Armagh’s showdown with Down and connections across the border

THERE were plenty of hugs and slaps on the back dished out at full time last Sunday in Letterkenny. O’Donnell Park was awash with red and black jerseys as Down celebrated one of their most impressive victories in recent years.

The biggest hug handed out was from an Armagh man. Tony McEntee lifted Conor Laverty off the ground as the pair embraced after their masterplan had been dreamed into reality.

Sunday, at St Tiernach’s Park, will be a strange one for Armagh and Crossmaglen man McEntee. Back at the same venue where he enjoyed so many memorable days in the orange and white of Armagh.

He played an important role as the Orchard County emerged from the wilderness and become the dominant force in Ulster during his playing days.

Mourne men not motivated by fear says Rooney

He came off the bench in the 1999 Ulster final to kick a point and help Armagh end a 17-year wait for provincial glory, while his twin brother John started at midfield. Who did they beat you ask? Well, Down of course.

McEntee was also full-back when Armagh defeated Down in the opening round of the 1998 series, their first championship win over the Mourne men since 1990. Both those fixtures took place in Clones.

That team won seven Ulster titles in a ten-year period and reached two All-Ireland finals, bringing Sam Maguire home for the very first time in their history in 2002.

So often, McEntee marched behind the band. Behind that orange flag. Behind Kieran McGeeney. But this weekend, he’ll attempt to take down his former captain and his native county.

Similarly, to ’99, Armagh are suffering an Ulster drought. They haven’t won the Anglo Celt Cup since 2008. McEntee was on their side the last time they took such a voyage. Now he’s pulling in the opposition direction.

There are so many links between the two management teams. Strangely, McGeeney and Laverty, the two head-honchos, are really the only two that don’t have cross-border ties.

While McEntee will know the Armagh changing room inside out, Mickey Donnelly’s knowledge will come in handy as well having taught the likes of Tiernan Kelly and Conor Turbitt at St Ronan’s, Lurgan.

Marty Clarke has been coaching Killeavy for the past two years, under the watchful eye of club and county legend Steven McDonnell, and will have witnessed plenty of the Armagh players up close and personal in the club championship last season.

In the other dugout, Conleith Gilligan knows the Kilcoo boys like the back of his hand. He was part of their management team when they finally reached the Holy Grail and climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand in 2022. Laverty was joint captain of that team.

Ciaran McKeever used to manage Mayobridge in the not-too-distant past, alongside Denis Hollywood. Armagh defender Paddy Burns currently plays his club football in the Mourne County with Burren.

Familiarity breeds contempt. Or so they say.

“There are a lot of connections,” said Down’s two-goal hero Micéal Rooney, who was one of the main men for the Magpies when they won the All-Ireland Club crown and his ‘Hand of God’ moment in the final was an inspirational play.

“A lot of boys went to school together and obviously ‘Deets’ (Gilligan) in the Armagh management would know us really well, and we know ‘Deets’ really well.

“It will be tough. We’re under no illusions, but we can just put our best foot forward and try to find chinks in Armagh, and I’m sure they’ll be doing the same to us.

“We’re just going to go at it hard and look, we have seven days to prepare for a big, big game and the thing on the line is an Ulster final.

“Armagh will be thinking the same thing. They probably didn’t think that they were going to be playing against us, so it’s nice for us again to pit ourselves against a top team in Ireland and to see where we stand.”

On McEntee’s influence in the Down camp, his fellow management team colleague Donnelly couldn’t have laid more praise at his feet following their phenomenal victory over the reigning Ulster champions.

The belief that they could do it, despite what everyone else thought, was hugely important. “I don’t like giving Armagh men credit, but Tony McEntee has given these boys serious belief,” Donnelly chuckled.

“It’s just his clinical way of looking at life. Tony’s mindset is we’ve done the work; we’ll go out and win the game. It’s so simplistic, but so effective and I think that’s really helped the group.

“We’re going to have to put him up in a hotel during the week, he’s not getting home! He’ll have red and black on him on Sunday. I’m sure there’s a wee bit of his heart, of course, in Armagh – he’s a proud All-Ireland winner and all the rest.”

He added: “He’s doing fantastic work with this group, and the boys think the world of him. And we do have a really, really close group of lads. There are no egos, there’s no prima donnas.

“We maybe don’t have the household names that other counties have, but you know what, we have a group of lads that really want to do their best for Down.”

You don’t need to tell Aaron Kernan about McEntee. He’s shared enough dressing rooms with him to know exactly what he’s like.

As a youngster, Kernan came into a Crossmaglen team that was full of unbelievable leaders. Armagh the same. McEntee was a huge figure for both.

Once McEntee called time on his playing career, the gradual next step was the pull on the bainisteoir bib. He led Crossmaglen to back-to-back All-Ireland Club titles in 2011 and 2012.

He was a selector with Mayo when they came so close to breaking the curse and grabbing the Sam Maguire Cup, but Jim Gavin’s Dublin were just that wee bit better.

Kernan joined the coaching circuit last season and McEntee welcomed him with open arms to his Sligo management team. Kernan knows well the impact he can have on a team.

“I’ve been extremely fortunate to have played with him, been coached by him and then coached with him last year in Sligo,” said the three-time All-Ireland Club winner.

“That’s a concern because I know what he’s like. I know the level of confidence and the level of clarity he brings. I’m not sure how much coaching he’d be doing, it would be the messaging that comes from him.

“Whether you are as good as he makes you out to be, I know the confidence that he instills in you as a player and the belief that he puts into you as a player.

“You can’t give all the credit to him, this Down team has been building for a number of years under Conor, and he has a brilliant management team, but Tony is just a brilliant communicator.”

He continued: “He gets the absolute best out of you. He’s a straight-talker and if you’re not delivering on his message, he will absolutely let you know, but he helps to energise and bring positivity to any management team.

“Once you have that, it’s very easy for the players to understand it and deliver. It’s not complex when it comes to the style of football that he wants.

“I think that’s why you see his teams playing with a huge amount of skill but there’s always a work rate and a physicality about them as well. You can’t put it all on him, but I saw a lot of his traits in the way they beat Donegal.

“The last 20 minutes had Tony Mac written all over it, with the ruthless nature of the way they went for goals. They were working goals when they weren’t really on and you have to give them a lot of credit for that.”