TWO WEEKS AGO, Tony Kernan gave a subtle hint that he is entrenched in ‘Championship mode’.
It’s 6.45am and Armagh players and journalists are congregating in the Mardyke Suite of the Canal Court Hotel for the county’s pre-Championship press conference.
When breakfast is served, everyone in the room takes advantage of the mountain of sausages, crispy rashers of bacon, soda bread and fried mushrooms. Well, almost everyone.
Kernan waits patiently as a waitress delivers two poached eggs and a cappuccino to his table. At this stage, we’re 13 days away from the Donegal game – a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final clash at Croke Park – yet the Crossmaglen man remains disciplined when the country’s media are watching.
Now in his eighth year in an orange jersey, Kernan is the archetypal McGeeney footsoldier.
After six seasons in the Championship wilderness, Armagh players now emit a renewed focus that has been missing since their Ulster title win in 2008.
Greasy fry-ups have been punt-passed far into Armagh’s trophy-laden past – a past that Kernan admits has haunted the current crop of players for far too long.
“The players have to ship a lot of responsibility [for the county’s decline],” he said.
“Standards had been set by great players like Oisin McConville, Stevie McDonnell, Kieran McGeeney Tony and John McEntee and Diarmuid Marsden in training and maybe we didn’t adopt those standards and we fell by the wayside.
“I played in the Championship against Cavan in 2008 and I think that was the tailend of the good days for Armagh. We had some real leaders in that dressing room.
“Those guys were idols for most of us and watching them play for Armagh is the reason why we put in so much time and effort to get to where we are at.
“We did struggle [to replace them] but our standards and preparation have improved. With Kieran coming in, performances have changed.
“I have one Ulster medal in my collection and it was nice. I would like to add more to it, but we will look at Donegal first.”
The two counties have had to sit back and suffer as every other team in the province has tasted Championship football before them this year.
Nine months after Armagh let Donegal squirm free when an almighty scalp was at their mercy, Kernan has that Championship itch again.
“I’d say it is more frustration because you want to be playing,” he said.
“You see everyone playing on TV as the weekends go by and you want to be part of it.
“Championship is the time of the year that everyone looks forward to and seeing everyone else get a piece of it... you’re sitting at home saying ‘I want some of that too!’.
“You know what Ulster Championship football is about. Every team thinks on any given day that they can beat the opposition and I don’t expect Sunday to be any different.
“It is good to be in the Athletic Grounds but I don’t think you can compare it to the game last year in Croke Park.
'I think we were five or six matches down the road last year and we were a bit tighter. There is a lot more expectation this year but the reality is, we were a Division Three team and Donegal should have won the All-Ireland last year.
“Armagh people are more positive than we were 12 months ago but we can’t get carried away with ourselves. Donegal and Monaghan can look at winning Ulster titles, but the rest of us can look at the first round and say ‘That’s what our focus is’.
“Whatever happens after Sunday, will happen – but that’s our main focus.”
Under Kernan’s Armagh training jacket, he’s wearing a sky blue shirt and a navy tie.
A retail leasing surveyor with Lambert Smith and Hampton in Belfast, the All-Ireland Club Championship winner will travel to the city for a 9am start.
He is frequently on the move to London and Glasgow and while it has taken longer than he expected, Kernan feels he has found the right balance in his life.
“You do need accommodating employers for inter-county football,” said Kernan.
“You are away from your family a fair bit but it is something I love – something we all love – and we all want to do it.
“There is that buzz of running out in front of a full crowd at the Athletic Grounds in the first round of the Championship so there’s a lot of bonuses that comes with it.
“I have always played for Armagh, but I’ve never got the chance to play so many games in a row and you get a bit of consistency. Last year we had seven games and people begin to notice you more.”
Kernan finished 2014 as Armagh’s top Championship scorer with 0-25 and was the sixth top in the country throughout the All-Ireland series.
“It is difficult when you are away for six months and you come back in and someone is playing well in your position and you can’t get in,” he said.
“There are downsides to playing county football but there are a lot of positives as well and for me, they outweigh the downsides.”
While Kernan has clearly got the diet and physical Championship preparations mastered, he has had to work on the mental side of his game since last August. He doesn’t flinch when he speaks about the two difficult free-kicks he missed to tie the game against Donegal.
“The misses hang around for a wee while, but it’s not something I would lose a huge amount of sleep over,” he said.
“Free-taking is a responsibility I take upon myself and it’s something I enjoy. I will continue to do that.
“Plenty of people have missed high-profile kicks and bounced back so hopefully I can do the same.”
Kernan for the winner? Don’t bet against it.
