Orchard can edge past Tyrone in physical showdown

WHEN I think of the Noughties and the GAA I can't help but think of Tyrone and Armagh.

- eamonmcgee

For me anyway, their rivalry defined that great period of football.

I looked on with jealousy as these two juggernauts met, thinking to myself just how do Donegal get to that level.

Tyrone and Armagh were trailblazers.

Literal trailblazers because the modern game — and the commitment it required — started with these two and whatever they ended up doing the rest of the country followed.

Weights, tactics, commitment, they raised the bar all over the place and we reacted to it.

If Ricey McMenamin or Kieran McGeeney told us in an interview they were knitting in training, then you would see county teams around the country take up the needles and head to knitting classes.

I don't think that mentality has left the GAA either, with everyone looking on intently at what the pacesetters are doing.

I don't mind a learning mind-set but this copy and paste model for the sake of it is no good.

Armagh had size and bulk so teams tailored their weights program to make themselves bigger — just because the Orchard did it.

Tyrone played a certain way, which incidentally was the genesis of the blanket defence that came with Jim McGuinness afterwards, and won All-Irelands.

So everyone looked to mirror them, just for the sake of it. This whole copy and paste culture probably properly started with Armagh and Tyrone.

The dynamic from the outside is a bit different now, as it’s not that long since Tyrone were All-Ireland champions, although it feels funny saying it.

In 2003, Tyrone hadn't won a Sam Maguire and Armagh were the holders. The Orchard are coming into this year as All-Ireland champions but neither team has that same aura.

Inside the Tyrone and Armagh camps though, it remains the same.