To Croke Park, for a day of football with its shoes scuffed and its hair mussed.
The junior and intermediate All-Ireland finals tends to bring to headquarters the sort of rootsy, raggedy fare that doesn’t usually get a look-in on the national stage. Littered with mistakes, completely lacking in structure, entirely unpredictable from first to last. Everything you want, in other words.
When the pinballing ceased, Arva from Cavan were the junior champions and Cullyhanna from Armagh had taken the intermediate crown. No Armagh team had ever won an intermediate club All-Ireland. No Cavan team had won a club All-Ireland of any sort. On a day like this, firsts fall from the sky at will.
Next Sunday, Glen from Derry (last year’s runners-up) will play St Brigid’s of Roscommon (champions a decade ago) in the senior final.
By contrast, only Ardfert in Kerry have played in two intermediate finals and only Stewartstown and St Patrick’s from Tyrone have appeared in more than one junior decider. The glory of an afternoon like this is the novelty, the once-in-a-lifetime of it all.
“It’s a surreal moment,” said Cullyhanna manager Stephen Reel. “To think that Cullyhanna are All-Ireland champions in Croke Park, I don’t know what to make of it to be honest. It’s probably a day nobody ever thought would happen. We knew we had players that would be capable of it but it’s just the fact that the history of the club, we aren’t steeped in it, you know?”
That’s the blessing and the curse of a day like this. Nobody is steeped in it. Nobody arrived here knowing what to expect.
Of the four clubs on show, none has ever won a senior title in their own county. Cullyhanna lost a couple of Armagh finals in the past decade but, otherwise, this is without question the biggest day in each club’s history. You can prepare all you like but you’re not going to know how that will affect you until you know.
For Cill Na Martra, the Cork intermediate champions, it was a chastening experience. They went down to a 1-8 to 0-7 defeat, which would be bad enough in any circumstances. But when your seven points come from 29 shots, you have to spend the journey home wondering what happened. They kicked 16 wides, Cullyhanna kicked six. Disaster.
“Obviously it was stage fright in front of the goals,” said their manager John Evans.
“No question about that. There was no conviction in our shooting. That really hurts a player. I’m long enough in the game now, over 40 years in it, and when you see a player doing everything right up until it comes to taking the score . . . it could be stage fright, I have a feeling it was stage fright, definitely in front of goal it was stage fright.”
You don’t get that kind of thing on the bigger days. At least not to the same extent. You don’t see shots taken from the sort of distances and angles that would make a stats team weep salt tears.
You don’t see goalies lamping the ball out to the middle and hoping for the best. Above all, you don’t generally get the pleasure of seeing a couple of players standing out from the crowd and showing why they are county men and the others aren’t.
These two games were more or less decided by the intercounty experience of Ciarán Brady for Arva and Aidan Nugent for Cullyhanna. Brady was magnificent for the Cavan champions throughout but especially in the second half as they turned around the three-point half-time deficit. He was everywhere, adding four points from play to a complete display.
Nugent did pretty much the same for Cullyhanna in the first half of the intermediate game. His goal, buried into the roof of the net with the dynamite finish, gave the Armagh champions a cushion that they never really ceded. He ended the game with 1-3 to his name. Cill Na Martra just didn’t have anyone performing to anywhere near that level.
Brady and Nugent will have their days in blue and orange as the year wears on. They’ll be joined by some of their team-mates as they go – Tristan Noack Hoffman was terrific alongside Brady in the Arva midfield and Jason Duffy was his usual sharp self on the front foot for Cullyhanna. But even though it’s only the second weekend of January, it’s a fair bet this is the day they’ll remember most from 2024.
It’s the Arva dressing room roaring out the words to Islands In The Stream as soon as the cup got back to the dressing room (Peak Cavan, surely). It’s Cullyhanna captain Pearse Casey giving, without notes, the most eloquent and heartfelt speech Croke Park has heard in years. It’s the Listowel crowd booing when Larry McCarthy asks for a round of applause for the referee (thought only the Dubs did that?). It’s Cill na Martra scratching their heads at 22 missed shots on the biggest days of their lives.
In a far-too-perfect GAA world, it’s never a hardship to be around when the edges get roughed up a little.
All-Ireland Intermediate final
Cullyhanna St Patricks (Armagh) 1-8 Cill Na Martra (Cork) 0-7
Cullyhanna: James Carragher; Seán Óg Irwin, Seán Connell, Neil McCreesh; Gavan Duffy (0-1), Michael Murray, Gary Mackin (0-1); Pearse Casey (0-1), Jason Duffy (0-1); Caolan Reavey, Tony Donnelly, Ross McQuillan; Kieran McCooey, Shea Hoey (0-1), Aidan Nugent (1-3, 0-2 frees). Subs: Barry McConville for McCreesh, 58 mins; Phelim Savage for Reavey, 65 mins.
Cill na Martra: Pádraig Ó Críodáin; Tadhg Ó Corcora, Graham Ó Mocháin, Finén Ó Faoláin; Colm Mac Lochlainn (0-3), Seán Ó Fórréidh, Cianie Ó Fórréidh; Antóin Ó Cuana (0-1), Gearóid Ó Goillidhe; Fionbarra Ó hÉalaithe, Damien Ó hUrdail, Ciarán Ó Duinnín (0-2); Micheál Ó Deasúna, Daniel Ó Duinnín (0-1), Maidhcí Ó Duinnín. Subs: Danny Ó Conaill for Ó Cuana (temp) 29-30 mins; D Ó Conaill for Ó Deasúna, half-time; Shane Ó Duinnín for Ó hUrdail, 43 mins; Eoin Ó Conaill for M Ó Duinnín, 54, mins; Daire Mac Lochlainn for Ó hÉalaithe, 58 mins.
Referee: Liam Devanney (Mayo).
All-Ireland Junior final
Arva (Cavan) 0-13 Listowel Emmets (Kerry) 0-10
Arva: Cian O’Hara; Dylan Maguire, James Morris, Finbar McAvinue; Charlie Madden, Stephen Sheridan, Danny Ellis; Ciarán Brady (0-4), Tristan Noack Hoffman (0-2); Thomas Partington, Barry Donnelly, Jonathan McCabe; Peter Morris (0-3), Kevin Bouchier (0-4, 0-4 frees), Conal Sheridan. Subs: Ciaran Stanley for Ellis, 41 mins; Thomas Brady for Sheridan, 57 mins; Paul Cassidy for Morris, 62 mins.
Listowel Emmetts: Cathal Keane; Ciarán Pierse, Niall Collins (0-1), Eddie Healy; Seán Keane (0-2, 0-1 free), Eddie Browne, Micheál Kennedy; Joe Joe Grimes, Darragh Leahy (0-1); Jack McElligott, Bryan Sweeney, Ger McCarthy; Jamie McVeigh, Cormac Muvihill (0-2), David Keane (0-3, 0-3 frees). Subs: Darragh Lynch for Leahy, half-time; Sam Tarrant (0-1, free) for D Keane, 50 mins; Adam O’Rourke for Sweeney, 56 mins; Jake Moriarty for McCarthy, 57 mins; Cillian Holly for McVeigh, 59 mins.
Referee: Anthony Nolan (Wicklow).
