Where were you in the long hot summer of 2002? Well this much younger and even crustier hack was lucky enough to be covering a magical year for Sligo’s eternal bright boys in black.
nd suddenly, 20 years on, after forking out an obscene €17 for a middling breakfast in the Croke Park Hotel, some of their marvellous memories soothe my salty soul. There is Eamonn O’Hara, a magnificent bounding black stag hanging high on the summer wind-the O’Neill’s clutched tight to his chest driving his county forward as he did for Tourlestrane for years.
And then we had the languid grace of Paul Taylor at full-forward of Eastern Harps a measured magician who saw space in a heartbeat and could kick points with either foot and the greater tragedy was that injury ruled him out of that replay against Armagh and much of that season too. Had he been there and fully fit, Sligo would have won and possibly gone all the way.
Oh,and then we had the one and only Dessie Sloyan the silky sniper from Easkey who seemed to have the posts always in his thoughtful radar. Gerry McGowan was a Tourlestrane trickster, all swaggering balance who just loved torturing the dour Tyrone and Armagh defences in that summer when Sligo could have walked in the shadow of Paradise.
Dara McGarty was the gifted court jester who scored the equalising point to draw a wonderful first quarter-final match against an Armagh side full of glowering menace who led an almost monastic life- style and were all the crankier for it. And don’t forget Sligo only had 14 men for considerable periods of that game.
The boys of 2002 were Sligo’s greatest ever team, with towering talent, powerful physique and they played like men who badly wanted to win, and we had no bloody blanket defences or jumped-up keepers running around in the middle of the field like preening peacocks. The great Martin Breheny of the Irish Independent brilliantly recalled that epic replay against Armagh when Sligo died with their feet just a fraction away from booting that year’s eventual All-Ireland champions out of the race. And they had a cast iron call for a penalty denied when Curry’s Sean Davey was fouled in the square and referee Seamus McCormack needed a garda escort off the pitch.
Breheny added: “How anyone could have any emotion left after this rip-roaring quarter final replay was a miracle in itself. “But Sligo’s endearingly loyal fans somehow managed to squeeze the last drop from it, giving their drained and exhausted players a long and heartfelt ovation as they left the pitch which was just as emotionally reciprocated”.
The “Comeback Kids” of that unforgettable summer had finally gone home after destroying Tyrone in a superb comeback and Tyrone went on to win the All-Ireland in 2003 and Armagh, after limping out of Navan went on to win the All-Ireland final in 2002. Yes folks, it was that close and that is scant consolation for that exceptional group of players-some of whom went on to win that elusive Connacht title in 2007. Those 20 years have vanished as swiftly as a smiling thief and there is a new generation of Sligo players preparing for battle on the sacred sod.
For Croker will always be our great Gaelic Colosseum and our most enduring field-the place every young girl and boy dreams about playing on the big stage. It is 11 am and the hotel is quiet and the great Aidan Rooney saunters in, current St Mary’s manager and winner of a Connacht SFC title with Leitrim in 1994.
This man has pedigree, ability and enthusiasm in spades and is a real GAA blue blood. Like many, Aidan would love to see Sligo winning but concedes that Cavan are a very strong and are getting stronger and his son Nathan is part of the squad. So Sligo are the arch underdogs which will suit Tony McEntee and Co perfectly.
They gave Cavan more than their fill of it in the NFL and have some powerful players in Alan Reilly, Paddy O’Connor, Seán Carrabine, Keelan Cawley, Paul Kilcoyne Nathan Mullen, Pat Hughes and Niall Murphy (hopefully)-to name but a few and have some big men in central slots. But Cavan have the mighty Gearóid McKiernan (whose mother is a sister of ex-Sligo manager Dom Corrigan). They also have the powerful Thomas Galligan, the jinking Smith brothers and classy full-forward Paddy Smith and they also won the Ulster SFC title in 2020. It is 11.30am and Sligo fans are sauntering into the hotel, all in black and let’s hope it will not be in mourning.
Even better news is that RTÉ are showing this match live on the box-giving the Tailteann Cup its due recognition. It is now 12.10 am and it looks like half of Sligo has landed in the Croke Park Hotel, men, women and children with eternal hope in their hearts.12.30 am and we are into Croker with the minimum of fuss and when I ask a Croke Park official for the all-important Wi-Fi password it’s “where we all belong”…Croker Park’s cuddly corporate image at its folksiest.
Down in the tea-room Martin McHugh who took Cavan to a famous Ulster title in 1997, is not giving Sligo much of a chance which would make a Yeats County victory even more of a welcome surprise.
The pitch is like a billiard table and the stadium is still the greatest sports arena in the land-a beautiful green bowl in the heart of Dublin city’s Northside.
And then we have the famous Croke Park biting wind full of treachery for the unwary.
Sligo take to the field at 1.22 and they are greeted by a good hearty roar.
THE GAME
Sligo began like nervous lambs and went 0-6 to 0-0 down but hit back like roaring lions after a perilous opening quarter.
And the roar that went up when Luke Towey was taken down for the penalty was immense surpassed only by that when Paddy O’Connor slid the penalty to the net as casually as you would lick an ice cream.
At half-time Cavan led by 0-11 to 1-3 and Sligo had the wind on the resumption.
The second half was wonderful toe to toe stuff and the majestic Niall Murphy almost won it single handedly for the Yeats County. But the charismatic character that is Aidan Devaney kept Sligo in the match with two magnificent saves from man of the match Gearóid McKiernan.
Sligo had their goal chances too to make it bitter-sweet.
And we had thankfully very little of this boring lateral stuff as both Sligo and Cavan played football and Eamonn O’Hara, the greatest of those bounding boys of 2002 saluted a new generation of Sligo stars.
Let’s hope they shine even brighter next year.
