Shaun Casey looks back on the Armagh team that won their one and only All-Ireland U-21 crown back in 2004

THE noughties truly were the glory days for a generation of lucky Armagh followers as the Orchard County achieved an unprecedented level of success, both in Ulster and on the national stage, at various levels.

It seemed like every year was a historic one and the Armagh u-21s chalked off another box on the ‘first time’ list in 2004, becoming the first Armagh team to win the All-Ireland Championship at that grade.

Not only that, but a number of the star-studded line up went on to have sparkling careers with Armagh and at club level. A few of them have even gone into the coaching game since hanging up the boots. Of the first 15 that defeated Mayo in the All-Ireland u-21 final at Kingspan Breffni, four players earned starting jerseys the following season as Armagh claimed a historic three in-a-row of Ulster titles at senior level.

Andy Mallon had started the 2003 All-Ireland final and went on to become one of Armagh’s best ever defenders. Aaron Kernan and Ciaran McKeever followed suit. Finnian Moriarty, Paul Duffy, Malachy Mackin and Brian Mallon all had dazzling county careers.

“The likes of Andy Mallon were all flying,” recalls Shane O’Neill, the hero in the final, but we’ll get to that later. “Everybody was chomping at the bit, so you were lucky to get that starting jersey.

“You look at the team and the boys that went on to cement themselves at senior intercounty level, who were big players for our county for many years after that, and we had those leaders all over the field.

“We had the two Kernans (Stephen and Aaron) and Finn Mo in defence. Our defence just got their job done and any man that came in and had a role to play. Everybody knew their role and that’s probably testament to the job the management did”

O’Neill continued: “Even at in-house trainings, everybody was pushing each other and driving the whole thing on. We probably underachieved at underage level previously with the minors, it was knockout so you could have one game and you were gone.

“Who knows what could have happened if the structures were a wee bit different back then. It was knockout and that was it, but that’s maybe why we got so much out of that (u-21) victory and that campaign.”

A fairly large pebble in their shoe was old neighbours Tyrone. The Red Hands had just defeated Armagh to claim the Sam Maguire Cup for the very first time and a new wave of Tyrone stars were emerging at u-21 level as they aimed for a fifth Ulster title in-a-row.

Like Armagh, it was a Tyrone team filled with talent that would go on to represent the county at senior level for years to come. Dermot Carlin. Martin Penrose. Mark Donnelly and Peter Donnelly. But the showstopper was Sean Cavanagh.

Cavanagh was crowned Young Footballer of the Year in 2003 and if the Armagh youngsters were to have a chance of making it through to an Ulster final, the Moy midfielder needed stopped. And Peter Rafferty, the Orchard manager, knew just the man for the job.

“Tyrone seniors had just won the All-Ireland in 2003 and Sean Cavanagh was becoming a household name,” explains Orchard forward Ronan Austin. “He would have been the biggest threat, but Peter was shrewd, and he put Shane ‘Wavin’ O’Neill on him.

“He never gave Cavanagh a kick of it. That game went to extra-time and Cavanagh was anonymous throughout. ‘Wavin’ had a brilliant game on him and fair play to Peter as well for recognising that as a good match-up for us.”

On picking up Cavanagh, O’Neill added: “Obviously at that stage he was already a big, big player for Tyrone, so I was just given the task of, everywhere he went, I went.

“Everybody had their role in the team and that was what Peter wanted me to do. The whole team’s performance that day was excellent and we came out the other end of it.”

He continued: “We knew about Cavanagh’s drive going forward, his late runs, he made Tyrone tick at that time. I had a decent enough engine in me, and I just wanted to be that bit of a spoiler and stay on his tail the whole game.

“I was told to be a nuisance and that’s one thing I could control if all else failed – just be a pest the whole game and that’s basically what happened. We had boys all round the park that could do the business and we all clicked.”

If O’Neill came away from that one with a mountain of credit banked, then Austin was the main man in the Ulster final. It was a day where everything went right and Armagh demolished Derry, with two first-half goals from Austin paving the way.

“The game even back then was all diagonal, direct ball in. You got the right ball in on top of Austie on the square, he was lethal,” described O’Neill. “Himself and Mickey McNamee, the two boys playing off each other, they were a great combination.

“If Austie wasn’t catching it, he’d tap it down and Mickey Mac was coming round and getting it. The two boys caused havoc very early in the game and it gave us then a real good platform because Derry had to come out.

“We had a good defensive structure – McKeever was centre half-back and you could go right across the team, there were leaders all over the squad. I would say getting the Tyrone monkey off our back helped.

“Derry had actually beat us in a minor league final a year or two previous to that as well, so we knew that group too. We got off to a very good start and we were disciplined enough in our performance, and it turned out to be a very prolific win.”

On his partnership with McNamee, Austin clarified how the full-forward line operated that season: “Brian Mallon (corner-forward) played out around the middle, so it was me and Mickey in there and there were no sweepers or anything like that.”

With Armagh’s second ever u-21 Ulster title safely tucked away, the squad faced into a huge four-month gap until their next outing. Talk about a split season. Next up were Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final, but unfortunately for O’Neill, the lengthy break did him no favours.

The Dromintee man suffered from osteoporosis, a hip injury, and spent most of the summer rehabbing the knock and battling back to full fitness. Ultimately, he came up short and with a squad as competitive as Armagh’s, someone stepped up right away to snatch his jersey.

“I picked up an injury after the Ulster final and I thought I would be back in time, but I couldn’t shift it. I spent most of the summer rehabbing and I never got back. (Gareth) ‘Nippy’ Swift came into midfield, and he was a great addition to the team.

“We had months to wait for a fairly big, physical Cork team and for the lads to even try and manage that time and to keep us all together was difficult. Obviously a lot of us would have been playing club football at the time so keeping the group together was tough.

“But in saying that, the whole thing gelled really well and maybe that extra few months just gave us time to really prepare well for the semi-final and the boys did a good job.”

On the long layoff, Austin continued: “In a way, it was like two different seasons and two completely different competitions. Cork had beaten Kerry in the Munster final, and Peter had gone to that game and said that Cork were a serious outfit.

“They were bigger than Tyrone, bigger than Derry and stronger and were great footballers on top of that. We had to be at our best to beat them and thankfully we were. I would say the Cork game, out of all our games, was the most complete performance we put in as a team.”

Once again, the deadly duo of Austin and McNamee proved unstoppable, with Austin striking 0-3 while the latter finished with 1-2. Armagh were all set for a showdown with Mayo, who’d just lost the senior All-Ireland to Kerry six days previous, and a shot at history.

“From what I remember, there was a great buzz and anticipation around it,” O’Neill recalled of the four-week build up. “When you look at how successful our senior team was around that period, there was a really good hype around the county.

“I think there was something like 14,000 or 15,000 at the All-Ireland final in Breffni that day and you look back on the scenes after it – it was just brilliant, but the county was on a high at that stage.

“Our senior team had just won All-Ireland two years before that, and I think the success of the senior team sort of helped drive the thing on as well. Every lad there on that squad aspired of going on to play at senior level.”

Like the Ulster final, Armagh burst out of the traps and had two goals on the board by the time the half-time whistle sounded. Stephen Kernan blasted home a penalty early on before launching a high ball in, which Austin gathered and buried to the net. “It set us up well, that put us 2-3 to 0-2 up (after 24 minutes) and it was looking like it was going to be like the Derry game again and we’d blow them away,” suggested the Clan na Gael sharpshooter.

But All-Ireland medals aren’t handed out as easy as that. In the final minute of normal time, Kernan tapped over just their seventh point of the day and that put his side one up heading into injury time, 2-7 to 1-9.

Having dominated early on, the Orchard County were clinging on by their fingertips and some inspiration was needed from the bench. O’Neill, who didn’t feature in the semi-final, was fired into the fray.

As Mayo piled on the pressure and pressed for an equaliser, a chance opened up for O’Neill. A Kernan free flew into the forward line and was worked to O’Neill, one his own, at the top of the D. He drove the ball over for the insurance score and Armagh celebrated an historic win.

“It was back down to a draw at one stage. I think it was the last seven minutes or so that I was on, but I didn’t expect it to be honest,” added O’Neill. “I probably wasn’t even fully right, but I wanted to do everything I could to get out onto the field.

“I was more than happy to get out onto the field and do whatever I could do. It was a scrappy ending to the game; Mayo had come back at us, and we held out on a bit of a lead for a good part of the game.

“Andy Moran and a few of them sort of big lads for Mayo at the time, just kept chipping away. Stephen (Kernan) scored a free kick to put us a point back up and then I think we won a dirty ball out down the sideline.”

On the collector’s item that was an O’Neill score, he continued, “The last I remember was getting the ball, I think it was off Barry Toner, and I had a pop. The ball went over the bar, and I think the referee blew the whistle and that was it, game over.

“I wouldn’t have been up there too often, I wouldn’t have got too many scores, that wouldn’t have been my department at all. Maybe it was the adrenaline, it could have gone either way but, lucky enough, it went over the bar.

“I don’t think the keeper even got a chance to kick it out, the referee blew it up at that stage and the swarm of Armagh fans came onto the field and the jubilation and the celebrations began.”

Twenty years on from that fatefulday in the Breffni County, the Armagh u-21 squad and management team are meeting up at the Carrickdale Hotel on Friday night, the same location of Armagh’s All-Ireland winning homecoming just two months ago.

Life has moved on in the two decades since, but those history makers can spend the evening remembering and reminiscing on what they achieved. “You would bump into a lot of the lads along the way,” said O’Neill.

“We would have played and rubbed shoulders with the boys when it came to the club scene then. You’re not Armagh anymore, it’s all about the club, so there would have been plenty of rivalry then after too.

“But you’ll always look back on those days and those campaigns with fond memories of a good bunch of lads. Everybody went in different directions, other boys mightn’t have kicked too much football after that, while other boys kicked on and had really successful county careers.

“It’ll be great just to catch up with boys you haven’t seen in years, so I’m really looking forward to it. It’s still hard to believe it’s 20 years.”