Yellow Mellow

Hard to believe it but we’re on the cusp of another championship season. This weekend sees Armagh and Derry square up above the Sperrins. History has shown that the first year of a new decade usually ushers in a new era for football up in this part of the world. Hurling also appears to take on a new shape going by the record books. I’m long enough in the tooth to be able to make sense of these traits and confidently predict the latest trends in both codes.

In terms of hurling up here, a new decade raises its head in dramatic fashion. The first Ulster hurling championship was played in 1900 when Antrim won it, creating a fairly repetitive scenario for the next 110 years. I wasn’t exactly born at that time although records are sketchy. However, if you look at the annals of Ulster hurling you’ll see that Antrim won it against nobody in the final. This tallies well with my father’s tale regarding the Bicycle Thief of 1900. His story concerned the formidable Derry side in that inaugural year. They had beaten all opposition in friendly games before wiping the floor with Down and Armagh in the Ulster championship. Many had tipped them for All-Ireland glory. Legend has it that they set off for the final in Maghery on the morning of the game by bicycle, all fifteen players. Having stopped off in Cookstown for a swift stout, they returned to their bikes only to find they’d all been nicked. Two days later a bicycle firm set up new offices in Antrim town and are still in operation today. I’m not connecting the two but it’s hard not to. Derry never did make it to the final and three of the players set up permanent home in Cookstown that night.

Fast forward 100 years and Derry finally got their revenge in 2000 with a victory over Antrim, their first title since 1908. That day I’m told that a couple of the Downeys plastered the Antrim changing rooms in bicycle parts before the game in an attempt to out-psych their opponents and to remind them that they hadn’t forgot. It worked and Derry won by a point. 100 years ago Donegal made the Ulster Hurling final. I predict Armagh will upset the applecart and reach the Ulster final this year. It would be in their interest to stay overnight in Belfast, just in case.

In football, the fresh decade has often heralded a new era. 1960 saw the Down team take the province by storm. Although they broke the back of it in 1959, the following year saw the Mourne lads lift every bit of silverware going and leave their swagger on the national map, something that has never really gone away. Paddy Doherty had probably been telling the country how good they were long before that and half a century later, he’s still at it. 1970 saw Derry return to the big time when they won only their second title when they beat Antrim in the final. The Saffrons never made it back until last year. The 1970 title began Derry’s most successful decade, reaching the final five times. Eamon Coleman won his only Ulster Senior Championship medal that year. Unconfirmed, it is rumoured that Coleman wound up the Antrim lads something shocking that year with repeated references to the bicycle thief of 1900. One Antrim player told me at the time that Eamon kept whispering to him throughout the game, ’ye wudn’t give me wan of yer spare tyres ye hefty clift’ in addition to other cycling references.

1980 saw Armagh re-emerge onto the big stage in Clones. With the ’77 run regarded as a fluke, 1980 confirmed that they were a serious bunch. They’d reach four of the first five provincial finals that decade. The most remarkable occurrence for me as a successful journalist was monitoring the changing shape of Joe Kernan’s shirt. In ’80 it was a tight enough fit but covered his frame adequately. With the likes of Joe McNally, Jimmy Keaveney and Eoin Liston about, his physique wasn't overly unusual. In 1982, when they defeated a gallant Fermanagh, there is no doubt in my mind that something which affected the Fermanagh game plan was seeing Kernan storm down the field with his belly button in full flow. The McGuigan final in 1984 was the final straw. At one point he contested a kick out with Frank and his jersey rode as high as just below his chest area, as in a tank top or bikini. Remarkably, it stayed there the rest of the game.

1990 ushered in the Donegal era. They won it that year and went on to reach the final every year for the first four years, winning Sam along the way. A remarkable fact was that they never scored a goal in each of those finals. Even in 1989, they played Tyrone twice in the final, both goalless attempts for McEniff. 1998 final against Derry – no goals for the O’Donnell men. Now, I’m not one to poke fun at any county but I have it on good authority that the good people of Donegal actually believed goals were cursed back then such was the close link to soccer. They’d already lost Packie Bonner to that game by then and Shay Given was about to head across the water. The county board reckoned that brainwashing the Donegal youngster into thinking that goals don’t count would prevent any young fellow from wanting to become a goalkeeper. It makes their Sam Maguire an even more remarkable feat, scoring 0-18 in the final of course.

The year 2000 confirmed that Armagh were the real deal. They blitzed their way though that decade, with Tyrone picking up the scraps when the Orchard needed a breather. It wasn’t lost on me that Kernan, of the 80s rising top vintage, brought in skin tight tops to prevent the same inglorious development befalling the likes of Bellew or Aidan O’Rourke. In 2000 they should’ve defeated Kerry but saved their juice for a bigger occasion two years later.

So, throwing all that in the mix, 2012 is destined to herald a new force. All roads point to Antrim. In ’50, ’60, ’90 and ’00 the team that lifted the title paved the way with an historic breakthrough of some sort the previous year. Last year Antrim dared to contest the final. Lump the house on the Saffrons. The editor will refund any beaten dockets.