AS I sat on the Armagh team bus heading to an All-Ireland quarter-final match against Fermanagh in 2004, I noticed a subtle change of attitude and mood from games gone by, but just put it down to the pre-match giddiness that accompanies games of this magnitude and importance.
I was no longer involved in the playing end of things and some might say it was a career cut cruelly short by the arrival of the skin tight jersey which suited ‘Geezer’ and McGrane, but left me needing to be greased with olive oil for an hour beforehand just to get in to one.
I now found myself part of the backroom team.
When you are playing your mind is so full of thoughts and permutations about the day ahead and your performance, but as I looked around the coach that day I was looking from the outside in and just sensed that the normal nerves and uneasiness associated with a match of this enormity were not as prevalent as before.
The word ‘complacency’ and the instruction ‘not to take Fermanagh for granted’ had been rammed down these players’ throats for two weeks leading up to this game by Big Joe and Paul Grimley as Charlie Mulgrew’s men had seen off Cork, Meath and Donegal on their route to Croke Park.
Yet it did not fully enter the minds of some Orchard county players that day as the tag of underdogs is much easier to wear than that of All-Ireland favourites which Armagh had going into that game.
Sitting in the stands in Croke Park as Tom Brewster (inset) swung his imperious left foot deep into injury-time for a totally deserved winner, I knew that, as a team, our mindset was far from perfect leading up to this game.
We had made that fatal mistake of looking ahead to a semi-final before we had earned our right to be there. Complacency is a cancer that has seen the destruction of many more teams than just ours that day, but it is something that words will not eradicate.
It has to be thwarted from within your own head and, although Armagh can look back on that period in their history with immense pride and fondness, 2004 will always be a year that hurts and is one that always comes up in conversation when we meet up for a chat or a beer.
Mayo face the same predicament this weekend as they encounter Tipperary who are a team like Fermanagh were in 2004 and immensely capable of beating anyone if not paid the respect and attention that they so richly deserve.
Annihilating Galway in probably the most impressive footballing display so far in this year’s Championship showed that.
Mayo have a team well capable of ending Tipperary’s brilliant season if they can come down mentally from the high of beating a well-fancied Tyrone side and reset their minds to now face an even bigger battle – besting a team of underdogs who are laced with quality and confidence and a system which is a joy to watch and unfortunately too rare in our game.
Mayo’s performance against Tyrone was far from perfect, but it was significant in that they got the result that matters.
They are facing a different animal this weekend in Tipperary who will have more supporters than they have ever had at a football match and will be more nervous than they have ever been before.
If they are to replicate their Herculean feat of three weeks ago they will have to start well and build on their confidence and belief gradually.
Tipp started very poorly against Galway.
They can’t afford to give Stephen Rochford’s men the upper hand so early in the match as they will punish them on the scoreboard and probably, more importantly, it could fan the flames of doubt too.
Ultimately this game will come down to the team who is mentally stronger throughout as Tipperary are now in uncharted waters.
Their manager Liam Kearns stated after they beat Galway that he was insulted by the common assertion in the media that his team were now in bonus territory.
They must now try and place all the pomp and ceremony associated with a match of this importance to the back burner and do what they do best – attack Mayo with the same verve and enthusiasm that they did in their last game.
This will be Mayo’s sixth consecutive All-Ireland semifinal and yet their last All-Ireland win was in 1951 which leaves this county open to all sorts of character assassination and bridesmaid theories which only they can ultimately cut adrift.
After watching their epic one-point victory over Tyrone I texted my former comrade and old mate Tony McEntee, one of the Mayo coaches, to congratulate him.
Anyone who knows Tony would instantly agree that he is the master of telling you how it is.
He replied that it was big result, but feet must be kept firmly on the ground as they can’t afford to have Tipp doing what Fermanagh did all those years ago. It might have been over a decade ago, but anyone involved in that Armagh side looks back on that year as the one that ultimately got away.
And even though Tony immediately recognised the similarity in the two games and the fact that Tipp are every bit as capable of achieving the same feat as Fermanagh did 12 years ago, it is more important that his team prevents this mental weakness from mushrooming – it could be their greatest hurdle to making the final.
On a different note, while watching the aftermath of the disgraceful decision not to award the fight in the Olympics to Michael Conlan, a female friend of mine who is a staunch Tyrone supporter stood up and angrily stated resolutely (albeit fuelled by quite a significant amount of Sauvignon Blanc) that we had just witnessed two of the greatest travesties of all time in Irish sport.
I agreed with her on the Conlan fight, but when I asked her about the other travesty she replied that it was obviously the sending off of poor Sean Cavanagh against Mayo.
I’m still laughing and her husband is still acutely embarrassed.
