Armagh Harps have been banging on the door for more than a quarter of a century, but for 26 years they just couldn’t break it down, chiefly due to Crossmaglen’s dominance in the Orchard county.
For the second season in a row, the Rangers will play no part in the Ulster Club Football Championship, and it’s Harps’ turn to fly the flag at provincial level.
Manager John Toner doesn’t quite know what to expect from Sunday’s quarter-final clash with Derrygonnelly, but he is in no doubt that his players will be subjected to something of a culture shock as they make their first foray out of the familiar confines of the county scene.
“It will be a different style, it’s obviously a high level of football. Within Armagh, you know the teams, you know them individually, you know the players inside out, but we’ll have to do some research on Derrygonnelly,” said Toner, who was a member of the last Harps team to win the Armagh championship back in 1991.
“It was a long wait. A lot of people put in a lot of work within those 26 years, not just the current team, but behind the scenes, under-age, different managers over that period of time put a lot of work into these boys. It’s great for the club.”
The Fermanagh champions have a decided edge in provincial experience, having won their third successive Erne title earlier this month.
And with home advantage at Brewster Park, the cards appear to be stacked in their favour as they prepare to welcome the new boys from the ecclesiastical city.
“We don’t know much about Derrygonnelly, but we do know they have won three in a row in Fermanagh, and to win three in a row in any county is a big achievement, so they’re obviously a good team.'' he added.
“They seem to be a big physical team, but outside that, we don’t really know much about them,” said Toner.
Having achieved the primary goal for the season, expectations are modest among a tight-knit group of players who are thrilled to be able to call themselves county champions.
Any success they may achieve at provincial level will, in their manager’s opinion, be a welcome bonus: “Look, our expectation this year was to win the Armagh championship, and we’ll take every game as it comes from now on, and see how we get on.
“It’s somewhere we haven’t been before, so we’ll go out and give it a lash, because we have nothing to lose.
“But we’ll not be overly disappointed if we don’t get through. We’ve got what we set out to do at the start of the year, to win an Armagh championship.”
Armagh star Charlie Vernon and county goalkeeper Paddy Morrison are the senior members of a young team that has responded to the promptings of a management team that has this year had their trust and faith in the players repaid in spades.
“We have maybe eight boys who are U21. Declan McKenna has been outstanding this year for us, Conor White, and young Josh Loughran in the middle of the field has been outstanding, along with his brother Karl, two great lads for us,'' he said.
“Sean Farry, our full-back, has possibly been player of the year for us this year, so we have a lot of good players. The forward line is still quite young as well. Ryan McShane is playing very well.”
Having lost the 2014 and 2016 county finals to the mighty Crossmaglen, Armagh Harps do know what it takes to go toe to toe with a provincial giant.
If they can dip into that experience on Sunday afternoon, anything is possible.
Of Crossmaglen Toner declared: “In the last 20 years they have been a phenomenal team. They churned out Ulster titles, and when they come out of Armagh, the expectation is that they’ll win All-Ireland titles,''
