From choker to Croker hero - how Kieran McGeeney turned Armagh around in face of constant criticism from Joe Brolly
Armagh manager has guided his county to just their fifth ever All-Ireland final
Their team has been called chokers, their manager depicted as a specialist in failure.
And in the last fortnight they answered back.
From Joe Kernan, the Godfather of Armagh football, came a stat that proves Kieran McGeeney’s team is consistently excellent rather than persistent chokers.
“Facts are facts, the side has lost only one of their last 19 championship matches in 70 minutes,” said Kernan.
“People might’t think that. Or know it, even. But perception is one thing, reality is another.”
And that has been McGeeney’s problem.
A decade in the job, it has taken him 10 years to become an overnight sensation.
Routinely undermined - Joe Brolly being his fiercest critic - it has taken time to get things right.
His start was disastrous, Armagh suffering a series of humiliating defeats, Donegal beating them by nine points in 2015, by 12 in 2020. Cavan had eight points to spare in 2016, Monaghan hit 4-17 against them in 2021.
With just two wins out of his first eight provincial games, McGeeney could, justifiably, have been sacked. But there is a good reason why he wasn’t. “He’s driven; he leads,” says Kernan.
Yet it was not just that.
Armagh’s county board are realists. This week, their chairman, Paul McArdle, pointed out that their playing population is the fourth smallest in the country. Whether it is or not is hard to quantify but when you look at the number of clubs in Armagh - 48 - the truth is that it is the same number as Laois, one more than Westmeath.
Between them those two counties have won two Leinster titles and a National League since 1946. In the same timeframe, Armagh have won 12 Ulsters, one League and one Sam Maguire, Sunday being the fifth All-Ireland final in their history.
That tells us two things, one that they are punching way above their weight as a county, and secondly, a misconception exists that they are a footballing powerhouse.
“That comes from what was achieved between 1999 and 2008, the seven Ulsters, the two All-Ireland finals, the League win,” says Aaron Kernan who arrived onto that team towards the end of its cycle.
“People think we have underachieved since then that we are more of a traditional (footballing) county than what the reality is. Unfortunately we are not.”
McGeeney picked up on this theme, highlighting how 12 of the county’s 14 Ulster titles were effectively won by just three teams, Bill McCorry’s team of the fifties, Jimmy Smyth’s side in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, and then the 1999-08 side that he was an integral part of.
Rather than underachieve, Armagh have actually overachieved, five All-Ireland finals a remarkable return when you consider Westmeath, their Leinster equivalent in terms of a player population, have never even been to one semi-final.
And it’s why the criticism of McGeeney needs to be revised.
While Armagh struggled in Ulster in McGeeney’s first six years, winning two out of eight provincial games, it has to be remembered his immediate predecessors won just three out of nine Ulster championship matches.
Then in 2022 came the brawls.
Colm O’Rourke called them the ‘common denominator’ after rows broke out in three of their games that year while Brolly suggested ‘they were out of control’.
A year later, after losing to Derry on penalties, Brolly wrote in his Gaelic Life column that ‘Kieran hangs over them like a tonne of weight.
“Fifteen years (Kildare then Armagh) without a trophy. Maybe management is not his forte?”
It’s a strong argument.
Yes, Kildare failed to win trophies under McGeeney, but they did win respect, as well as a place in five All-Ireland quarter-finals and the 2010 All-Ireland semi-final. In his final year, he coached the county’s Under 21s to a Leinster title and then got voted out by county delegates.
Kildare since have reached the last eight of the All-Ireland series just twice, losing by 26 points to Kerry in 2015, losing all three of their Super 8 matches in 2018. This year they competed in the Tailteann Cup.
While this was going on, Armagh stuck by McGeeney during some lean years.
“Cohesion is a big thing in intercounty football,” argued Diarmuid Connolly this week. “There was a lot of talk in the early years that the players did not want McGeeney in charge. So it took courage to stick by him. Look at them now.”
What has changed is that McGeeney has changed.
He’s learned … about himself firstly, his players secondly.
All bar two of his panel have been brought in since he took over, Stefan Campbell and Rory Grugan the exceptions.
Everyone else was taught the value of defending and attacking as a team. Then this year something clicked. They began to attack more, forced to do so after Kerry missed a couple of goal chances just after half time in the All-Ireland semi-final.
“There was more telepathy between the defence and forwards,” says Aaron Kernan. “And when you hold more players up the field, it then allows more space all over the pitch, which creates more one on one battles.
“That is when our boys are at their absolute best.”
What has also helped is McGeeney’s willingness to gamble and hold stars in reserve. Campbell, compared by Aaron Kernan to Diarmuid Connolly, is now used to being a sub, McGeeney pulling the team’s longest serving player aside to explain his philosophy, that he needs his strongest side at the finish, not at the start.
Yet he is not the only one held back.
Jarlath Burns has scored 2-15 from play in Championship football; Oisin O’Neill has chalked up 0-14; Ross McQuillan 1-5. All three, along with Campbell, came on as subs against Kerry. Each one made an impact, justifying McGeeney’s risk.
This is Aaron Kernan: “Those subs have ability, huge fitness levels, pace, and are able to carry ball and break into open spaces so even if the final does go to extra time, we have the fitness levels to get us over the line.
“Basically at half time, if there is a starter who has not hit a 7 or an 8 out of 10, he has to come off, and Geezer has shown he can rejig the team to accommodate Stefan.”
All of which is a test of the manager's nerve.
Yet he has stuck to his policy.
And his county board have stuck to theirs.
Sometimes the long game is the only one to play.
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