FORMER defender Ciaran McKeever insists Armagh will have to find “another level” in Sunday’s All-Ireland quarter-final showdown with Galway - and says that sense of hurt the squad felt in Ballybofey two months ago is still one of their driving forces to go further in this year’s race for the Sam Maguire.
Sunday marks only the second time the Orchard County have reached the last eight stages – in 2014 under Paul Grimley and three years later under Kieran McGeeney, with defeats coming against Donegal and Tyrone, respectively.
McKeever, who retired from the inter-county scene in 2017, joined Kieran McGeeney’s backroom team in February 2021 alongside ex-Kerry star Kieran Donaghy.
The Cullyhanna man knows the management team and players don’t want to experience that feeling of devastation as they did in Ballybofey.
Armagh, however, recovered brilliantly by recording two breakthrough wins in the All-Ireland Qualifiers over Division One sides Tyrone and Donegal and find themselves facing the Connacht champions on Sunday.
“Going into Ballybofey we’d huge belief and confidence in ourselves, we knew it was a huge task with Donegal’s track record there,” McKeever said.
“We knew we had to produce the goods on the day and leave ourselves in a position to advance. But when the final whistle went there’s no denying we were shell-shocked as a squad and a management team.
“We were hugely disappointed because we simply didn’t turn up and didn’t apply ourselves to the level that we set within the group. That was the harsh reality of it.
“We spoke about it briefly in the changing rooms after the game and we all went home and soul-searched for a couple of days.”
He added: “We wanted to rectify it as a management team and the players wanted to rectify it as a group. The only way we could do that was to get back in on the Tuesday night and get at it, look towards the next six weeks and get ready for the first round of the Qualifiers – and we’re still here.”
While there is plenty of pre-match chat that the fast surface of Croke Park will suit Armagh’s kicking style, McKeever is acutely aware that it will definitely suit an aggressive, front-footed outfit like the Tribesmen.
“When you’re prepping for Tyrone and Donegal, both teams play a similar style of football and we know both sets of players.
“I was chatting to the players the other night and I was saying that this next game is fresh. It’s going to be different. Galway are going to pose different threats compared to what Donegal and Tyrone posed and we have to be diligent in our preparation, go with a steely mind-set because we need to go to another level on Sunday – that’s the bottom line.
“We know the threats they’re going to pose and their style of play. They have some smashing players: Shane Walsh, [Damien] Comer, [Anthony] Finnerty, Paul Conroy, the Kellys [Sean and Patrick] coming from deep. They're more direct, more aggressive in their running, so we can’t take anything for granted and need to prepare properly.”
