Chris Lawn – For the sake of Tyrone

ON the morning of the 2005 All-Ireland final, Chris Lawn took a walk with Peter Canavan to discuss what they were going to do after the final whistle.

The two men had been part of the Tyrone set up for over a decade and had seen the highs and the lows. But that morning they agreed that no matter what happened at Croke Park that day, that final would be their last game for the county.

Lawn said that his retirement from county football was a great relief.

“The minute I stopped football I looked at the heavens and I said ‘thank God that’s over.’ I never missed it from the day I quit.”

To understand why Lawn felt relief is to understand the man himself.

“In 2005 I was fortunate to get on that panel. I kept getting injuries back then and there was no consistency in my game. And my nerves were killing me playing at full-back.

“It wasn’t like nowadays when you have 11 men in front of you. At the age of 32 or 33 I was trying to go one-on-one against 19- and 20-year-olds like Alan Brogan or Conal Keaney, even Dan Gordon, who were coming in fresh.

“You were trying to do that on an isolated one-on-one basis. I was just so relieved to get it over with.”

Nerves were an interesting facet of Lawn’s character. But they were not a sign of weakness.

“It didn’t matter if it was a challenge match for Moortown or an All-Ireland final for Tyrone, I always got the nerves. Particularly towards the last three or four years of my career.

“I had serious problems with groin issues, osteoporosis as well. I was not sure that it would go in the first five minutes or I would last 70 minutes. That was the biggest fear.”

By way of explanation, Lawn was a full-back and always was a full-back. That is a position that is the last line of defence after the goalkeeper.

“My career was in a time where you are never going to express yourself.

“You were there to do a job. There was isolation at times.

“Football was evolving and you had corner-backs who were away getting forward. Next thing you are left with a two-on-two situation where you are left with acres of space. If that move broke down up the field then you could be in trouble.”

What Lawn felt was responsibility for his team. He had a big role to play on the teams he played for, and that’s where the nerves came from.

“People are sometimes surprised that I say that I get nervous, but it is a fact. People who say they don’t get nervous before a match, they are the ones that I worry about. Maybe I am from a different era. Maybe it is a good thing that they were confident.

“I had a career of 15 or 16 years at inter-county level and I was still getting nervous.

“There is a difference between nerves and confidence. There were times when I was absolutely confident that we were going to win certain games. But I was still nervous. The mixture was always there. You feed off the nerves. It sharpens you.”

The nerves came from wanting to make sure the team succeeds. He just didn’t want to let anyone down.

The importance of the team, and supporting his team-mates, was learnt as a child when he played for Moortown at u-12 level. He and his brother Stephen, who also had a good career with the county, spent many days at the school field or club pitch.

“There was nothing else to do. It was like your boy from Kilcoo (Aaron Branagan), there was football and farming. Down here there was football and fishing.

“We enjoyed gathering together with 10-12 other lads. They were coming from different estates and that created some competitiveness.”

Lawn found success early with the club, as they were winning tournaments at underage level. That success led them to believe that they could win the sort of titles that their neighbours Ardboe and Ballinderry had been winning.

“Ardboe had had great success. Ballinderry there are a phenomenal club. We were sandwiched in the middle. We said to ourselves that maybe we could do something similar.

“Our Moortown minor team won the Minor Championship in 1990. I think eight of us started in the 1992 (senior) final. It shows you there was a natural progression for the group.”

Lawn began his career as a full-back. He said that he played there because he “couldn’t kick back doors.”

But perhaps the management realised that he had other talents that suited a full-back.

“I would be vocal on a field. I wouldn’t shout against another team, I would only shout for the team. I am the same now if I watch football. I don’t shout against the other team. I just shout for my own.

“I had a great relationship with my club goalkeeper, Rab Conway. He kept me right. He was my eyes.

“I am sure people say that I was a mouthpiece. But it was always for the team. There were times when I overstepped the mark. But it wasn’t about stripping their dignity. It was just that you knew that fella was better than his marker.”

Lawn said that he wanted the team to play to their potential, and he also felt that pressure to play as good as he could. That’s why he was nervous throughout his career.

“It was the thought of letting the team down. That was maybe why I was vocal.”

Lawn also revealed another aspect of his character when he spoke about getting the best out of teams. He said that in Gaelic football, what is most important is the team.

“If you don’t have 26-28 players you don’t have anything. You need them. I see people talking about not really winning things. They say, I got a medal but I didn’t really win it because I didn’t get on that day. That grinds my gears. You did something to contribute and that’s the way that you should feel.

“If you just happened to be lucky enough to get on when the cup was presented that is only one part of it. If you were there for training, team meetings, blowing off steam – that is vital.

“I know that I can say that because I got on the field on the occasions when we won. But I would still be happy if I hadn’t.”

Lawn said that Dublin are the perfect example of this.

“They have brilliant players, but they don’t have a panel of exceptionally gifted players. They have people who want to be there. That is from the start. You look at Derry. They have great players in their county, but do they want to be there?

“Look at Tyrone, you have fellas who are in and out of the panel. We have all seen brilliant players who can put a ball over from the sideline. But when it comes to the tougher stuff you have to have players who want it.

“People can say that they (Dublin) get everything but I don’t know. I would say that Dublin put as much work in as anybody.”

The lesson of the team being greater than the sum of its parts was learnt in 1992 in Tyrone when they won the Senior Championship, with the help of Lawn and the rest of those minor championship winners.

“Moortown is such a small community. We fight and scrap for everything. Immigration would have hit us hard. We were always dealing with a skeleton.”

Yet in 1992, they went on an incredible run.

“Chris Brown (the manager) was a massive addition. At that time he was 10 years ahead of anything we had seen in coaching.

“We knew we were a decent team, but we had been beaten by Coalisland by 20 points in the 1991 championship. Chris came in and brought us to a new level. We really enjoyed our football. The way he spoke, he didn’t mince his words.

“He brought a different level of the way you thought about it. Boys might have been working on sites. He would say, ‘don’t lift too many blocks today boys. Get some of them other boys to give you a hand’. Simple wee things like that.

“He made you feel important. He made everyone feel the same.”

On their way to the final, Moortown beat Trillick. Clonoe and Carrickmore.

“I knew if we beat Carrickmore that we weren’t going to get beat in the final. At that stage Dromore had not won a championship for a long time. They had more doubts in their head. I knew if we got to the final we were going to be hard to beat. Chris Brown made me believe that. I would say of that team, there were at least 11 who were under 25. That’s a source of hurt. We were so young but did not push on.”

Winning the county title was huge for the club, and they could have possibly won more that season if they had been more tuned in.

“It’s the relief first and then there is the euphoria. This place went crazy. Then we had a great tussle with Lavey that year (in the Ulster Club Championship). We went to Ballinascreen to play them. They beat us by one or two points. We realised too late that we could have pushed on. That was down to experience.

“After 1992, we should have won more. But we were coming up against a budding Errigal and Carrickmore. They dominated for the next 10 years. Though we had a decent chance to win the 1993 final.”

Lawn was enjoying an incredible time as a footballer. Not only was he a county champion, he also won back-to-back All-Ireland U-21 titles with Tyrone under the stewardship of Danny Ball. He was brought onto the Tyrone senior team in 1991. A great experience for him.

“It was brilliant. I would have loved the team of the mid 80s. The ’84 and ’86 teams. John Lynch, Noel McGinn, Kevin McCabe, Damian O’Hagan, Raymond Munroe and Seanie Meyler. These were fellas that you had watched and now you were training with them.

“I remember training with them in Omagh. John Donnelly got me in. I remember going for a ball and John Lynch just completely emptied me. I thought that was brilliant.

“I couldn’t believe that he had done it, but I thought it was brilliant. He hit me fair and square and it was like hitting a brick wall as he is such a tough guy.

“At that point I realised I needed to toughen up. It was a compliment to get that. I went home to mammy and said ‘guess who hit me today, big John Lynch’.”

Yet after the first season as a Tyrone senior, the heavy schedule of club, county u-21 and senior took its toll and Lawn decided to take a break from football.

“Between club and county I was playing a fair bit. I had come through u-21s and seniors with the club, and we won the 1991/1992 All-Ireland with the u-21s with Tyrone. 1992 was a big year with the club. I went to America at the end of that.

“I had to take a few years away from the football.

“I had no energy for it. It seemed constant. I didn’t want it at that stage.

“Going away for a while was phase I had to go through. I was glad I got it out of my system.”

Perhaps going away from it helped him realise how much he missed playing. But at the end of 1993, Lawn’s attitude changed dramatically as Art McRory and Eugene McKenna took over the senior team.

“Eugene McKenna was my idol as a footballer, but Art McRory was my idol as a manager. He was one of the biggest influences on my career.

“Once he came knocking I wasn’t just in, I was all in.”

Lawn said that it was McRory’s man-management style that set him apart. McRory understood the needs of all his players and how to meet them.

McRory and McKenna would lead Tyrone on a great run in 1995. They beat Cavan in the Ulster final after putting Derry away by a point in the semi-final.

“Beating Derry was massive for us. That ranks up there with one of my best days.

“Derry had their All-Ireland in their back pocket. Some of them boys would have let you know about it too.

“It was the hot day, and I can remember the two fellas getting sent off. I can remember the performance of Canavan, and Jody (Gormley) stepping up to stick the ball over the bar. And then the celebrations. It had everything.”

Tyrone beat Galway 1-13 to 0-13 in the All-Ireland semi-final. Lawn marked Val Daly that day.

“He was a class act. Val Daly wouldn’t have had a pile of movement. But he got the ball.”

That win set up the decider with Dublin at Croke Park. On All-Ireland final day Lawn had to mark Jason Sherlock.

“He was the pin-up boy. He was box office. He was a big TV personality. He was never off the TV. He carried himself so well. I never heard any controversy. I have bumped into him since and he is very humble and modest.

“We relied a lot on Peter (Canavan) in those days. And (Adrian) Cush getting injured in the run up to the 1995 final. He would have been a massive part of us.

“Plunkett Donaghy done his knee in 1994. He would have been good to have around in 1995. We needed a couple of extra things to bring us through.”

There were some important lessons learned in that era. The first was that his fitness wasn’t right.

“Around the 95/96 seasons I went to America and I had a summer of Lay’s Crisps and pizza. I came back and I remember I was playing in a National League game. Some reporter described me as ‘Tyrone’s burly full-back Chris Lawn’.

“I realised I needed to get something done. I stayed in shape after that and was in good shape.”

He needed to be in good shape in order to mark the many different forwards that he came up against at the top level.

Lawn explained that as a county defender, you must learn how to work out your opponent.

“There were players that you could figure out straight away. They like to run straight out. Or others to play behind. There was more till it than guesswork.

“But there were boys that I could never figure out. Even lads at the club. They could be away and I was baffled.

“They were all different. Sherlock was a busy bee. Fintan Cahill loved to run at you. Seamus Downey loved to make space and pull you out. Brian Carty from Fermanagh was a big lad who was hungry for the ball.”

There were many lessons to learn, and many characters to work out.

He enjoyed the challenge. But he also found that being a Tyrone star had other benefits.

Playing in America was a fond memory for Lawn. He said that he would often get calls to play for Tyrone in New York and that was an experience in itself.

“I would play a league match for the club on Friday evening. I’d go down to Dublin on a Saturday morning. You’d meet boys at the airport in New York. They would take you straight to the bar, you had a good night of drinking, then on Sunday you would go to play a match in Gaelic Park in 40-degree heat.

“Gaelic Park on a Sunday, the first game would be 12 noon. There was a full day of action. Ladies football, junior, intermediate.

“Then you would race to get the plane back home. Then you would be standing back in the factory in Monday morning. Boys wouldn’t believe you. There were no pictures.

“It was like going out to meet friends. You knew you were going out for a bit of craic. And you played decent football.”

After the 1995 season, Tyrone players returned to the clubs, and while they were frustrated, Lawn felt that there was more to come.

“In 1996 I thought we were a better balanced team to go on ahead. We breezed through Ulster and then met Meath but that was a slaughtering match. We were level or a point down coming into the last five minutes. ‘Dinky’ (Ciaran McBride) hit the crossbar, but they ran away with it after that.”

The 1996 season was a dark time for the county. It was going to be hard for them to recover from that loss as they had not achieved their potential.

“I do remember there was a few finger wagging sessions. A few boys thought that they should have got a run, rightly or wrongly. That’s not for me to say. It wasn’t the best feeling. After losing the game then you had boys taking it out on the coach. I am sure that happens all the time. I just wanted to get up the road and get out the way. You went back in to work and you had a few of my Derry friends who had clips up, letting me know the score.”

Lawn said that the Tyrone team went on a period of transition from 1997 to 2001.

What he learned during that period is that a team can only be successful if they want to be there.

It reinforced his belief that a team is much more than the 15 starters.

“I don’t know if we had players there who wanted to be there. Were they playing just for the tracksuit? There was an element of that.

“Maybe all players weren’t buying into it. A couple of clubs had fallen out with each other. There was a melee at a club championship match. There were cliques gathered. It spilled into the county team.

“For one reason or another, there wasn’t the harmony there that had been there. When you see that you can see that there would be trouble.

“But I just wanted to play for Tyrone.”

So Lawn stuck out that difficult period and in 2001, Art McRory and Eugene McKenna came riding to the rescue.

“Tyrone should be eternally grateful to them men. They came back in in 2001. We won the Ulster Championship in 2001. Derry beat us in the backdoor and probably could have got to the final that year.”

Then the following season, Lawn felt that things got even better for Tyrone.

“We played Cork on Easter Sunday. We took three days in University of Limerick. We stayed where Munster Rugby stayed. This was our La Manga. We had our own room, proper training diets, we had pool sessions. We did a month’s training in three days. I thought it was brilliant.

“You could see that Art was embracing the change of teams taking weekends away.”

Lawn also remembers how his role was changing, and he was seen as one of the older players. He said that McRory recognised that.

“We were getting ready for National League semi-final. We were training in Augher and Sean Healy from Omagh was the masseuse.

“I was having a decent year but was starting to pull up with the groin. So anyway, we were in Augher, and I was jogging round, getting ready. Art called me over and I thought I was in trouble. He said to me, ‘what are you doing’. I said, ‘I’m getting ready’. He said, ‘You know this is going to be a tough one’. I said, ‘Aye, so what?’ He said, ‘you go in there, into Sean, and you relax’.

“He knew I was in great shape, and he knew that I didn’t need to do the dogging session.”

However, despite the team being in great shape, disaster was coming.

Those disasters were Tyrone’s exits from Ulster and the All-Ireland. They lost to Armagh by 2-13 to 0-16. Then in the backdoor they were dealt a 1-14 to 0-12 defeat at the hand of Sligo.

“In 2002, Sligo was a disaster for that group, and for the management.

“The reaction wasn’t good when we were beat by Sligo and Art and Eugene bore the brunt of it.

“I don’t know if county board and management were getting on as well as they could have been. So that was a chance.”

So out went Art McRory and Eugene McKenna, and in came Mickey Harte.

It wasn’t a major surprise.

“Mickey coming in was the natural changing of the guard.

“He had been with the minor and u-21 teams and they were winning All-Irelands. Then you had lads coming in like ‘Hub’ (Kevin Hughes), and the two McGinleys (Enda and Cormac), Conor Gormley, Cormac (McAnallen). Them boys were doing the business. For us to see this, we knew there were exciting times coming.”

It took a trip to the Canary Islands to gel the group together. The holiday was a reward for winning the National League, but it had a great effect on Lawn, and created the team spirit that he always knew was important.

“I will say that that was the best thing that happened that group.

“We had one of the best weeks ever. It was the best team holiday I was on. That was in December 2002. Then we were getting ready for 2003.

“That trip was the making of that panel. We were looking at the younger lads and wondering what sort of characters they were. They were probably looking at us older boys thinking the same.

“Once we got together we realised that we were all up for the craic but we wanted to do the work as well. It wasn’t meant to be a team bonding, but that’s what it was. There was craic every night. From we got to Aldergrove airport, it never stopped.

“I can remember the lads playing Spanish boys in soccer. We watched the Tyrone boys running rings round them. The Spanish boy touched ‘Ricey’ and ‘Ricey’ rolled round and screamed out for the referee. The Spanish boys didn’t know what was going on. Then any time the Tyrone boys scored they would run and celebrate and jump into the sea. The Spanish boys were going mad.

“It was brilliant. It seemed like every other training session there was something going on.”

Lawn also learned that he had a new role on the team. As one of the senior players he became one of guides for the younger lads.

“Mickey gave us the freedom, he would get us to check out to see if boys had been out at the weekend or that sort of thing. He told us to have a word with them. That was down to man-management. Mickey, like Art, was the boss.”

Tyrone won the league at a canter in 2003, and they got straight back to work to get ready for the Ulster Championship.

Tyrone beat Derry and Antrim before pitching up against Down in the final.

The first game, the drawn one, is remembered for Down’s four goals. Lawn bore the brunt of the criticism for those goals. He’s since watched the game and he reckons that he was treated unfairly.

“I still get pilloried for it. Down scored four goals and the big story was the full-back line. But what people don’t realise is that I wasn’t to be full-back that day. I was to be right corner-back and I had my own brief.

“I think big Collie Holmes was hurt in the warm-up. So I was moved over to mark Dan Gordon. So I am standing 5’10”, against whatever he is. I knew that this was going to be interesting.

“I watched that game a couple of weeks ago, and there was no way that I was at fault for those four goals.

“Now, I could have done better for one of them, but they walked the ball in for two of them. I was at a standing start to compete against Dan Gordon for whatever height he is, 6’4”. The sums didn’t add up. Don’t get me wrong. I take full responsibility. I was happy, let them put the heat on me because that meant that none of the younger boys took any of the criticism.

“I knew where we were going, I knew I was happy to be part of it. I don’t want any profile. I was fit to take the hit.”

But the warning sign was there. Lawn realised that he was on the wrong side of 30, carrying a number of injuries, and worried that he couldn’t keep up with younger faster forwards. It is no wonder that he was nervous.

Yet he stuck it out, as there was great potential there. But there were other concerns.

Tyrone met Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final.

“I mind Sean Canavan, Peter’s father, passed away in the week before. That deflected our attention. We realised there are more important things.

“I can remember talking to Peter and telling him that we would understand if he didn’t start. He even trained after the funeral. Thank God we had Peter on the day too.

“It was a test of the character and the boys came through at the finish.

“The move of Cormac into full-back was brilliant. That was the solid foundation for the rest of the year.”

Harte also had Tyrone primed to take on the Kingdom.

“Kerry was one of Mickey’s finest hours. He put it into our heads, if you let them saunter through and not tackle, they could make a laughing stock of you.

“The boys weren’t going to let that happen.

“It was a case of upping the work-rate. That was the forwards as well.”

Lawn also remembers that there was a great attention to detail as well.

Making sure that the whole team could sing the Amhrán na Bhfiann was important.

“Michaela was instrumental in helping with the national anthem. We were word perfect. My brother watched it on TV, he said that he watched every man belting out the national anthem. Every man. He said, ‘I’d never seen that before’.

“That was one of the masterstrokes.”

Tyrone went on to win by 0-13 to 0-6 and they were back in the All-Ireland final.

“There were five weeks between the semi-final and final. That was a long wait. Peter had been injured. That was a focus, a will-he-or-won’t-he situation. I knew Peter was hurt. He’d told me as much up in Dunmoyle. He told me it wasn’t good but we had to keep it under wraps.

“Just Peter, Mickey and the medical staff knew.”

Up against their rivals Armagh, this was a serious game for Tyrone.

“Armagh were All-Ireland champions. They knew what it took to win one particularly considering that they had beaten Kerry.

“It was a local rivalry but I wouldn’t say that we were concerned. When we had the likes of Stevie O’Neill coming off the bench kicking some superb scores, and Conor’s block was the nail in the coffin.

“I was only on in injury time, it was a lovely gesture. It was nice to be on. I was only representing the panel.”

The feeling after winning that final was spectacular for Lawn, who had been battling for Tyrone for over a decade.

“There was relief at the end. Whatever supporters we have had, they can say that they have seen it. Going back to Omagh was crazy. I have not seen anything like it.

“It was mad afterwards, first time winners of an All-Ireland will find it hard to win back-to-back. You are not ready for it. Taking the cup round clubs and primary schools. Travelling away to places like Dubai, San Francisco. It is complete mayhem.”

The Tyrone players’ joy soon disappeared though when they discovered that Cormac McAnallen had died in his sleep in March 2004.

“Cormac was a once in a lifetime guy. He was such a respectable character. He was an absolute leader who led by actions. You couldn’t get more of a genuine player. He could dish it out if it was needed.”

Lawn remembers the very day that he discovered the tragedy.

“I was lying in bed, I lived in Ballyronan at the time. The phone rang at seven in the morning. My wife Nuala answered the phone to ‘Peter’. Nuala has an uncle called Peter. Her tone dropped. She looked round at me. She said: ‘I’ll let him know’. Turned out it was Peter Canavan. She says to me ‘Cormac is dead’. I said, ‘no no, you have got to be joking’.

“I got showered then went to work. But I got to work and I was like ‘what am I doing in work’. The boys said to me ‘is it true?’ Then I realised I needed to get home. I needed to talk to someone. My head wasn’t right.

“We were called to Kelly’s Inn. It was going global. The news was everywhere. This was one of our own.”

What happened was a whirlwind of emotions.

The Tyrone county board organised a guard of honour for Cormac. Armagh did likewise. But Lawn couldn’t deal with the loss.

“Football seemed irrelevant that year. It would have been lovely to win that year but it was a big ask.”

At the end of 2004 Lawn considered retirement. He had his All-Ireland medal, and the loss of Cormac was hard to take. He was also recovering from surgery to rectify a groin issue.

But something inside told him that he had needed to do his bit for the team, and for Tyrone.

“At the tail end of 2004 the trials for Tyrone came up, and I said to myself that I would go to the trials.

“Mickey came over and said it was great to see me up. An established player turning up to trials was notable.

“I wanted to see if I was good enough to be on the panel. Often you would go to the trials and there were good players who think they are going to make it on the county squad. They don’t have the mindset.

“I went up to the trials and came through it very comfortably. I was handling myself more than well.

“It was also an element of trying to prove the level you have to be at to get on the panel. I think some boys think it is easy. But it wasn’t just me (from the established players) who was there. There were other boys there as well. I wanted to see if I could do it, and thankfully I could.”

That performance earned Lawn a place on the McKenna Cup panel. He did well enough there to book a place on the National League squad.

But Lawn still wasn’t sure if he was going to make it.

“I had a bit of a meeting with Mickey. We were due to go to Cork for a game in the National League. But I had been dropped for the previous game.

“I rang him and asked if I could have a chat. So I went up to his house. I asked him if it was worth my while sticking in there and going down. I had done all that travelling before.

“Mickey said to me, ‘I am not putting you or anyone off the panel. I know you will you make your own decision but if you aren’t there for the bus, then I’ll know you have made your decision.’

“I went home and stewed, and talked to the wife.

“I decided that I would go, and I went to the bus, and went to Cork. It was a decent bit of man-management. I am eternally grateful.”

Lawn said that Tyrone’s 2005 season had a different mood. Tony Donnelly had been brought into the management team.

“He was at a more of a level with the players. He would craic and chat with the players. Our fitness levels were very good. The commitment of the group was very strong. That forward line would scare anyone. We knew there was real potential.

“We played Wexford in a National League semi-final and they beat us. That wasn’t expected. We went to Greenmount for a few days to do some training. We watched that game back in the auditorium. You could see Mickey was thinking that Armagh won the National League and we should have been there. He was getting in the zone and he let us know in no uncertain terms that we should have been in the zone as well.

“He had switched from league to championship. The training switched after that. It was brutal.”

So the championship came along, and Tyrone started with a win over Down. Peter Canavan returned to the squad.

Lawn was not a regular starter, but the meeting with Harte helped, and he was getting regular game-time.

Cavan took them to a replay, but Tyrone hammered them in the second game. That set up the Ulster final against Armagh, which was fixed for Croke Park.

Tyrone lost the replay to Armagh, but beat Dublin in the quarter-final, Armagh in the semi-final and then met Kerry in the final.

“We had played 10 games (in 2005) and seven were in Croke Park.

“I played at some point in every game that year. I played the full Ulster and had a horrible game against Monaghan. From then I got on and got the first game against Dublin, then I got a toasting against Alan Brogan. I was hauled off. That’s what a panel is for.”

The Kerry final was Lawn’s final game. And it was a special one to remember. He thinks that Mickey probably knew that it would be his last game, and so he got a run out at the end.

“This was epic stuff. There were mistakes made but it was up and down. It had everything. Big Joe (McMahon) got a bad knock and I came on for him. Things went all right when I did get in.

“Tomás Ó Sé rattled the net with a brilliant goal and it was down to the last few minutes.”

Lawn said that the second All-Ireland title was special.

“It sticks out in the mind, to be the more satisfying one. A good team wins an All-Ireland and a great team wins two.”

It was also important because it was his last game for Tyrone.

“I knew I was retiring after that game. Me and Peter walked the golf course that morning. We had a chat that we were quitting whatever happened. I had nothing to lose.

“I ran for the hills after that. Thank God.

“If anyone ever asks me I said I had no regrets. I had a fortunate career, with the teams that I played on, and won the things that I won.”

The relief was that he no longer had to worry about the younger faster players, or that his groin might give up at a crucial time.

Lawn, it must be remembered, only ever cared about the team doing well.

Perhaps a great way to sum him up is his attitude to his 1995 All-Star nomination.

“It was nice to get the nomination. And to get away on the trip. Paddy Christie from Dublin, a man I admire, got the All-Star ahead of me. I didn’t lose out to no bad one.

“It would have been nice to get it because our club doesn’t have an All-Star. Ardboe have All-Stars. Moy have a record in All-Stars. Hopefully we might have one in the next few years.”

For Lawn, it was always a matter of worrying about the team first, and himself second.

r.scott@gaeliclife.com