By Cian O’Connell

Jim McCorry acknowledges that one significant mission was accomplished by Armagh, who attained Allianz Football League Division One status last weekend.

That will be hugely important for the development of Kieran McGeeney’s team according to the well regarded Armagh selector.

"It was a great feeling, but also a surreal feeling in the current climate,” McCorry says ahead of Sunday’s Ulster SFC tussle with Derry.

“We were going very well before the shutdown. A lot of people expected Roscommon and us to go up, that is the way it turned out in the end. We were disappointed not to do it in our own back yard when we played Roscommon up there, but they are a formidable outfit.

“They had all of their players back, maybe bar Donie Smith, they had a full deck of cards to pick from. We struggled a bit because we had two weeks of a close down really during the four week period of prep that we were supposed to have.

“Even to get through that game and do as well as we did, when we reflected back on it we took a lot of positives from that. It was nice to finish it off in Clare, to move up into Division One.

“It is a nice reward for the work those guys have put in, especially for Kieran over these past few years, taking them from Division Three right up to Division One. It has been great.”

Increasing the depth of the Armagh panel is one of the tasks McGeeney has sought to achieve and the recent evidence is encouraging.

“What we needed to do was to make sure we moved up in the quality stakes in terms of the playing personnel,” McCorry admits. “You can see that most commentators, including yourselves, are saying how strong a playing pool of players we have now. We have players being taken off and we are hopefully putting on guys equally as good.

“It didn't work out that way against Roscommon, but all of the guys, who came into the game against Clare played really well. It is important nowadays, and it will be even more important when you go into the Championship and Division One that you have a really strong panel of quality players.

“When you take one or two off that there is no weakness, that it could even improve the team, to finish with a stronger team than you started. The likes of the O'Neill's, everyone is commenting on those, but you have a whole lot of other players.

“Those two guys will be the first to tell you about the quality of players coming through in Armagh. We just want to continue to build on that, you can see the improvement in the last two years with the quality of players coming in. When you apply the right coaching and tactics then that is working for us.”

Under McGeeney’s stewardship the vast majority of players in the county are ready, willing, and able to answer the inter-county call.

“You ask players to come along, to play for the county, and I've experienced it in the past at club and county level; some players for different reasons don't make themselves available or players might want to travel, players have family commitments,” McCorry states. “That is fine, there is no problem. Those that want to play for their county, Kieran has an open door.

“Players who want to come, to participate in the programme we have, to show what they have, there is an open door policy. You can see the fruits of that. We were looking at a few more players during the Club Championship. Armagh TV ran all of the games, Junior, Intermediate, and Senior level, a fantastic programme and coverage of games.

“We could go to the games live, but we could also watch them on TV. You had five or six other players that we were looking at for next year. With whatever format we are going to have next year, whenever it starts, we are going to have a few more players coming through too.”

Delivering on the Ulster stage, though, is next on the agenda for Armagh. “Sure, you obviously set your stall out at the start of the year,” McCorry replies. “Your initial target is your McKenna Cup, those type of competitions to get your preparations right and to blood new players coming in, to try different styles of play.

“You then really want to consolidate yourself in the Division, and in our case we wanted to get to Division One, to get the experience playing against the top teams. Your real goal is obviously Championship football. That is why everyone plays sport. That starts this weekend for us.”

McCorry is delighted that 2020 will feature an Ulster Championship. “It is fantastic and I have to congratulate the GAA for getting games back on,” McCorry adds.

“It has been fantastic. A lot of people are commenting on should they or shouldn't they? I don't want to get into that argument, people are talking about that, but I would just like to say that they have been fantastic to get a full club programme run through this year.

“Now to finish off the Leagues and go into the Championship in the current environment is a fantastic achievement. Ulster Championship time is really special, every player loves it, every coach loves it.

“I love the buzz of the Ulster Championship. It is going to be different this year obviously with the time of the year, we are playing in different conditions. Players are used to playing in all types of conditions, you train in those conditions.

“Slightly different to look at in terms of if you get a really bad wet, windy day that you don't have in the summertime. You won't have the smell of the cut grass or the warmth of the sun with supporters at it, but the players still have to go through the same process in terms of getting ready for the Championship.

“It is the real reason they play Gaelic Football, to get into the Ulster Championship, to move on, to see how you can do against the big guys in the All Ireland series.”