Football

Donegal wake-up call means we have to work hard over the winter says Armagh full-forward Rian O'Neill

Donegal goalkeeper Shaun Patton and defender Jeaic McKelvey with Rian O'Neill of Armagh during the Ulster Senior Football Championship semi-final at Kingspan Breffni Park. Picture Margaret McLaughlin.
Donegal goalkeeper Shaun Patton and defender Jeaic McKelvey with Rian O'Neill of Armagh during the Ulster Senior Football Championship semi-final at Kingspan Breffni Park. Picture Margaret McLaughlin. Donegal goalkeeper Shaun Patton and defender Jeaic McKelvey with Rian O'Neill of Armagh during the Ulster Senior Football Championship semi-final at Kingspan Breffni Park. Picture Margaret McLaughlin.

POSITIVES were in short supply for Armagh and Rian O’Neill admits that he got his “eyes opened” by the chastening 12-point loss to Donegal in the Kingspan Breffni Saturday’s Ulster Championship semi-final.

Donegal cruised to a ninth Ulster final in 10 years and will meet Cavan at the Athletic Grounds in the decider on Sunday and were streets ahead and almost every department - three O’Neill frees were all Armagh could manage in the first half.

The Ulster rivals will meet again in Division One next season and, if anything good comes from the one-sided defeat, it’ll be the realisation that Armagh have lots of improvements to make before they begin life in the top tier.

“At the start of the year we set out to get Division One football,” said O’Neill.

“It’ll be a long winter now preparing for that and seeing how we can match ourselves this year. The game today was a wake-up call for us; it’ll show the work that needs to be done to get to that level, so we’ll have to put it in over the winter.”

O’Neill’s second free briefly had Armagh level on Saturday but by the break the Orchardmen needed a Cavan-esque miracle to get back in the game. They improved and broke even on the scoreboard in the second half but Donegal cantered home. O’Neill says the Orchardmen were, to an extent, the architects of their own downfall.

“We got our eyes opened to what it is really like against the best teams,” he said.

“In the first 15 or 20 minutes we didn’t take our chances, we dropped balls short and gave them a platform to come forward – it’s not good enough against a team with the quality they have. We gave them a platform to attack and you can’t do that with a team of that quality.”

O’Neill featured prominently in every League and Championship match for Armagh this season and, with 0-41 from those nine games, the Crossmaglen full-forward was the Orchard county’s top-scorer by a distance.

Older brother Oisin contributed 18 points, mostly from midfield and scored in every game bar the loss in Laois. Their former Crossmaglen clubmate Jamie Clarke chipped in with 2-11, scoring in all eight games he featured in, and Rory Grugan was also a regular scorer, posting 1-19 in a season of highs and lows for Armagh.

While Armagh return to the drawing board and begin preparations for next season, Donegal have an Ulster final against Cavan to focus on. The winners of that game will meet the Leinster champions – either Meath or Dublin – at the All-Ireland semi-final stage.

With Kerry, Tyrone and Galway all gone, Donegal are rated as Dublin’s closest rivals now and O’Neill was certainly impressed with what he saw on the field last Saturday. Declan Bonner’s side has workrate, strength, height, experience, pace and skill and - if both sides come through their provincial finals - they look equipped to give the Dubs a game.

“They’re very good, they’re very good around the middle, big and strong, and they’ll take beating going forward,” said O’Neill.

“Could I see them beating Dublin? Yeah I could surely. Anything can happen this year, we’ve seen that already, so why couldn’t they?”