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2002 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final

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2002 All-Ireland Football Championship final
Event2002 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
Date22 September 2002
VenueCroke Park, Dublin
Man of the MatchOisín McConville
RefereeJohn Bannon (Longford)
Attendancec. 80,000
2001
2003

The 2002 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final was the 115th All-Ireland Final and showpiece game of the 2002 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship which began on 5 May 2002. It took place at Croke Park on 22 September 2002.

The game, which was a replay of the 1953 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final, involved the county teams of Kerry and Armagh. Kerry were attempting to win their 33rd All-Ireland whilst Armagh, competing in a final on only the third occasion were trying to capture the championship for the first time.

Appearing in the county's third All-Ireland SFC decider and having lost the previous two, the team was the first from Ulster to win an All-Ireland SFC since Down won the 1994 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final. Kerry had a four-point lead at half-time.[1]

In 2018, Martin Breheny listed this as the fifth greatest All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.[2]

Route to the final

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Provincial

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Kerry were at the time, and remain, the most successful county in terms of number of championships won. Armagh on the other hand, whilst having dominated Ulster for the last number of years, had never gone the whole way to capturing the Sam Maguire Cup. The previous championship meeting of the two counties was in the 2000 All-Ireland semi-final, the first game ending in a draw and the Kerry going on to win the replay and subsequently the Championship.

Armagh's campaign started at St Tiernach's Park in Clones, where they drew Tyrone 1–12 each, Armagh won the replay a week later 2–13 to 0–16. In the Ulster Semi-final they overran Fermanagh by double scores 0–16 to 1–05 and the Ulster Final saw them play Donegal on 7 July, a match which they won 1–14 to 1–10.

Kerry's provincial campaign was not as successful however, losing to Cork in the semi-final 0–15 to 1–09. As a result, they entered Round 2 of the All-Ireland Qualifiers and subsequently dismissed Wicklow 5–15 to 0–07. The next round saw them face Fermanagh, who had already been defeated by Armagh. Fermanagh again proved impotent as Kerry steamrolled them 2–15 to 0–04. Kildare, their opponents in the fourth and final Qualifier game were beaten double scores 2–10 to 1–05.

All-Ireland Series

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Armagh faced Sligo, the beaten Connacht finalists, in the All-Ireland quarter-final. The first game in Croke Park ended in a 2–09 to 0–15 draw leading many pundits, especially Pat Spillane to believe that Armagh would continue to falter on the Croke Park stage. This was not helped by the fact that Armagh won the replay in Navan.

Meeting Dublin, the Leinster champions, in the semi-final on 1 September would be Armagh's biggest test to date. With the game level 0–06 to 0–06 at the interval[[3]] Armagh and Dublin traded scores throughout the second half with neither team having more than a two-point lead at any time, except the brief thirty or so seconds between Armagh's goal and Dublin's almost immediate response. With the game hanging in the balance Armagh's fragile lead was threatened by a free-kick, taken by Dublin star Ray Cosgrove, which ultimately hit the post sending Dublin crashing out and Armagh through to their first final since 1977 by a score of 1–14 to 1–13.

Kerry faced reigning All-Ireland and Connacht Champions Galway in their quarter finals, dismissing the holders 2–17 to 1–12. In a replay of the Munster semi-final Kerry again faced Cork in the All-Ireland equivalent, this time beating the Lee-siders convincingly 3–19 to 2–07.

Match

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First half

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Stephen McDonnell opened the scoring for Armagh in the second minute and Kerry forward Mike Frank Russell replied a minute later. McDonnell scored again for Armagh and Rónán Clarke added a third. With Kerry two points down scores from Colm Cooper, Eoin Brosnan and Russell gave Kerry a one-point lead after 15 minutes. Rónán Clarke pulled the game level for Armagh before two points from Dara Ó Cinnéide and a point apiece for Eamonn Fitzmaurice and Liam Hassett put some daylight between the teams. After trading scores for a while Armagh were five points down when Armagh forward Óisin McConville was pulled down by three Kerry defenders under the Canal End and given a penalty however Armagh hopes were dashed as a poor kick was saved by Kerry 'keeper Declan O'Keeffe. A point from Armagh man Diarmaid Marsden gave the Orchard Boys a small glimmer of hope but they went in trailing at the break 0–11 to 0–07.[4]

Second half

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Armagh were late to arrive on the pitch and kept the Kerry team waiting almost 5 minutes as they received a spirited team talk from manager and defeated 1977 finalist Joe Kernan. Kernan showed the team the memento[5] he had received as a player in the 1977 final after Armagh were defeated by Dublin and warned the players that they would face a similar fate if they failed to turn the game around.

Marsden and Ó Cinnéide again traded points and a free kick from McConville reduced the deficit to three. Hassett and McConville scored and the Armaghman converted a 45-metre free, Kerry's last score of the day came as Ó Cinnéide pointed again on 54 minutes.

In the 55th minute McConville charged through the Kerry back-line, played a one-two with teammate Paul McGrane and buried the ball past O'Keeffe in the Kerry net sending Hill 16 into uproar and reducing Kerry's lead to a solitary point. Scores from Rónán Clarke and Steven McDonnell, who had scored the first point of the day, were enough to give Armagh the lead for the first time since the opening stages of the game. Armagh held on for the last ten minutes and that was enough to give the Orchard County their first Championship.

Having scored 14–90 in their previous 390 minutes of play, Kerry managed to score only three points in the second half.[2]

Details

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Armagh1–12 – 0–14Kerry
Oisín McConville 1–2 (0–1f, 0–1 45), Steven McDonnell 0–3, Rónán Clarke 0–3, Diarmaid Marsden 0–3, John McEntee 0–1 Report Dara Ó Cinnéide 0–5 (0–3f, 0–1 45), Mike Frank Russell 0–3, Colm Cooper 0–2, Liam Hassett 0–2, Éamonn Fitzmaurice 0–1, Eoin Brosnan 0–1
Armagh
Kerry
1 Benny Tierney
2 Enda McNulty Yellow card 31'
3 Justin McNulty
4 Francie Bellew
5 Aidan O'Rourke Yellow card 37'
6 Kieran McGeeney (c)
7 Andy McCann
8 John Toal
9 Paul McGrane Yellow card 48'
10 Paddy McKeever downward-facing red arrow 44'
11 John McEntee downward-facing red arrow 24'
12 Oisín McConville
13 Steven McDonnell
14 Rónán Clarke
15 Diarmaid Marsden
Substitutes:
16 Paul Hearty
17 Kieran Hughes
18 Cathal O'Rourke
19 Philip Loughran
20 Barry O'Hagan upward-facing green arrow 24'
21 John Donaldson
22 Barry Duffy
23 Gerard Reid
24 Paul McCormack
25 Simon Maxwell
26 Pádraig Duffy
27 Colm O'Neill
28 Kevin McElvanna
29 Shane Smith
30 Tony McEntee upward-facing green arrow 44'

Manager:
Joe Kernan
1 Declan O'Keeffe
2 Marc Ó Sé downward-facing red arrow 57'
3 Seamus Moynihan
4 Mike McCarthy
5 Tomás Ó Sé Yellow card 56'
6 Éamonn Fitzmaurice
7 John Sheehan
8 Darragh Ó Sé (c)
9 Donal Daly downward-facing red arrow 71'
10 Seán Ó'Sullivan downward-facing red arrow 48'
11 Eoin Brosnan
12 Liam Hassett Yellow card 62' downward-facing red arrow 64'
13 Mike Frank Russell
14 Dara Ó Cinnéide
15 Colm Cooper
Substitutes:
16 Diarmuid Murphy
17 Aodán Mac Gearailt upward-facing green arrow 48'
18 Johnny Crowley upward-facing green arrow 64'
19 Tom O'Sullivan upward-facing green arrow 57'
20 Barry O'Shea upward-facing green arrow 71'
21 Séamus Scanlon
22 Declan O'Sullivan
23 Mossie Lyons
24 Ian Twiss
25 Fionnán Kelliher
26 Declan Quill
27 Ronan O'Connor
28 Michael Finn
29 Enda Galvin
30 Michael D. Cahill

Manager:
Páidí Ó Sé

Post-match

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Two weeks previously at the Hurling Final the Liam MacCarthy Cup was awarded to Kilkenny on a podium in the centre of the pitch whilst Cliff Richard's "Congratulations" was played over the public address system. On John Bannon's final whistle Armagh fans were determined that their first All-Ireland win would not be celebrated in the same way and thousands encroached onto the pitch, many climbing the fences from the Hill 16 end where McConville had scored his goal until stewards relented and opened the gates. Armagh captain Kieran McGeeney lifted the Sam Maguire from the Hogan Stand to a sea of orange and white and dedicated the win to the long-suffering Armagh fans whose hopes had been dashed on so many occasions over the years.

References

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  1. ^ "Armagh are champions". BBC. 22 September 2002.
  2. ^ a b Breheny, Martin. "Martin Breheny's Greatest All-Ireland Finals". Irish Independent. 1 September 2018, p. 9.
  3. ^ http://www.rte.ie/sport/2002/0901/armagh.htmllink title
  4. ^ "Flashback: 2002 All-Ireland SFC Final - Armagh v Kerry". GAA.ie. 20 March 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  5. ^ "Joe Meets Sam" by Jerome Quinn - Kernan stated that he showed the team his wooden runners's up memento at half time
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