“Stevie McDonnell was really hurt that they didn’t stay close. It’s really sad’

ONE OF the most fascinating bits of Kings for A Day comes towards the end, when Steven McDonnell laments how the 2002 Armagh-winning All-Ireland side fell apart over the years.

During their heyday in the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was a ‘club Armagh’ feel to the group.

There was even an unwritten rule, according to book author Niall McCoy, that County players did not fight when arguments broke out in the fiery Club Championship.

To become the first county side to lift the Sam Maguire, the Armagh side needed to have close friendships and a close bond. But 20 years later, McDonnell is struggling to organize meetings and trips for the men who took the county on this glorious odyssey.

He has seen Down All-Ireland winning teams from 1991 and 1994 meet regularly for golf days and wonders why Armagh is any different.

“It’s annoying because when you look back it was one of the tightest groups of players you’ve ever met,” McDonnell says in the book. “Everyone has their life to live, but I would always be one to have regular meetings if possible. It’s always the same handful of boys who attend these events.

“Some boys don’t tend to get started and that’s disappointing because every time we get together it’s always great. We probably drifted.

“We have a WhatsApp group that includes all the players, it’s a group of players, there’s no management, but some stay on the periphery. It’s part and parcel of retiring and staying away from the game. »

Increased efforts have been made in recent years and the majority of the group attended a recent event in Lurgan to mark the 20th anniversary of their victory in All-Ireland.

Still after years of failure and near-misses, it’s curious that winning a Celtic Cross together hasn’t shaped a permanent bond in the group.

“It was pretty sad,” says McCoy Le42. “I met Stevie for a bite to eat and we talked about it. He was really hurt that they didn’t stay close. Certainly different people stayed close, but as a group they didn’t really stay close .

“Stevie was saying he tried WhatsApp and different things and there were people leaving the group and not talking. It sort of got away.

He believes club rivalries may be one of the reasons. Another could be the remarkable number of players who stayed in the game as coaches. Of the 30 players on the panel in 2002, 25 went on to coach across 10 counties, over 30 clubs, five sports, three continents and two universities.

Oisin McConville takes on Tomás Ó Sé in the 2002 All-Ireland Final.

Source: INPHO

Oisin McConville recently became the seventh player to hold an inter-county managerial role.

“So they’re a busy bunch in terms of involvement with other teams, so maybe they’re losing touch with that main team that they were with,” McCoy explains.

“It’s quite sad. I will say that one of the things that Oisin talked about was that in the last few years he really tried to talk to the boys that he may have lost ground with.

“I hope a few others have done the same. I remember Aidan O’Rourke saying that Oisin had phoned him out of the blue a year or two ago to say, “I watched the 2002 final and never realized how you were good in this game.”

Much mystique still surrounds the team which many credit with bringing inter-county play into the professional era. The Armagh team was full of inspiring leaders and unique characters.

The book dives deep into the history of Armagh, from the early 90s, as they watched three other groundbreaking hits by Sam Maguire in Ulster.

Armagh’s spell was filled with failures and near misses, both before and after their maiden All-Ireland win.

For a team that has won seven Ulster titles in 10 years, should they have won more than just one All-Ireland?

“I know for a lot of players it’s something that’s going to eat them up. Some of them have made peace with it, but I know for some players it’s something that annoys them and will annoy them. still.

“At the end of the day, they are winners from all over Ireland. It would have been nice to win more, but that’s the main thing, that they got the Celtic Cross. Because they were so close on so many occasions. In 2002, Kerry was the best team and luck went with them that year.

“At least they have one, otherwise it would be a modern Mayo story in all reality. The story of near-misses and near-chances. The number of All-Irelands they lost to a broken ball… from 1999 to 2005 they really could have won all of the All-Irelands.

He gets several interesting insights from left-field sources.

One is from a man wearing a Down jersey who was among the first to rush onto the pitch when they beat Kerry in the 2002 final.

“The first to break down the barricade. So I managed to find him and he was good craic, he told me how he ended up in a Down jersey. He’s a huge Down fan. He said he was chasing his daughter in the field so I’m not convinced. I think he’s just caught up in the moment.

Then there’s Shane Smyth of Annaghmore, whose only season on the county panel came in 2002, of all years.

They faced Fermanagh in the Ulster semi-final that summer and Armagh comfortably led in the 55th minute when Paddy McKeever was substituted for Cathal O’Rourke.

But O’Rourke got injured and Smyth looked certain to make his debut.

“I was the only other option left, but they handed over Paddy,” he recalled.

“There were just a few minutes left and the game was won, and Paddy scored a point so you couldn’t argue with that, but people were saying, ‘You’re next here’, so I went out and I warmed up but it was Paddy who came.

“That was the message for me: you’re going to be the little player if even that. I didn’t consider leaving the panel at all…even when people told me to leave.

McCoy takes up the story: “He never played a minute. He was number 30 and he was on the Armagh panel in 2002 and he was never there again. It was therefore interesting to have his point of view.

“He wasn’t a playing member, he never played a minute for Armagh in his life but still has an All-Ireland medal. He readily admits it wasn’t the same. He says in the showers After the game, the first thing he said was, “I can’t wait to start in 2003 and try.” And then he was dropped, so he never had that chance in the end.

Kings for a Day, the story of Armagh and their 2002 journey to Sam Maguire, is available to buy from all good bookshops and online.