Stephen O’Neill looks back on Tyrone winning Sam Maguire without losing a game in 2003 versus going the scenic route two years later. He spoke with Michael McMullan…

KERRY’S 2025 success was the eighth time in the 25 years since the All-Ireland revamp a team has welcomed Sam Maguire having lost in the championship during the season.

In that time, there have been different formats. The Super Eights. The group stages. The qualifiers.

It all started with Galway in 2001. After losing to Roscommon in Connacht, the late John O’Mahony steered the Tribesmen to glory.

They toppled the Rossies in the All-Ireland quarter-final on the way to winning the All-Ireland in the first year there was a ‘back door’ format. All four semi-finalists this year have lost a game.

Kerry (3), Tyrone (2), Armagh and Cork have all taken home the biggest prize since 2001 having stumbled along the way.

Former Tyrone star Stephen O’Neill has experienced both sides. There was the historic first, through the front door in 2003. Their 10-game odyssey two years later came after losing to Armagh.

He rejoined the squad for a late cameo in the 2008 season as the Red Hands recovered from losing to Down at the first hurdle.

O’Neill now coaches the county’s U20s and has started a new performance analysis company, Statson. He’s a man with a finger on the pulse.

He likes the new format and feels his native Tyrone will come back stronger after a strong championship showing this season.

Looking back to 2003, winning an All-Ireland was an absolute dream for O’Neill and Tyrone.

There was the influx of All-Ireland minor and U21 winners fused with the experienced heads who had been banging at the door.

“We had our ups and downs that year,” O’Neill recalls. “Down in the Ulster Final was a big scare for us.

“Going on to play Kerry, it was amazing just to get over them. They had been there or thereabouts as one of the teams to beat.”

There was the talk of ‘puke football’ but Tyrone were content with how well they played.

Then it was Armagh in the final, the defending champions.

“They were the two big scalps (Kerry and Armagh) and it’s always nice to beat the best teams, and thankfully we did that that year,” O’Neill said.

While Tyrone had another chance if Down turned them over in the Ulster final, the safety blanket was never anything the players considered. Competitors want to win every day.

It’s accepted that Ulster’s route was harder. Dublin had it their own way for many years while Cork sometimes gave Kerry a game of it.

“The thing with the Ulster Championship, if you’re not on it every game, you can get caught,” O’Neill said.

Not only that, but players risk knocks to play on. There isn’t the same opportunity to rotate the squad.

“No matter what people say about it, players still want to win their provincial championship,” he added.

When Galway won the 2001 All-Ireland, O’Neill looked on with regret having been beaten by Derry in the quarter-final after having beaten them previously in Ulster.

“You knew you were back in a real dogfight as Derry were one of the top teams in Ireland,” O’Neill said.

He throws names like Anthony Tohill, Enda Muldoon and Sean Marty Lockhart from their core of players. They were as good as anyone in the country.

Tyrone were Ulster champions. Rather than a fresh joust with someone down the country in Croke Park, it was a return to Clones six weeks after hitting three goals to knock Derry out of Ulster at the same venue.

“I always felt it gives the losing team that wee bit of a competitive advantage,” O’Neill said of playing the same team again.

Late strike

When Galway hit Derry with a late goal in the semi-final, O’Neill remembers thinking that it could’ve been Tyrone out there.

“They were two good teams and you had to take your medicine,” he added.

It was the same disappointment three years later when Mayo took away Tyrone’s All-Ireland title after the Red Hands had lost to Donegal in Ulster.

“That’s the thing about championship football,” O’Neill said. “You take your eye off the ball, you’re not prepared as well, you meet a team that just has that wee bit of form at the right time, you can be dumped out very handy.”

That was their 2004 story. Injuries. Not having the same ravenous hunger that hunted Kerry down the previous year. The sharpness wasn’t there and Tyrone were out.

By the following September, Tyrone were Kings of Ireland again but it was different. It took them 10 games. They crossed paths with Armagh three times. Replays were needed against both Cavan and Dublin as well.

While they didn’t need the safety net available to them in Ulster in 2003, the 2005 provincial final replay defeat to Armagh was different. It was a welcome olive branch.

O’Neill speaks of the devastation in the Tyrone dressing room in the bowels of Croke Park. It was an era when the Ulster decider had outgrown Clones.

“We were annoyed, we probably felt we should have won it the first day,” he said.

“Then the second day there was a couple of bad calls with the referee. Myself and Peter were sent off and we felt that really affected the game.”

Like against Mayo and Derry in previous years, Tyrone just had to take their oil.

“Mickey let us out for the night in Dublin which was probably a good thing,” he recalls.

“We had a good night’s craic, came up the road and we knuckled down.”

Of Tyrone’s 10 championship games in ’05, seven were in Croke Park and Mickey Harte knew the value of players being in each other’s company.

“He had a great knack of knowing what the team needed at a certain time,” O’Neill outlined.

“He always liked everybody eating together and just chatting. At that time, then after the disappointment of losing to Armagh he probably knew then that the boys needed a good night out.”

Tyrone refocused and were back in the trenches against Monaghan in Round Four of the Qualifiers.

It was a double scores win in the end but only after they rode their luck when the ship was letting in water.

“Pascal (McConnell) pulled off a couple of good saves from Tommy Freeman,” O’Neill recalls with photographic accuracy.

“At that stage we could have been eight or nine points down. That suddenly kick-started us.”

CROSSROADS…Armagh lost the 2024 Ulster final on penalties before bouncing back to win the All-Ireland later in the summer

Tyrone were back in their rhythm and drawing Dublin in the quarter-final made for a perfect focus. There were no more chances and the Dubs were among the big dogs.

“It was the draw that we needed,” O’Neill recalls. “As a footballer who wouldn’t want to play in Croke Park in front of 82,000 people.”

With the majority of those supporters decked in blue, it was a cauldron but it got the juices flowing.

“To play in an atmosphere like that, they’re the best memories that I have of my time,” he added.

“That noise from the Hill, it was just electric and we were very fortunate to be involved in those games.

“You look forward to playing Dublin every time because they bring such noise and atmosphere.”

After that magical Mulligan goal and a replay, Tyrone were in full flow. Every weekend seemed to bring a spin to Croke Park.

There wasn’t time for much training. The late Fergal McCann’s training sessions were short and sharp. Enough to sharpen the mind. The games were enough to keep the system tuned.

“It was just getting the energy levels up for the weekend again,” O’Neill added.

“It was very enjoyable to be part of it. Going down to Croke Park for what seemed like every other weekend, to play a big game, they were the best days of my career and I look back fondly on them.”

After beating Armagh in the All-Ireland semi-final, it set up another clash with Kerry.

Both teams were at their peak and hoovered up all but two titles across the noughties.

“After ’03, the whole talk was about puke football and Kerry getting ambushed, not being ready for it,” O’Neill points out.

“They had no excuses in ’05, so it was a real big showdown. I remember the media even dressing that up and the supporters were all talking about it.

“When you look back at some of the names involved, it was a brilliant game of football and played in the right spirit as well.”

It had everything you’d want in a game and Tyrone’s form came at the right time, enough to see them collect the biggest prize for a second time.

By the time Tyrone won the ’08 All-Ireland, again through the back door, O’Neill had been coaxed back into the fold. It was Kerry in the final again.

Looking back generally over Tyrone’s 2005 and ’08 All-Ireland wins, O’Neill sums up the value of the back door.

“Even now, it does give teams that second chance,” he said. Kerry, the way they’re playing their football now at the minute.

“In that first (All-Ireland) game, Donegal gave them a bit of a trouncing.

“It gives them a good kick up the backside and it did what Jack O’Connor probably was trying to warn them against.”

As someone now coaching teams, O’Neill recognises the value of defeat if it can be channelled properly. Talk is cheap. A losing dressing room always opens the eyes.

“The best team in Ireland will always come out on top,” O’Neill feels.

“The back door there is a wee cushion sometimes when they do need it.

“It allows them to regroup and get focused again. I do think it is a good opportunity and I like the way the format is at the minute.”

Sam Maguire will be won for the ninth time in 26 years later this month by a team who have experienced the deathly silence of a losing dressing room.

O’Neill never gave much to thought to how many teams have won Sam, needing a second chance, since Galway needed their 2001 safety blanket.

“I wouldn’t get hung up on where a team came from to win it,” he said.

“There are five or six teams that are capable on their day of winning it.

“Whether they won their province or came through the back door, I don’t think it makes a lot of difference.

“I just think timing, form and a wee bit of luck down the home stretch is hard to beat. There is very little between those top four or five teams.”

FIRST TIME…Galway won Sam through the back door in 2001, the first year when teams were given a second chance

*****
SAM Maguire will be won for a ninth time by a team who have lost during their summer crusade. Here is a look at the counties who took the scenic route to glory.

2001 – Galway

GALWAY were beaten by Roscommon in Connacht. After winning the rematch and seeing off Derry in the All-Ireland semi-final Sam was on his way back west.

2005 – Tyrone

IT took Tyrone 10 games to win the All-Ireland. After two games with Dublin in the quarter-final, Tyrone were back in the final to see off Kerry and win a second All-Ireland.

2006 – Kerry

CORK beat Kerry in Munster but it as Kerry who were left standing tallest by the end of the year. By the time they hit Longford with four goals, Kieran Donaghy changed the dimension at full forward.

2008 – Tyrone

DOWN knocked Tyrone out but the Red Hands Tyrone took their learnings of three years earlier on the way to a third title.

2009 – Kerry

CORK chinned Kerry in a Munster. The same teams then met in the All-Ireland final with the Kingdom taking home season’s biggest prize.

2010 – Cork

THE Rebels were beaten earlier in the campaign but Conor Counihan steered them in the rocky road back to Dublin and All-Ireland glory.

2024 – Armagh

WHEN Donegal edged Armagh in another Clones blockbuster, Kieran McGeeney’s side got back on the horse, all the way to winning a second All-Ireland.

2025 – Kerry

THE Kingdom were beaten by Meath in last season’s All-Ireland group stages. There was a gnashing of teeth but Kerry came back to empathically win title number 39.

2026 – ???

ALL four teams heading to HQ for this weekend’s semi-finals have lost a game but who’ll land Sam?