Sean Cavanagh and Kieran McGeeney had their battles over the years so it was hard to tell how the Tyrone and Armagh GAA legends would react when stuck on a couch together.
After an awkward enough start, the pair got on like an Ulster championship match on fire.
Cavanagh and McGeeney were guest on The GAA Hour Live at The Academy, in Dublin, and it didn’t take them long to get straight into the reminiscing… and slagging.
There were jokes about McKenna Cup clashes, shepherd’s hooks and McGeeney, as Armagh coach, sending his “pitbull” Kieran McKeever out to clamp down on the Tyrone forward in a recent championship encounter.
The best tale of the night, however, was surely courtesy of Cavanagh as he recounted an occasion when McGeeney hit the deck with little encouragement.
McGeeney: “There was a couple of times we marked each other. Not too many, was there?”
Cavanagh: “I think you tried to get me sent off in the Ulster semi final in 2005, was it?!”
McGeeney: “From what I remember, if I can remember correctly, it was Peter that started that one; that fight. Was it?”
Unsurprisingly, there was confusion as both men tried to figure out what flashpoint or scrap they were talking about. There were so many.
Eventually, the recently retired Cavanagh got to have his say.
Cavanagh: “You might have thought it would have been the other way around, but it wasn’t. What was it, did I push you in the chest?
McGeeney: “Ach… ” (shaking his head)
Cavanagh: “There was a bit of a roar. Maybe it was a sniper that got him!”
McGeeney: “I honestly can’t remember. Come on, it was 12 years ago!”
Cavanagh: “Get the video.”
2005 and 2006 was surely the height of the rivalry between the two Ulster counties in that era. After the three championship clashes in 2005, a crowd of some 21,000 showed up in January 2006 for a Dr McKenna Cup clash between Tyrone and Armagh.
Looking back on the rivalry, Cavanagh said:
Cavanagh: “They were three fantastic games and that semi-final in particular, I would have it down as the most intense game I’ve ever played in. It was the end of a trilogy of games we had played that summer.”
McGeeney: “And we had played a McKenna Cup game earlier in ‘o5… “
Cavanagh: “Do yous bother playing in the McKenna Cup? I thought yous boys didn’t count that after we kept winning it!”
Cavanagh always felt as if there was a huge respect between both Tyrone and Armagh and admits he was often nervous whenever the teams clashed as he knew his team would be taking on their biggest rivals.
McGeeney concedes that Tyrone’s athletic side were on their way up while Armagh, having enjoyed a good run around the turn of the century, were on a downward curve. “We were trying to put the brakes on them,” he said.
The old dogs won out in Ulster, after a replayed final, but met again in the last four at Croke Park.
McGeeney was doing his damnedest to put the brakes on Tyrone, in that 2005 semi, but his substitution with 63 minutes played turned out to be crucial. Cavanagh burst up the middle and scored a crucial point that halved the Orchard County’s lead and gave Tyrone a massive boost before they drove on and claimed the win.
“Kieran obviously knew how to stop players – legally or illegally! I can remember the relief when he went off and thinking, ‘Finally, he’s out of the road. I can go for it a little’.
“The decision was made at the time and I was glad to see the back of him.”
Cavanagh and Tyrone won the day but, as we have since seen, the rivalry continues and the games are contested as fiercely as ever.
Check out the full exchange here [from 18:30 below]
The legend that is @SeanCavanagh14 joins the boys on stage #GAAHour #TheToughest 📺 https://t.co/Id1ymGL7j5
— AIB_GAA (@AIB_GAA) September 15, 2017
Two absolute warriors.
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