2002 All-Ireland SFC Final

ARMAGH 1-12 KERRY 0-14

By John Harrington

It’s very debatable whether any final whistle in Croke Park has ever been greeted with the same wall of noise the Armagh supporters produced to hail their All-Ireland SFC Final victory over Kerry in 2002.

The vocal outpouring of emotion that greeted the county’s first ever All-Ireland title was immense, and seemed to shake the stadium to its very foundations.

It was a brilliant victory, and all the more so because they beat a very talented Kerry team and had to overcome a good deal of adversity to do so.

Armagh players lift the Sam Maguire Cup to the cheers of Armagh fans who had come onto the pitch after victory over Kerry in the 2002 All-Ireland SFC Final. 

It seemed an unlikely outcome when they trailed by five points after Oisin McConville missed a first-half penalty, a moment the man himself still had a vivid recollection of when he spoke to GAA.ie in 2012.

“After I missed the penalty in the first half in the 2002 final, my thoughts were all a bit of a mess but the one person I really thought of was Bill McCorry (who missed a penalty for Armagh in the 1953 All-Ireland final defeat to Kerry),” said McConville.

“He was buried the year before and the priest mentioned that he had missed the penalty at his funeral. He was remembered for that, no doubt about it.

“I remember my mother coming home from his funeral saying "that poor man, the priest mentioned that he missed that penalty". So in that moment, your mind flashes very quickly.

“I thought of Bill McCorry, of my family, and it's something you don't want to happen to you. You do go into the poor me thing. For the next couple of minutes you do get bogged down with the 'why me' stuff.

“But I was lucky. If it had have been the second half, I probably would have been taken off and that would have been the end of it. But I had half-time to refocus myself to get out in the second half and try and fix it.”

Oisin McConville's first-half penalty is saved by Declan O'Keeffe in the 2002 All-Ireland SFC Final. 

Diarmuid Marsden gave Armagh some hope when he scored a point that that reduced the deficit to four, 0-11 to 0-7, at half-time.

Then came arguably the most famous half-time talk ever given by a GAA manager when Joe Kernan produced his wooden runners-up plaque from Armagh’s 1977 All-Ireland Final defeat to Dublin.

After showing it to his players and asking them whether they wanted one for themselves, he said ‘I’ll tell you what you can do with this’, before smashing the plaque against the wall.

“You know the story about him throwing his plaque from the 1977 All-Ireland final defeat against the wall?”, said McConville.

“All those things happened. It's only when you think back on it, you realise. You sort of take things for granted whenever you're playing and when you're in that moment.

“But when you think back on it, he had us gripped with that team talk by firing the plaque against the wall.

Literally the plaque did go into little pieces. It was as if it had meant nothing to him. I think everyone looked at him and realised that.

“Part of the psyche with Armagh was 'we're making progress, we're making progress, we're in an All-Ireland final, it's going to happen' but in those situations, Joe made us realise in that moment that when you get an opportunity like that you have to seize it and I think that was the biggest thing for us.”

Armagh manager, Joe Kernan, reacts to the final whistle in the 2002 All-Ireland SFC Final. 

McConville made amends for his first-half penalty miss by scoring a 55th minute goal that ultimately tilted the balance of power in Armagh’s favour.

After playing a perfectly timed one-two with team-mate Paul McGrane, he then showed great composure to fire the ball to the net past Kerry goalkeeper Declan O’Keeffe.

“The one thing when I'm coaching players now is to tell them 'count to one'. And some of them go "count to one? What are you on about?"

“But if you count to one, you do have that wee bit of space and that wee bit of time. I was coached that at a very early age. When you're a forward, count to one.

“So, I remember going in when we created the chance for the goal in the second half. I looked at the goal and said "One".

“O'Keeffe (Kerry goalkeeper Declan O'Keeffe) made a move, and I put it near post, where I was going to put it anyway.

When I scored, I didn't know what to do. When I came back around from behind the goal, I was still sort of celebrating and going to myself "Yes!"

“John McEntee goes to me "We're still a point down - get your head back in the game."

“That gets you back into the game again. I think I won the next couple of balls, and you're on a high then and you think you can do anything.”

Oisin McConville celebrates after scoring a second-half goal for Armagh against Kerry in the 2002 All-Ireland SFC Final. 

McConville and his team-mates made history by becoming the first and, so far, only Armagh team to win the All-Ireland title. It’s an experience he will savour for the rest of his days.

“There's a couple of different moments. I really love the satisfaction of the final whistle going. I love being in the changing rooms because you're absolutely loving it.

“You know when you go to training and you finish training you're like a scalded cat, you can't wait to get out of there! But after a win in a final you sit around and you talk about the game, you get on the bus.

“You might have a beer on the bus or wherever you're going. People are ringing you and texting you, you're able to go through your phone and different things like that.

“The last point is just getting with your family, your wife, whatever it is. Taking it all in, the atmosphere with everyone. The fact that your family are proud of you and you've done something you can be proud of.”