Victorious Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney said his side’s tense All-Ireland Football Final triumph over Galway was the “perfect answer” to the “noise” generated by the team’s previous heartbreaking near misses.
Armagh’s defeat on penalties by Donegal in the Ulster Final in May was the county’s fourth shootout loss in three seasons of championship football but the Orchard men regrouped to emulate the county’s only previous All-Ireland triumph in 2002, when McGeeney skippered the side.
Asked for his reaction following the Orchard County’s 1-11 to 0-13 win over the wasteful Tribesmen, McGeeney said: ‘It feels quiet.
“It’s like wearing a pair of earmuffs for a change. Its quietening out all the noise.
“Back when we were playing, we got a couple of carrots to keep us going.
“These fellows have got knockback after knockback after knockback and they just keep coming. Penalty shootouts. Everyone telling them they can’t win tight games.”
McGeeney ‘going to enjoy this week’
Asked to compare the emotions of managing a team to the Sam Maguire Cup as opposed to playing in a victorious side, McGeeney replied: “When you play, you actually have an influence on it. You don’t when you don’t cross the white line.
“I probably wasn’t such a happy fellow back then, so I probably feel happier now.”
The Mullaghbawn native, the longest serving inter-county GAA manager having been appointed in the summer of 2014, added that he plans to play his full part in what are certain to full-on celebrations in Armagh this week.
“I’m going to enjoy this and enjoy this week. I really am. I’m over the moon for these fellows. I hope they have a ball this week.
“The county has gone mad [in the build-up to the All-Ireland Final]. I’ve been trying to keep them away from it, so I’ll let them loose on it this week.”
As he sat alongside players Tiernan Kelly and Oisin O’Neill in the post-match news conference, McGeeney spoke of his gratitude at the faith his squad had maintained in him.
“Time is a commodity that is not afforded to most people these days. I’m lucky with these lads here.
“I asked them every year or every week whether they still wanted me about. They would tell me a few different things but on the whole, they did. Once Armagh wanted me about, it was an easy choice to stay.”
McGeeney had to win a vote of the county’s executive and clubs to stay in the job last summer after the All-Ireland quarter-final penalty shootout defeat by Monaghan.
After Armagh went perilously close to losing the three-point lead they held with two minutes of normal time remaining, as Galway missed a series of late chances, McGeeney admitted his side had almost been guilty of not seeing the game out.
“We gave a couple of balls away which will happen when you haven’t won it before.
“But that sort of belief rather than the self-sabotage, a brilliant tackle by Ben [Crealey] on the far side that turned it over which changed the game.
“They are the thin margins. On other days, we’ve been on the wrong side of it.”
McGeeney could also have pointed to a vital block by Joe McElroy to a Paul Conroy shot in the closing seconds of added time which kept the Orchard men in front.
Ultimately, Aaron McKay’s 47th-minute goal proved the vital score, with Stefan Campbell’s sudden burst engineering the game’s key moment as he squared for the full-back to net.
“We’re proud with the fellows knowing that, in the third quarter they [Galway] are usually very strong, we hit a goal to keep ourselves in the game and in the last quarter, we had great life coming off the bench.”
Substitute Campbell set up the crucial goal only 30 seconds after being introduced by McGeeney.
Oisin O’Neill’s kicked what proved Armagh’s final point in the 65th minute after a most difficult week for his family following the death of his uncle and former Armagh player Padraig O’Neill, who was taken ill on the evening of the semi-final win over Kerry.
Both Oisin and brother Rian played crucial roles as they emulated uncle Oisin McConville in being part of an Armagh All-Ireland winning squad.
“Padraig, our uncle, played for Armagh and he would have wanted nothing to get in the way of the job we had to do this week. I think he’s looking over us today,” said O’Neill.
The Crossmaglen man added that McGeeney had spoken passionately to the squad in the build-up to the decider about “some of the tragedies and things people have gone through”.
“Geezer told us last weekend, that’s what glues us together. And you saw that out there today. We couldn’t be broken.”
Kieran McGeeney,Armagh,the Orchard,Oisin O'Neill,Galway
