Armagh players deserve 'great applause' for digging out hard-fought win over Tyrone says manager Kieran McGeeney
It wasn’t a game for the purists on Sunday, as Armagh defeated Tyrone, with mistakes, turnovers and missed shots aplenty on both sides, but all that matters is getting the right result, which is what the Orchard County did.
Despite the build up to the game suggesting Armagh as heavy favourites, manager Kieran McGeeney said that rumours of Tyrone’s demise were greatly exaggerated, and that they are still a quality team.
Furthermore, he praised his players for the ‘grit and hard work’ they showed to pull out the 1-17 to 1-16 victory in extra-time, despite playing with 14 men against 15 following Darragh McMullen’s red card towards the end of normal time.
“I know that they were without Darragh [Canavan], but they have [Conn] Kilpatrick, [Niall] Morgan, [Michael] McKernan, [Eoin] McElholm, [Darren] McCurry, Mattie Donnelly, those are not bad players.
“They were good enough to get to an All-Ireland Semi-final last year. Sometimes the noise might sell newspapers. Although we weren't at our best, teams like that will push you the whole way.
“There are parts of it where we're maybe disappointed with our performance and maybe there were parts that we weren't prepared for. But at the other side of it, you have to give the fellas some great applause for the way that they dug it out in the end.
“We went down a man and Tyrone hit two massive two-pointers to cancel out our goal and our point. But we did really well defensively whenever we were down a man and we were able to get the scores, with Turbo [Conor Turbitt] getting the winning one.
“We made a lot of mistakes, but the last ball was typical – it was a 50-50, there were a lot of bodies going in and Gareth [Murphy] put his body on the line and came out with it.
“Sometimes, that's the way games go, they just have to be won with a wee bit of grit and hard work and that was the story today.”
Young guns making their mark
McGeeney mentioned the contributions of Gareth Murphy, and he is one of several young players making their mark on the Armagh team this year, as the squad continues to evolve.
“In fairness to all of the young fellas, Gareth, Petey [McGrane], Oisin [Conaty], Darragh Mac, they’re only 22 or 23 years of age and they would be the main fellas in the team at the minute,” said the Armagh manager.
“They’re pushing hard and that’s the way we want it. We only had five players starting today who started in the All-Ireland final winning team. That’s some turnover in 18 months. Now, we had a couple of them on the line, and they came in and did really well for us.
“We still have work to do, but any Championship win in Ulster, especially against your neighbours is always going to be hard fought, and we’re thankful for it.”
Quarter-final against Fermanagh to come
With two weeks now to get tired bodies recovered and prepare for Fermanagh in the quarter-final, McGeeney had a tongue-in-cheek comment, regarding their Carton House episode.
“We’ll have to make sure we get our training camp right this time.”