Gerry O’Neill ‘changed the face of Armagh football’

Before he took over the management of the Armagh senior teams for his second spell in 1974, the Kilrea-born man was well known in GAA circles, having trained St Colman’s college Newry to their first All-Ireland Hogan Cup victory in 1967 and to an earlier spell with the Armagh senior team from which he resigned after two years despite relative success.

This was because of a lack of co- operation from the County board regarding so few few turning up for training.

Sometime after the collapse of Armagh county football following a debacle against Leitrim in 1973, I proposed to County Chairman Tommy Lynch that the problem with the county team was that there was nothing to manage. Gerry O’Neill and the other managers over the years hadn’t a chance because of this factor.

I suggested that a manager was the last part of any new set up and that the first thing was to find 25 Armagh footballers and convince them that they could be Ulster champions in three years if they all pulled together. After all that time we had such players to call on as Jimmy Smyth, Colm McKinstry, Peter Loughran, Tom McCreesh, Joe Kernan, Larry Kearins.

I went to all their homes and 20 others and strongly suggested that we could be Ulster Champions in three years if we all worked together. None refused.

Jimmy Smyth suggested that I approach Gerry O’Neill again to manage the proposed new set up and all would be ready for him - 25 willing player with taxis, showers, training grounds and all that all sorted out.

He agreed to give it a go, and it wasn’t long before his management skills showed results - notably his man management. His big early achievement was in getting Armagh to a divisional league play-off in Croke Park and which was inspirational considering Armagh’s awful recent record.

Assisted by Charlie Sweeney as trainer, Gerry O’Neill created a new system of Armagh teamwork, getting the right men in the right places and getting the best out of the players. The county board were fully behind him and people like Fr Sean Hegarty became part of his background team.

He slowly created a strong bond between the players that nobody wanted to leave the panel such was his management skills and his dedication to the team. Three years after taking over he had Armagh in the All Ireland final and their first Ulster Championship victory since 1953.

He was a master of team talks, of the psychological, leaving nobody out, and such was his impact that Armagh never remotely went back to the old ways. More that this, the overall system and sense of purpose and professionalism was the basis of all Armagh management ever after, involving players who learned from him such as Brian McAlinden and Joe Kernan and who then passed on those structures on to the next generation.

Gerry O’Neill transformed Armagh football. His inheritance led to Armagh’s two All Ireland victories and the 12 Ulster titles that followed his two own Anglo Celt triumphs, ‘77 and ’80.