bus for the short drive to Croker.
Well, it should have been short but the Garda escort that was due to arrive to clear Armagh’s passage to Jones’s Road didn’t show up.
Engines were running, the players were impatient to get going. Armagh waited, then waited some more but eventually could wait no longer. The bus pulled out but got stuck in traffic and then ran into a residents’ protest.
The calm build-up that had been planned was replaced by nervous frustration.
“We never found out what happened to the Gardai,” says Brian Canavan, Armagh manager alongside Brian McAlinden, back then.
“It was out of our hands, there was nothing we could do about it.
“It wasn’t that tempers were getting frayed but the boys were wondering what was happening. When the bus left we went up the street and couldn’t get down it because of the traffic, it was a Saturday game and there was more traffic about.
“We were late getting to the ground but you’re talking 15-20 minutes late, it wasn’t a huge amount of time. The boys didn’t change on the bus, they could have if they’d wanted but we changed at Croke Park in the dressingroom and the match was held back for a few minutes.
“We warmed up on the field and I don’t think the warm-up had anything to do with the way we started the game, it was maybe a state of mind.”
John O’Mahoney’s Tribesmen took an early lead but Armagh did have their chances. John McEntee, Barry O’Hagan and Oisin McConville all missed goal-scoring opportunities and at half-time Galway were 0-8 to 0-4 ahead.
When the second half began, Paul Clancy (0-2), Padraic Joyce and Ja Fallon reeled off four more points to send Galway into a 0-12 to 0-5 lead. Armagh’s Championship hopes hung by a thread but just when it looked like they were in for a humiliating hiding, they found the fluency that had eluded them and Diarmaid Marsden’s point sparked a thrilling comeback.
It was the first of seven on-the-trot and when O’Hagan split the Galway posts with the last of that sequence the game was all-square. Injury-time began and Armagh had the ball and an orange wave swept forward as they went in search of the winner.
But then a pass aimed forward was blocked and the Orchardmen were caught short coming out of defence. Michael Donnellan played in Clancy. Clancy kicked from 45 metres high towards the Railway End. The ball soared over the bar. Galway won 0-13 to 0-12. Armagh hearts were broken again.
“They got a lead but we pegged them back and with five minutes to go we looked like the team that was going to win it,” says Canavan.
“I always thought we would come back. I had confidence in the guys because I knew them and I knew they would click at some stage.
“Over those three years we weren’t beaten by a big amount by anybody, they were all close calls and I knew that match was going to be the same. Galway were a good side, they won the All-Ireland that year so that’s how good they were.
“We had the ball but it was blocked down and Donnellan got it and they went up the field and scored. That’s what happens.”
Margins at that altitude are wafer-thin. 2001 was another season of what-might-have-been for Armagh: If only the Garda had shown up, if only the bus had arrived at Croke Park on time... Was it the difference between winning and losing?
Canavan doesn’t think so.
“The boys that didn’t play well that day will always say it was because of this and because of that,” he says.
“I don’t think it (the bus arriving late) had any great bearing on the game but anybody who didn’t play well will say that was the reason we lost – that’s the way it goes.
“I don’t see it as the reason because we had warmed-up before it, the boys were out on the pitch; they had plenty of time on the pitch. It wasn’t a big thing.
“We were going down the pitch to get a shot but, instead of that, they went up and got a shot and they won by a point. That’s how close it was and people can blame whatever they like but that was the reality: We had the chance to win it and we didn’t take it, they got a chance and they took it and went on to win the All-Ireland.”
After pulling the fat out of the fire, Galway marched on and beat Cork, Roscommon, Derry and Meath in the final to win their second All-Ireland in four seasons. Like Kerry the year before and Meath the year before that, the team that had beaten Armagh went on to lift the Sam Maguire.
“When you get to that level everything is small margins,” says Canavan.
“Kerry the year before was small margins, even smaller margins than Galway. We were leading four minutes into injury-time (in the drawn first game) and we gave a silly free away and Maurice Fitzgerald put it over the bar to equalise.
“The next match went to extra-time – that’s how close it was. The year before that we were leading Meath in the semi-final with 15 minutes to go then Ger Reid got sent off and it should have been the other way round – Graham Geraghty should have been sent off.
“They’re all fine margins at that level and those couple of things went against us and we were disappointed in all those games.
“Galway was disappointing surely but I think the most disappointing one was the Kerry one because we had played super and got back into the game and we were leading with seconds to go…That was really hard to take.
“So was the next day when it went to extra-time, it was gut-wrenching stuff and maybe that hardened us for the Galway game.”
It turned out that the Galway game was the end of the road for the Canavan and McAlinden. Their former team-mate Joe Kernan had guided Crossmaglen to three club All-Irelands and was waiting in the wings for his chance to take over. In 2002, his team made the breakthrough that had eluded his predecessors.
“I got a knock at the door one night and this man says: ‘We’re doing away with yous’,” says Canavan.
“I asked him why and the reason was that we had played the three other provincial winners in the last three years and hadn’t beaten any of them.
“I told him that wasn’t much of a reason because Armagh had gone the guts of 20 years before we took over and couldn’t beat anybody. When we took over there were crowds of three or four thousand watching Armagh and there was 60,000 at the Galway match. We must have been doing something right.
“But I suppose when you don’t win… It’s not often you have a manager of Joe’s calibre sitting in the county. He had won club All-Irelands with Crossmaglen and he was always a very popular guy in Armagh.
“If there had have been another manager like Joe in Armagh over the last four or five years, Kieran McGeeney probably wouldn’t be the manager now.”
Armagh have backed McGeeney through thick and then and the 2002 skipper has remained faithful to his players who were mauled in Ballybofey but have bounced back brilliantly to dethrone Tyrone and then turn the tables on Donegal.
Next up is a Galway side that beat Mayo and Roscommon to win the Connacht Championship and Padraic Joyce, scorer of five points in that 2001 thriller, is now their manager. The Tribesmen have won the two subsequent Championship clashes with Armagh (2013 and 2015) but Canavan suspects that his county could break their duck on Sunday.
“Galway could potentially be very, very good but you still feel there’s something soft about them in the back line” he says.
“Armagh have been super in the last two matches, they’ve improved beyond all knowing from the first game in the Championship. They look a completely different outfit now and if they continue the way they’re playing they’ll be a handful for anybody. The difference Stefan Campbell has made around the middle of the field has been unbelievable.
“Every time he gets the ball he’s going forward and Jarly Og Burns is going forward… They’re all going forward now and before that they were going backways and sideways. They looked afraid to go forward.
“It’s all down to Campbell around the middle. He does a lot of good work and he’s the guy who’s driving them forward – when he gets past that first man, he creates all sorts of problems.
“So it seems like the start of something. You can see that in the crowds, people are buzzing about Armagh again. I’d say Armagh are favourites for Sunday, they’re the Division One team but you can never say Galway are a pushover.
“They’re one of those counties that can rise. Once they come with a team they can win All-Irelands and they’ve done it over generations because they have that knowhow and belief in the county.
“It’ll be close, I’d say it’ll be a great game. They have good players but so have we and if Armagh keep going the way they’re going… They’ll be hard to stop.”
