By Michael Devlin

The county player hunched into the shot as a squad of young adoring fans, all clad in white and red, draped their arms around him and cheered with delight.

It was 1995 in Stewartstown, on the Friday before the big game, and Feargal Logan was getting a hero’s welcome at the local primary school St Mary’s.

Two days later he would be lining out in Tyrone’s midfield against Dublin in the grand amphitheatre of Croke Park, for what would be only the county’s second ever senior outing on All-Ireland Final day.

“Back in those days, appearances in an All-Ireland Final for Tyrone were extremely limited,” remembers Logan. “It was full-on fanatical support from Tyrone people. I think nowadays, teams are in and out of Croke Park so frequently that perhaps a bit of the edge has been lost there.

“I remember the absolute buzz around Stewartstown and around the county, going around the schools on the Friday before the game. I also remember having a dodgy ankle, and going to treat it in an oxygen tank up in Larne as much as possible in the week or two before it, to try and get the swelling out of it.

“It was a busy time, just a buzz of anticipation that an All-Ireland Final had been reached again by Tyrone.”

Logan was a teenager in the final year of his studies at St. Patrick’s Academy Dungannon when Tyrone made their first bow in an All-Ireland Final in September 1986.

Understandably so, the mania that gripped the county that year was huge, but so was the magnitude of their task. Their opponents? The legendary Kerry team who had contested in nine of the previous 11 finals - and won seven of them.

For 45 minutes of the game though, it was Roy-of-the-Rovers stuff from the plucky Red Hands. Paudge Quinn’s goal midway through the second half had them seven points up and dreaming of Sam. But back came the mighty Kingdom to run out convincing winners by nine, and Tyrone were left to dream on still.

“Leading Kerry so well, then Kerry reeling us back in and ending up winning the game by such a big margin, it was barely believable.

“The second half had about four matches of football in it. To go seven up and lose by nine, you talk about a swing. I remember the banquet in the Gresham, going down O’Connell St. This was before social media, you were able to get the Sunday papers on the Saturday night in Dublin. In those days, that was unbelievable, and it seems like a world away from today.”

That first heavy thud on the door though had dug the furrows of belief within Tyrone football. They had taken a big step closer to football’s ‘Holy Grail’, and soon a budding young crop, led by the mercurial Peter Canavan, emerged from the county to challenge for the U21 crown in 1990, winning it in successive years in ’91 and ’92.

In the senior ranks however, Ulster rivals where kicking the door down. Down bridged a 23-year gap in 1991 and repeated the trick in ‘94, bookending inaugural triumphs for Donegal and Derry. Logan, who captained Queen’s University Belfast to a Sigerson Cup in 1990, had attended each of those four finals, and he watched on as some of his old college buddies got their hands on the ultimate prize.

“Ulster was on a high, University football and the county scene was very strong. It was a cut-throat championship in those days, so once you won out of Ulster, you were in good shape. Down, Donegal and Derry had all done it in the lead-in to us, so there was a slight sense that we dropped the ball a bit in that regard.”

It was a hot, dry day on the 17th of September, 1995. The All-Ireland Championship had been played out in scorching temperatures all year, and the last day was no different. Tyrone co-manager Art McRory had even taken to getting the concrete-hard pitches around the county watered, as to soften them up a bit for training on.

The conditions in Croker that day should have been ample for fast free-flowing football, the dry sod and true bounce of the ball paving the way for a classic game. Instead, what played out was a nervous, fractious final with no shortage of needle, and a fair dose of controversy.

Dublin’s situation at the time couldn’t be more in contrast to that of their current four-in-a-row chasing champions. Pat O’Neill’s side then were out to end 12 years of hurt following their last Sam Maguire crown in 1983.

“Tyrone didn’t perform, and I don’t believe the Dubs performed that brilliantly either. It was a nervous, edgy final,” says Logan.

Tyrone raced into an early lead, before Dublin got back on top to lead by five at the break thanks to a Charlie Redmond goal. It was not to be the last key involvement in the game for the Erins’ Isle clubman.

Around the 46th minute, he and Logan clashed on the side-line, and referee Paddy Russell seemingly sent the Dublin corner forward to his bench. In the pre-red card era, Russell’s gesture had been lost in the noise of the crowd, and Redmond remained on the field for another two minutes, before eventually being re-instructed to depart the game.

“It became relevant in the basis that Charlie appeared to take a different view from the referee’s view, and determined that he would play on. That brought it some notoriety,” says Logan.

“It was just before the introduction of the red cards, so there was a lot of doubt. I can’t say honestly that we were jumping up and down about it. The conversation was essentially private to Paddy Russell and Charlie Redmond.

“The referee then caught on to the position, Charlie had re-engaged in the play and by then the referee dealt with the matter, and that was that.”

Drama ensued again at the end of the game. Tyrone had clawed their way back to within a point of 14-man Dublin, with mere moments left to play. A high ball sent in by Tyrone captain Ciaran Corr was punched clear by his Dublin counterpart John O’Leary, and it bobbled out to Canavan at the edge of the box. The Errigal Ciaran man momentarily lost his footing, and swiped the ball over to Sean McLaughlin who fired over to level the scores with seconds left.

Canavan’s slip was the only foot he put wrong all day. He had contributed 11 of Tyrone’s 12 points in a consummate kicking display, but was adjudged to have touched the ball on the deck, and McLaughlin’s point was chalked off. Tyrone lost 1-10 to 0-12, and that decision in the game’s dying embers still rankles with Tyrone to this day.

“We were against the clock at that stage. Peter had scooped over some outrageous points off the outside of his boot, both frees and a few 50’s. He was delivering every time.

“I’ve never known Peter to foul a ball in his entire career, never knew him to get caught in possession or double bounce,” says Logan. “Maybe a draw would have given both teams the chance to go and express themselves that bit better and have a bit of a shootout the next day, but it just wasn’t to be. The last point was deemed a foul, and we’ve just had to live with it since.

“I still say he didn’t foul the ball. In the frenzy of the last five minutes of that All-Ireland, we just got on with it and tried to redeem the situation by getting the next possession. The ref’s decision is the ref’s decision, albeit earlier in the game it appeared that he wasn’t the ultimate authority! We took it as the ultimate authority on that free.”

Canavan’s brilliance on the losing side that day was extraordinary, but the man they affectionately referred to as ‘God’ was not to be denied his All-Ireland medal. He and full-back Chris Lawn eventually reached the Promised Land in 2003.

For Logan and the rest of the panel though, 1995 would be as close as they’d ever get to All-Ireland immortality. A semi-final defeat to Meath the following year left them bruised physically and mentally, and they fell back down the order of an ultra-competitive Ulster scene.

“Peter was just as devastated as the rest of us. He wasn’t taken any more hurt in it the fact that he’d done so much. He was at one with everybody in the whole setup. It was testament to his ability. He was an outrageous footballer in those days, he was absolutely outstanding.

“Maybe he thought there might be another day, and luckily for Peter and Chris Lawn, there was a redemption for them.

“But otherwise, the rest of that group from 1995 still live with the pain of it, that’s just the bottom line. Peter and Cricko were able to absolve themselves from that by going and winning an All-Ireland, but it still cuts very deep with everybody that was in that panel.

“We took a heavy body blow the next year against Meath, and that probably began the beginning of the end for that group. You might have thought that we might have gone on, but Ulster was cut-throat in those days and there was no backdoor.

“It is a bit easier nowadays to chart out a course, and if there had have been a backdoor, maybe that team could’ve taken themselves back up off the canvas the way this team has done and got ourselves back in the bigtime. This year’s teams is certainly the better of that, being able to get straight back into the arena after being on the canvas last year.”

To the crowds that greeted them in their droves on their homecoming in Dungannon square on the Monday afternoon though, Tyrone’s men of 1995 were still heroes.

“People of Tyrone stood foursquare behind us. There was a feeling that we were slightly wronged and there was a sense of that from the crowd. But there was a massive turnout along the way, and we are indebted to those people who turned out and supported Tyrone. A lot of those people will be back in Croke Park this Sunday. Let’s hope it’s a happy occasion for everybody.”

Just like 1995, a big portion of the current senior crop tasted All-Ireland success at U21 level, with Logan at the helm in 2015 alongside Canavan and Brian Dooher. From that panel, Kieran McGeary, Lee Brennan, Mark Bradley, Conor Meyler, Cathal McShane, Rory Brennan, Padraig Hampsey, Michael Cassidy and Frank Burns have all made the seamless transition into Mickey Harte’s setup.

“Brian, Peter and myself, and everyone who worked in the backroom, you like to think that you made some sort of contribution in that way. Again though, it’s simply about the quality of players sometimes. Management is about the players you have and their commitment and attitude, and I’d hand it over to them.

“I had a group of them at U17, and I knew definitely that a number of them, if not a majority of them, would make the breakthrough. I remember speaking to a few of their dads and saying ‘look, this guy and others are going to climb to the very top of the tree’.

“They’ve gone to it fairly quickly, and the Limerick hurlers have shown how quickly you can move from U21 up the chain. I’ve always felt that these guys would take it to the next level.”

23 years on from that sunny September day in Dublin, and three All-Ireland victories later, Tyrone’s heroes of 2018 have been doing the rounds around the county, meeting and greeting a new generation of dreaming youngsters who were too young or even not yet born to experience the glory days of the noughties.

Pictures are taken, and while they may no longer be developed from camera film rolls like the old days, they still capture the glee and excitement that Logan and his team-mates evoked back in ‘95.

“It’s great for the younger children around the county to get to see this again, who haven’t quite experienced it from before," said Logan. "It’s been a bit of a gap, and it gives such a lift to everybody around the county. I genuinely can’t wait, can’t wait.”