By John Harrington

Ahead of the 2021 Allianz Football League, Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney spoke to the media on Tuesday for a typically interesting and forthright chat on a variety of subjects from his own MMA injuries to the impact Kieran Donaghy has made since joining his management team.

Now in his seventh year in charge of the Armagh footballers, the Mullaghbawn man is clearly as passionate about the game as ever.

Q: Kieran, did you enjoy the break from football during lockdown or were you keen to get back to it?

A: At the very start of the lockdown, I had a bit of an operation. I had to get my shoulder reconstructed. I had to get five muscles cut off and reattached. So my head was elsewhere for the first part of the lockdown and then for the second one, not knowing was a big part.

There was no specific plan for anybody in the country, you didn’t know whether [return] was going to be the next month or the month after or month after. I suppose that was the hardest part of it, just not knowing any particular plan. But everybody was in the same boat and you just had to roll with it. I have the kids and the craic was good at home, teaching and playing and kicking about and stuff like that. There was definitely plenty happening to keep me busy.

Q: Why did you have to get surgery on your shoulder?

A: Years of self abuse and self harm, I suppose! I got caught with a kimura then at the end of it. That was a couple of years ago. I fell on it at training and a whole lot of different things, it was just years of taking hits and bangs and knocks and eventually it was… when I went in for the referral, some of the things were just hanging on by threads. They said they’d take them off and reattach them and that sort of stuff. It’s just called getting old! Unfortunately, it happens the best of us, it’s just one of those things.

Q: Did the pandemic change you in any way?

A: That’s a good question. I don’t know. I suppose it’s changed us all to some degree. But I suppose looking at how other sports are looked upon… over the last four months all we could read about was rugby and soccer, we’ve seen no Gaelic at all apart from a couple of stories here and there. It’s been interesting to watch how other sports talk about themselves compared to us.

There’s probably a couple of headlines in that one, but I think I’ll keep them to myself!

Q: In a way did the lockdown and the obligation for players to train on their own lead to greater mental toughness?

A: I don’t know about the mental toughness but I definitely think personal responsibility has played a big part. There’s no necessity to do anything now, or there hasn’t been for a number of months. It’s a personal choice. We often talk about amateur sports, professional sports and elite sports and all of those different titles but I think no matter what you do, if you’re trying to do your best with something, it comes down to personal responsibility and doing the best that you can. I would say that’s probably the biggest thing that’s come out of it.

It comes down to a personal choice of what you want to do in your time away from everything else. I do believe that it has helped - the inter-connections that we all strive for is missing, whether that’s work, family or team, that’s been a big miss. But I do see a lot of maturity and a lot of the fellas taking responsibility for, not so much their own training, but definitely for their own performance and their own attitude and desire. I think that’s been a big plus.

Q: You’re playing other Ulster teams in this regional Allianz Football League. Would you have preferred a tilt at teams like Kerry and Dublin in Division 1?

A: Yeah. Well, I’d say yeah that this side of the games. Maybe if you'd have asked me after the games, it would have been a different sort of reply. Ach yeah, it's probably a wee bit incestuous, like. We have Monaghan, Tyrone, Donegal, and ourselves. It would have been nice to travel around and see some of the other teams, but, listen, we’re all in the same boat as I said.

There’s no point in giving out or complaining. They're going to be tough games for us, we're all well aware of each other and they'll probably see us as the whipping boys coming up. We’re hoping to give a good account of ourselves. But it’s going to be hard and heavy, three Sundays in-a-row and then a play off or a relegation game against one of the three teams, in four weeks. It’s going to be quite tough. I could see why they did it at the start. You can see why they do these things but again, it is what it is.

Q: Has not being in Division 1 been a stall on development in recent years?

A: It's taken us six years to bounce up there. I know in some people's world that's a long time. It's about getting a team that can stay there. We would see it as paramount because in the past when the pressure has come on, we haven't responded the way we would like.

Having those types of games, when there's pressure coming on all the time, it's something we badly need, in terms of being able to react well to it. I think we've got big players and a good squad but it's like everything else - you have to learn to win these battles if you're going to win wars. We've failed in a couple of those. So being in the first division is going to be paramount to the development of this particular squad.

Q: You must pleased to have Ross McQuillan back in the panel after his return from Australia?

A: It’s great to see Ross back in. He was away and seemed to enjoy his time over there. But, home was calling to him, and it’s great to have him back on the panel.

Q: Presumably he's in good shape from playing in the AFL, but will playing Gaelic Football again be much of an adjustment?

A: Ross was always in good physical nick. I’d say he’d even say himself there wouldn't be much different between the Aussie Rules boys and our fellas in terms of it’s a wee bit different of a game. The role he was playing was similar to a wing back, wing forward,

so it would have been a similar type of training. Ross is like his dad (Martin). Athleticism comes easy to him.

Q: Will working with someone like Kieran Donaghy be a big help for players like Ross, and Oisin and Rian O’Neill?

A: I hope so. Like, we have Kieran Donaghy, Ciarán McKeever and Ciarán McKinney. It seems like we have the four Ciarans.

Yeah, it definitely will. We had great coaches in there, we had John there, Paddy McKeever who had done it all at the top level as well. Obviously Jim (McCorry) It’s a different slant.

The reason I went after Kieran was Kieran made a career out of bringing other people into the game and I just think that’s something we were still missing in Armagh.

It’s sometimes hard to explain to people. Sometimes, I think you can have too many good forwards.

You need people to make them tick, a bit like (Ciarán) Kilkenny does for Dublin, like Kieran would have done for Kerry, things like that. I just thought Kieran would have that type of background in his basketball too.

Ciarán McKeever would be quite similar, obviously being captain of Armagh, centre back. That’s a big quality he has, bringing other people into the game. Obviously Ciarán McKinney being a goalkeeper, last man back, his whole job is to make everybody else look good.

We are trying to bring a different perspective to the squad in terms of bringing each other into the game, and not just always being thinking of the next ball, trying to think about how to play as a team. The three Ciarans will definitely bring that to it.

Q: We’ve seen a lot of Ulster coaches coach outside of the province but few coaches from outside the province come in and coach Ulster counties. Does bringing in someone like Kieran Donaghy from a county like Kerry bring something different to the group?

A: Kieran is a very gregarious type of character anyway. He is good fun.

They find it hard to stop laughing at me all the time. It’s good to have somebody else in with a sense of humour.

He brings that sort of an edge to it, but at my wedding my dad was slagging all the Kerry ones, now that we have a Kerry women in the family, we can have all the skill of the Armagh ones and all the dirt of the Kerry ones.

It should be a good balance. I am slagging Kieran about that. Nah, be brings a different perspective to it. I don’t think it’s so much where people come from. It’s going back to that point, Kieran with basketball, I also think the fact that although playing underage with Kerry, that he got in through the Underdogs system, he has a great humility about him as well.

He has loads of All-Irelands in the back pockets, All Stars and things like that, International Rules. He has got everything but there is a great humility about him too, and a great humility about the way he does things.

I don’t really think it makes a difference where you are from. Your characteristics you bring to it will definitely add a different dimension. I think the three Ciarans all have their own character, but Kieran’s pathway has definitely given him all the attributes to be a great coach.

Q: When you say that bringing other people into the play is something that has been missing for Armagh do you mean that some of your forwards have been too individualistic or selfish?

A: There are different aspects of it. To be a very good forward you have to have a small line of selfishness. You have to have that striker’s impact and things. But, the way the game has progressed over the years, people have got a wee bit more defensive in how they play the game, defensive systems and all that, people have been slow to change.

But, as we all know, things have (changed) now. Despite defences, good teams are able to break them down. The only way to break them down is actually using each other, setting things up, and that there are more set plays and different things involved in it.

That’s I suppose the area I am sort of looking at that it’s not all about just looking at that particular shot, how to set up that particular shot, how to be able to take defences apart and create that space. I suppose again with basketball, that type of approach, it’s a work in process there.

Q: You’re playing Monaghan in the opening round of the League. Will both teams seek not to show their hand ahead of possibly Ulster semi-final?

A: One thing you learn in Ulster very quickly, or I do, is that you don't even take any games (for granted). Cavan only managed to get past Antrim last year by a few points. We would just be focused on that.

I suppose Monaghan and Armagh will look at each other as a way of getting a good start and try and getting two points on the board. I'm sure the other two teams will look at us as the two lesser teams in it. Trying to get a good start will be at the top of both our lists, to get going and give us a foothold to move on maybe get another win.

There'll be very little shadow-boxing, it'll be both teams going hell for leather to see can they get two points on the board. All other games - although they're in the very near future - will seem like a good distance away when we line out on Sunday.

Q: Armagh had a bad day at the office last year in the Ulster semi-final against Donegal. Was that a big set-back?

A: It was. When you look back at the first quarter, we should have been probably ahead. But that’s the difference between the lower-ranked teams and the top teams. You make one or two mistakes and a team like that will punish you. It wasn’t like a strong breeze, but we made a few bad decisions and suddenly it was a goal and three points, bang, and from being two points behind, you’re eight behind and the heads drop. I think the hardest thing was that because of the pandemic, everyone just got up and went home. Normally, you can stay together, you can win an All-Ireland over a point, maybe lessen the blow. But that was hard for teams to go their own separate way after what was a long, difficult year for everybody. Although it ended on a bad note, it was a decent year. We’re back at it now, we’re facing them in a couple of weeks so we’re going to have to get over it fairly quickly.

Q: Next year it’ll be 20 years since Armagh’s All-Ireland win. Is that hard to credit? Do you think about that moment once a month, a week, a day? Where does it fit in?

A: It probably doesn't fit in that much at all, to be honest. You just caught up in what you're doing now.

Twenty years ago, I've fellas I'm working with now that weren't even born. It's funny at the start when you started using examples of different players they could look at - and you know they're looking at you going, 'Who the f**k is he?' You know you're definitely getting old!

Earlier on, talking about the likes of Ross (McQuillan) and (Aidan) Forker, all of them, I played with their Dads. Even saying that sentence, 'I played with your Dad', just makes you feel old.

When you're looking out through your own eyes, you still see the world the same way you did 25 years ago. But the ones who are looking back at you just see someone who's old and grey and maybe full of shit.

So you have to be wary of that particular thing. I might see the world in the same way, they're not looking back at me in the same way.

Q: You’ve said before that geography shouldn't determine whether you're an All-Ireland contender but when you see teams like Dublin and Kerry continuing to dominate the game it clearly does. Why is that?

A: I would say everybody here could probably answer that question. Geography tends to promote a culture. Culture is a big thing. If you take it that everyone in the Kerry squad, or even Cork, would mostly have a Munster medal by the time they're 21, at some level. The fact that they're two predominantly football counties in a hurling province.

If you look at the history of Gaelic football, whether it's Galway, Mayo, Cork, Kerry and Dublin and AN Other, if you sit outside those particular counties, they're larger populations and you can see why those cultures have developed and why success has come there.

When you expect success and desire success, it creates a higher level of activity with people wanting to play at that level, therefore, the bar is continually rising. They just think differently about all the stuff that they do. In terms of technical ability, you can see at club level, it doesn't really make a difference where you're from. It doesn't match the same ratio. Although it's nothing to do with geography, it does play a part in the culture of each county.

Q: You’ve lived, worked and played in Dublin. Are you surprised to the extent they have come to dominate the game?

A: It’s interesting seeing it from the point of view that when I was there, those players were starting to come through and I was in the middle of it - now when everyone’s calling them the greatest team ever and some of the greatest players ever, the same people were calling them useless back then. I remember people talking about individual players like Paul Flynn - the club he was from and they hadn’t won anything. And James McCarthy and what had he done? And Jonny Cooper - even though he was my club - whether he had it or not to make it?

Now everyone’s saying how brilliant they are. It’s funny when you’re in the media, the way you’re able to change tune and pretend that you’ve known everything from the start. But those guys have put in a hell of a lot of work. Whether it’s Diarmuid Connolly or James McCarthy, you have to admire the work-ethic that they’ve had over the last six/seven years. I would be a big admirer of what they do but how they behave. I can still see them around Dublin and there’s not one of them who wouldn’t stop and say hello to you and chat the football with you. They’ve no airs or graces, and just from the hard-work and their dedication, they’ve been a credit to their counties, their clubs and to themselves.

Q: Is Jamie Clarke gone off the Armagh panel?

A: Jamie’s in Paris, someone was telling me. So, unless we’re starting an international team, he’s not going to be in it for this year.

Q: Jamie has been on and off the panel in recent years. Does that show that inter-county Gaelic Football isn’t the be all and end all for the most talented players anymore?

A: I think the opposite. I think we’re all caught in a time-warp, so we are. We tend to focus in on the three/four players (who don’t commit) of the 3000 who are involved with inter-county, I think it’s a small percentage. Everyone has a personal choice. Jamie is an exceptionally good fella, I have a lot of time for him personally and he was always straight up when he goes.

Some people just have different passions. I don’t really think it’s got to do with the football or the commitment. They just tend to give commitment to other things. I suppose it depends where your cards are aligning on your particular journey. I would actually think the opposite of where you know, I think football nowadays is far more enjoyable, you have to remember that when we were going back training/travelling home, we were going back to run on a pitch.

We did a pre-season in September, another one in January and another one in April/May, and all we did was run. That’s all we did, run! The summer months were great but you still ran until a week or two before championship when you got to sharpen up with a few sprints! Now it’s just all football, outside of pre-season, game scenarios. Definitely, at the tail end of my career, it was coming a bit like that but at the beginning, I could have been a 400/800m runner.

That’s how Martin McQuillan and those boys were killing me. You were going home depressed after running down sand-dunes and up hills. I think it’s a great time to be involved in football. I genuinely do. I think it’s moved on exponentially in terms of what they’re doing for their players, and even just to be able to access the different things that you can there as a footballer.

It’s not for everybody, especially when you’re not getting first-team hurling/football, it’s easy to get disgruntled because in everything like that, people are going to have different opinions. Mine might not be right and a manager might pick different player, but I think in general, players are enjoying football and hurling.