‘If Dublin were doing what Fermanagh are doing, pundits would be eulogising it’
BY the time Monaghan complete their Round 4 qualifier against Laois tomorrow in Navan, there could be as many as five teams from Ulster confirmed to make up the very first ‘Super 8s’ of the All-Ireland championship, where the last eight teams form two groups and play a round-robin.
The sheer Ulster-ness of it all is enough to make the eyes bleed of your average ‘Sunday Game’ pundit, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Fermanagh and Monaghan would join Kerry and Galway in Group One, while Group Two could see Donegal, Tyrone and Armagh all taking it in turns to bite chunks out of Dublin.
Five teams, however, would top the previous highest representation of four. What emerges when you crunch the numbers are the years that high watermark has occurred; usually always when an Ulster team has been competing for an All-Ireland.
In 2002, there were just two Ulster teams in the quarter-finals in Armagh and Donegal. Armagh winning the All-Ireland that year appeared to spur others on and the duo were joined by Tyrone and Fermanagh the following year, Derry replacing Donegal for another four Ulster sides in 2004.
The year after Donegal won the 2012 All-Ireland, four teams were back at that point with Monaghan, Tyrone, Donegal and Cavan making their only All-Ireland quarter-final appearance.
As you might expect, Tyrone are the most consistent Ulster team with 13 All-Ireland quarter-final appearances, bettered only by Kerry who have made every single of the 17 quarter-finals, and Dublin who missed out just one year in 2003 – knocked out in the back door by Armagh. Ask Down’s former AllIreland winner Conor Deegan why this phenomenon exists and he has strong views.
“What sort of championship is the Munster Championship, in real terms? What is the Leinster Championship in real terms?” he asks. “In real terms, there is no other championship. Kerry are coming out of Munster at their leisure. Same as Dublin. That’s the reality.
“When you analyse it, they can rubbish the Ulster Championship all they want. It is an easy target, always has been, always will be. Because the people on the likes of the TV panels are from Munster and Leinster by and large. They look up here and say we are s**t. The football is s**t and so on.”
The narrative being painted about teams from the northern province, and what makes them competitive, namely organised