Conleith Gilligan says Armagh have room for improvement
Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney, left, and Armagh coach Conleith Gilligan before the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Armagh and Derry at BOX-IT Athletic Grounds in Armagh. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile.
By Karl O'Kane
Conleith Gilligan says Armagh can’t butter up their indifferent Allianz Division 1 campaign after they survived following a dramatic final day comeback draw against Kerry.
Coach Gilligan says that while the 2024 All-Ireland champions were happy with the fight they showed across a testing Spring with a raft of high profile absentees, they were annoyed at their inability to close out games.
Narrow defeats by Galway, Roscommon, Donegal and Mayo left Armagh fighting for their top flight lives, but an impressive come from behind Croke Park victory over Dublin and that draw with Kerry saw them stay up on five points.
But Kieran McGeeney’s men have little time to regroup with an Ulster Championship Preliminary Round encounter with Tyrone on Sunday at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds.
“It was very mixed,” said former Derry star Gilligan of Armagh’s league. “We missed a lot of players.
“A lot of players got a lot of game time and ultimately when you’re fighting for survival on the last day, you can’t butter it up as good.
“But within the poor bits of not getting results, we did play well in patches. We just never put it together for full games outside of Monaghan, and that was the frustration.
“It was very, very important to stay up. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t.
“But if you go into Division Two and something happens - you lose players through injuries, you get a couple of bad results and all of a sudden Sam Maguire and Tailteann Cup becomes a question midway through the League.
“At least when you’re in Division One, if you have a bad start there’s a bit of protection in that.
“For ourselves, a lot of those players playing those games, you learn an awful lot even from the ones you lose.
“Even that day in Mayo, we’d some very good performances. The Dublin game - Tomas McCormack came in and was excellent. That’s where the learning happens. He plays the Kerry game in a very similar vein.
“For younger players, it’s way more important than for the experienced players because you’re just getting way more exposure to better teams and bigger games and crowds, and it gives you slightly better preparation ahead of championship.”
Tomás McCormack of Armagh during the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Dublin and Armagh at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
Gilligan continued: “There’s aspects of it you’d be happy with but you can’t be happy that some of the games were tight coming down the stretch and we didn’t win them. We didn’t draw them. We lost them.
“We wouldn’t be happy. A lot of it was a breach or dissent or a foul late on - even the game against Mayo. There’s a lot of stuff we wouldn’t be happy with but a lot of that stuff is well within our control.
“Within that, the fact that we were fit to dig ourselves out of really difficult situations with a relatively inexperienced team compared to what we would have had - that was a huge positive.
“A lot of players, when it would be easy to put your head down and give up and say it’s not our day, didn’t do that.
“They fought back to draw or win or nearly win. There’s always something you can build on from there.”
Tyrone operated in Division 2 this year and saw their campaign peter out in disappointing fashion after they lost three of their last four games - to Louth, Meath and Cork.
“Tyrone’s league campaign was very similar to our own,” said Gilligan. “You’d (Niall) Morgan, (Darren) McCurry, (Michael) McKernan, Darragh Canavan missing a few games. They were the same and trying to get up with new and untested players.
“They’d be disappointed in some of the games they lost that they might have won. It makes it very dangerous – it’s still Tyrone.
“It’s still a derby game and the winning and losing of it is massive. You’re in the preliminary round, earlier than you’d have wanted to be out but that’s where we’re at. It’s a huge game for both teams in terms of kick-starting their summer.”
Gilligan says Armagh’s players - young or old - won’t be fooled by Tyrone’s indifferent year to date.
“I don’t think so,” he remarked. “I think players are cute enough now to know and the proximity of Armagh to Tyrone.
“Even our younger players would have looked at their younger players winning Hogan Cups and All-Ireland Under-20s, so there’s no illusion with the younger players as to the quality Tyrone have.
“The older players - they’ve been through the mill before and been stung in big games before where they were supposed to be favourites.
“Last year’s Kerry game was the prime example, where the expectation was that Kerry wouldn’t beat Armagh and look how that turned out.
“The fact that the League is done now, every team’s looking for that one big win to ignite their summer.
“From a Tyrone perspective, going to Armagh to do that would be high on their list of priorities.”
