Ciarán McKeever remains an Armagh lifer – from player to captain, from minor manager to senior coach – few have given as much to the cause. And on Sunday he finally gets to experience Gaelic football’s big day in the big house with an All-Ireland final meeting with Galway. Having made his senior debut in 2003, McKeever missed out on Armagh’s Sam Maguire triumph by only a matter of months.
He has been part of Kieran McGeeney’s management team for the last four years now, but for a brief period last August there was no guarantee the set-up would be allowed stay in place for 2024. In fact, McKeever feared McGeeney’s efforts in Armagh were about to be derailed as “Geezer’s” position at the helm was put to a vote at a county board meeting.
“You’re thinking the worst because you have helmets voting and that’s just the truth,” says McKeever. “You’ve people that are in clubs that have agendas potentially, just don’t like his personality, that are going to have a say on what way the county team is going to go and what the players are going to get.
“Luckily enough we have a really strong group of players that weren’t willing to allow that to happen. A couple of strong clubs stood up and it is what it is, he got the vote, and we are where we are today.”
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The clubs and executive committee came out strongly in support of the 2002 All-Ireland winning captain, with 46 in favour of McGeeney remaining for a 10th season and just 16 against. The vote also ensured McKeever would be back in orange (and black) for 2024. The Cullyhanna clubman was an Armagh senior footballer from 2003-2017 and captained the team during six of those years.
The teak-tough defender had hardly put his intercounty boots away when he was appointed Armagh minor manager in late 2018. An All-Ireland under-21 winner in 2004, following retirement McKeever spent two years with the minors before accepting an invitation to join McGeeney’s senior management team.
“I was sent down [to the minors] with a specific job to do, to look for missing links that Geezer wanted to try and embed within the senior set-up. It’s probably no coincidence that we felt we were lacking a bit of pace in different areas of the pitch and there’s probably where Petey McGrane and Oisín Conaty have come from. That’s what my job was for two years at that level.
“I came into the senior management with Star [Kieran Donaghy] and it’s been an incredible journey. From a management team perspective we just love being in each other’s company. We get a lot of criticism about the way we play but we feel that 90 per cent of teams in Ireland are playing the same way and it’s who can do it better, who can come up with different wee scenarios in clutch moments to get across the line.
“And that’s where we failed in the last three years. It’s something we really delved into this year, to look for that extra 1 per cent and see could we get better.”
One of the areas Armagh have clearly improved on in recent seasons is the strength of their bench. Their subs made a huge impact in the semi-final win over Kerry, scoring 0-4 compared to Kerry’s return of just 0-2.
“We didn’t have the squad [in the past], truth be told, we weren’t at that level, that’s just the harsh reality of it. But we felt over the last five or six years that we’ve potentially had that squad but we just weren’t getting it going down the stretch in big games.
“Whenever Deets [Conleith Gilligan] came in it was something he spoke about. He just went through the games and said, ‘This is what we’re getting from our bench.’ We all agreed that this is not going to get us to where we want to be. To be fair, the players have grasped that. We feel as a group now they are ready to do that and help us get across the line. We wouldn’t be here only for our bench, that’s the reality of it.”
McKeever experienced highs and lows as a player. He walked away with four Ulster titles but they all came in his first six years with the seniors, and by the latter stage of his career Armagh had started to tail off as a major force.
However, they have been building steadily in recent years, and though the county is still without an Ulster title since 2008 they have navigated a path back to a first All-Ireland final appearance in 21 years when they face Connacht champions Galway on Sunday.
“They’re an exceptional team. If I’m putting my hand on my heart they’re probably the best team we’ve played over the last four years, and how they structurally set up, they set up like an Ulster team,” says McKeever. “They’re really athletic, I think their whole half-forward line is averaging 6ft 2in. They’re big, they’re powerful and obviously they have the three boys inside, [Damien] Comer, Shane Walsh, [Rob] Finnerty that are exceptional finishers. They’re a really dangerous team.
“This is the fifth time we’re playing them. They beat us by a point, we beat them by a point, they beat us on penalties, we drew. We know the task that lies ahead of us.”
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