This Armagh the team that McGeeney built 

By John Harrington

Bringing Armagh to Sunday’s All-Ireland Senior Football Final is a serious feat of management by Kieran McGeeney, his coaches, and selectors.

Over a 10-year period he’s painstakingly built a panel of real quality and depth despite not having the benefit of a reliable conveyor belt of talent in the county.

Armagh have contested just one Ulster U20 Final in the last 14 years and not won one since 2007.

Their appearance in this year’s Ulster minor final was their first since 2014 and they haven’t won one in the grade since 2014.

Usually when a county reaches an All-Ireland Senior Football Final you can trace their lineage to successful underage sides of a few years previously, but this is very much the team that McGeeney made.

It would be a huge achievement to lead them to the ultimate prize, and McGeeney hopes that in doing so they could be the catalyst for inspiring a new generation to follow in their footsteps.

“You hate putting a perspective on it and I know a lot of people think it’s excuses, but our underage hasn’t been good,” says McGeeney.

“Aidan (O’Rourke, minor manager) did a fantastic job this year as did Barry (O’Hagan, u-20 manager) and we’re trying to get back to where we were.

“We had a very strong club thing going for a while but even its toned down outside the county.

“Cullyhanna (All-Ireland Intermediate champions) was great to see and we’re seeing the benefits of that with Jason (Duffy), Ross (McQuillan) and Aidan (Nugent) in terms of their ability to finish out games and having that cool head.

“The big thing we’ve been trying to do with this group is get them across the line and hopefully try and sustain a period where our younger people see that.

“Whether people like it or not, it’s not academies, it’s not money – and that does help – but it’s shop window. It’s why all our kids love Man United or Limerick hurling, all of those things.

“The better the shop window we can have the better the heroes and role models we can have for the young group to look up to, and the better chance we have of producing better underage and better club.”

The perseverance that this Armagh group has shown, both players and management, to keep coming back for more despite some tough losses has been hugely admirable.

Losing four penalty shoot-outs in championship football in just three years must have felt like a Room 101 level of mental torture, but rather than break them the adversity made them stronger.

That’s why they had the psychological resolve to find a way to finish off Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final when it looked like the game seemed destined to end with the nightmare scenario of another penalty shoot-out.

“People have been saying we aren’t able to close out tight games but other teams haven’t been able to close them out either,” says McGeeney.

“Until this year we haven’t beaten those top teams but that’s why they are the top teams, the Dublins and Kerrys.

“We all know Kerry won’t be going anywhere, Dublin won’t be going anywhere. They’ll be back bigger and stronger next year; they don’t really have transitional periods as such. There’s such a juggernaut behind them, they’re always going to be competitive.

“For ourselves it’s about making the most now of this opportunity.

“Good and all as a semi-final is, it’s not winning a final.”

Even when this Armagh team has fallen short it hasn’t been because of a lack of effort.

They’re very much made in the image of McGeeney himself in so far as they always give the absolute maximum of themselves.

Sometimes that hasn’t been enough to get them over the line first and maybe it won’t be on Sunday either.

But whatever happens, this Armagh team won’t die wondering.

“Every game takes on a life of its own and the biggest thing you try and say to the players – ‘listen, give it your best shot, don’t have any regrets,” says McGeeney.

“You’ll regret not trying stuff than trying stuff and failing.’”