National Football League Division One, round seven
Armagh 1-21 Kerry 0-24
THERE was a pregnant pause as Armagh players and supporters huddled beneath the stand moments after the hooter sounded – followed by a huge cheer when word filtered through that Galway’s victory in Salthill had sent Dublin down instead of the Orchard.
It looked like being a different story at half-time, with the Tribe trailing the Dubs and Armagh two down to a Kerry side that came flying out of the blocks at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds – some scintillating stuff from Dylan Geaney and the maestro, David Clifford, moving the Kingdom 0-10 to nil point clear 21 minutes.
But, as past years have so often shown, shifting standings are often an irrelevance. And, since the introduction of football’s new rules, so are big early leads.
“We started the game really on fire,” said Kerry boss Jack O’Connor, “but there’s no lead safe now, lads…”
Armagh proved that again, finally getting a foothold around the middle and battling back into contention. Roared on by the vast majority of the 12,124 crowd, they appeared set for a memorable final-day victory until Sean O’Shea’s late leveller.
Ross McQuillan pulled a final chance wide to bring a breathless contest to an end – both parties happy enough with their lot when all was said and done, the Orchard retaining their Division One status while Kerry move into a league final against Donegal on Sunday.
“It’s one of those days where, I wouldn’t say everybody leaves with a smile on their face, but they’ll look at the mistakes in a more friendly manner… it’s maybe not as friendly if it’s the All-Ireland quarter-finals,” said Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney.
“Kerry coming to town, playing the best football in the country at the minute, we had to put in a performance. Outside of the first 20 minutes, which was a disaster, we did that.”
But conversion, and efficiency in front of goal, has been a recurring source of frustration for McGeeney throughout Armagh’s league campaign. Sunday was no different.
“I’d be a greedy fecker - I still want to win.
“The kick-outs, we won four out of 13 of our own, they won four out of 13 of their own. So we were just poor - we had seven great attacks and f**ked all of them up.
“We had loads of overlaps, very simple scores to take… very frustrating, but it’s just something you have to constantly work on, taking that simple score.”
It was a first return to the Athletic Grounds for Kieran Donaghy too, and the Tralee man – a crucial part of McGeeney’s backroom team in the 2024 All-Ireland win – was handing out hugs and back slaps to anyone in orange.
Donaghy’s loyalty now lies with his native Kerry once more, but even the experienced O’Connor showed a temporary soft spot for the Orchard after completing their survival mission.
“I’m delighted with that,” he said, having initially been told McGeeney’s men were relegated, “Armagh didn’t deserve to go down after those last two performances.
“I really enjoyed the occasion, brilliant atmosphere; great Armagh crowd and they really got behind their team, so it was a great test.
“They’re a fair detail under the kick-out, they’ve a lot of big men and they’re good on breaking ball. I tell you now, for Shane Murphy to survive here is a great test of him.
“We had a brilliant start obviously, but Armagh were always going to come back. Once they got on a bit of a run, they’re a streaky team and with that crowd behind them, they were turbo-charged there after the first 20 or 25 minutes.”
Indeed, it was the introduction of Armagh’s own ‘Turbo’, Conor Turbitt, five minutes before half-time that helped turn the tide in the Orchard’s favour.
O’Connor’s men had to show plenty of mettle too as the momentum swung back and forth in the second half, and the Kingdom supremo was delighted his men got a “championship pace” work-out before the serious stuff gets under way – with Donegal, and a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland decider, up first.
“I wouldn’t get overexcited about revenge for a league defeat, but it’s another good game for us,” he said when asked about their sole loss of the league campaign in Ballyshannon.
“That game today is worth a month’s training. I thought it was played at championship pace, I don’t know what you thought, but looking at it from the sideline it looked like championship pace.
“It was a brilliant occasion, to come in here with a full house, massive entertainment - sure what’s not to be happy about?”
