Heavy rain clouds have silver lining

Armagh will await the outcome of their rescheduled Allianz National Football League semi-final on Sunday before deciding if they need to do some rescheduling of their own.

Manager Joe Kernan had planned the now traditional warm-weather training trip to begin on Sunday week, which, should Armagh progress, would now clash with the league final. That partly explained Armagh's disgust when it was announced in Hyde Park last Sunday that their game with Mayo was off because of the waterlogged pitch. But by refixing it for Croke Park this Sunday they found at least some consolation, that even the heaviest rain clouds can have traces of a silver lining.

"It was a big disappointment at the time," explained forward Steven McDonnell, "especially when you're down in the dressingroom all ready for the game. So the situation wasn't ideal. But I suppose we weren't long complaining. Once we heard the game was being played in Croke Park we cheered up a little. It's a great chance to play there before the championship, and possibly the league final, so it definitely eased the disappointment of last Sunday.

"Every player wants to play in Croke Park as much as they can. The only problem now is the warm-weather training. We'll just have to wait and see. Before the postponement it was ideal timing, but we'll just wait and see what happens on Sunday. Some people suggested that we won't want to win as much because of that. But that's definitely not the case.

"We want to finish this league on a high. We got off to a very bad start down in Wexford, then managed to pick it up over the remaining games. Some of the wins were harder than others but we definitely feel we're good enough right now to win the thing."

Part of that motivation comes from the fact that Armagh have never won a football league title before. McDonnell also believes that even hard training is still no substitute for competitive matches.

"You always want to pick it up as you get closer to the championship. You know that's when the heavy hitting will start, and you do find yourself going out on your own to put a little extra bit of work in. But we know we're now guaranteed a real hard test against Mayo."

McDonnell admitted yesterday that the playing surface of Croke Park didn't look ideal. Repair work has only recently been completed and after another evening of heavy rain it looks like the pitch won't be at its best. "The grass isn't looking too long at the moment but you never know, it could be fine by Sunday. It looks like it could cut up quite easily, but if the experts say it will be ready we'll have to believe them."

He was, however, happy with the thought of soccer and rugby players getting to use the pitch at some time in the future: "I'd be happy enough to see the motion getting through. For me it's about giving other sportsmen a help out, because we are still talking about Irish players here."