4 days ago
Omerta around infamous 2015 Dublin-Armagh challenge game still holds 10 years on
The Dublin-Armagh rivalry is thin in terms of competitive meetings - but they have found their edge elsewhere.
Sunday's clash at Croke Park will be just the counties' sixth ever Championship tie and first since 2010, though they have crossed paths a couple of times in the League in recent years.
But a challenge match that they played 10 years ago that virtually nobody got to see and the result of which is long forgotten, is still remembered for all the wrong reasons.
Before the throw-in, Dublin's Davy Byrne suffered facial injuries which sparked a full scale brawl. Byrne required hospital treatment and the CCCC investigated but with all parties remaining tightlipped, not much came of it though both counties were hit with hefty fines.
The GAA's then director general Páraic Duffy expressed his frustration around the episode in his annual report some months later.
'The efforts of CCCC to investigate the matter followed an all too depressing pattern,' he wrote. 'Even though the name of the player alleged to have been responsible for Davy Byrne's injury was in general circulation, no assistance was forthcoming from the counties in bringing the player to account.'
When asked yesterday, Dean Rock didn't shed much further light on events of that day in DCU.
'We had played a couple of days previous in the Leinster final,' he said. 'We had guys who didn't get enough minutes and squad players who were identified to play that game.
'I was doing some frees and we were doing some small bit of a skills session at the time and then there were a few roars, and then turned into a jog and a sprint up to see what was going on.'
Armagh weren't regular challenge game opponents of Dublin at the time and they certainly weren't after that, though that has changed in recent times given the relationship between Dessie Farrell and Kieran McGeeney.
'At that time under Jim [Gavin], certainly not,' says Rock. 'Like, we would have played a lot of challenge games probably against Cork and Monaghan and Cavan. They would have been the ones we would have played most of the time.
'But yeah in recent years under Dessie, it certainly would have been Armagh. So in the last couple of years, there could have been six, seven challenge matches against Armagh. So there would be a lot of familiarity there and understanding with each other.
'There has been probably kind of a healthy rivalry in many ways built up, not in competitive games, but off the field and different things. So that's just the relationship with Dessie and Kieran.'
Rock, who retired after Dublin's 2023 All-Ireland win, gave his take on Rian O'Neill resurfacing with Armagh last weekend after his self-imposed exile.
Diarmuid Connolly made a similar mid-season return for Dublin as they chase five-in-a-row in 2019, which was the source of some discontent within the squad, though Rock says 'I don't see any downside to it'.
'It's another exceptional player coming into the group who's obviously going to challenge other players because he wants to get in and get more minutes and then everyone else has to up their game to prove that they deserve the jersey.
'So I think in that regard, it can only be positive. Look, they're a close-knit group up in Armagh as well, it's not the biggest county, so they've got good relationships up there with each other, I'm sure, and I'm sure they'd welcome him back with open arms.
'I think the best thing for Armagh now is that it's now done and there is closure to it. I mean, he's fully back now, he's back in the mix and there's no question marks hanging over them anymore. So it's now, you know, full throttle now on the All-Ireland pursuit again.'
He added: 'The big question marks will be can he get to the level he got to last year? And based on maybe the training that he has or hasn't done, or hasn't been exposed to, that could be a big question mark for him personally.
'But even if you got the best out of him for 45, 50 minutes, it could be the difference in a lot of these tight games.'
