Sport

Danny Hughes: It's stress test time for Kieran McGeeney's Armagh

Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney at Letterkenny last Sunday Picture: Margaret McLaughlin.
Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney at Letterkenny last Sunday Picture: Margaret McLaughlin. Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney at Letterkenny last Sunday Picture: Margaret McLaughlin.

AN Ulster team will not contest the National League final – most disappointingly this looked like Armagh at a time, who led the division for a number of the rounds.

Under the older structure the Orchard County will have had a semi-final tie to look forward to, however, given that the Championship is just weeks away, the opportunity to fine-tune their game will probably be much more welcome.

Back-to-back defeats to Kerry and Donegal is enough to put that little seed of doubt in their heads.

The proposed one-game bans for Ciaran Mackin, Aidan Nugent and Stefan Campbell certainly do not help their cause and the last thing they need in the build-up is a drawn-out legal process that may or may not exonerate the trio.

While I don’t feel any individuals warrant missing a first round Championship match, unfortunately, the precedent was set with the Tyrone-Armagh tie earlier in the competition.

Armagh are rightly being talked about as contenders now and with this brings added pressure and expectation.

The Orchard County have allowed Kieran McGeeney to structure the county's facilities and development pathway in his mirror image.

He would demand the best from the players but also the county board.

He has been loyally backed when weaker boards could have dithered and over the past seven years.

His man-management has also been key, best demonstrated in the fact that you rarely hear of any players on the wider panel leaving the set-up.

Ultimately, in four weeks’ time, in Ballybofey, Armagh’s credentials as Ulster and All-Ireland contenders will be tested.

You either pass or fail, you win or you don’t, it’s as simple as that.

Tyrone have passed this test in the recent past.

And the Red Hands were examined again last weekend against Kerry.

Make no mistake about it, the Kingdom will have taken this defeat hard from a psychological perspective.

They would have wanted to re-assert an authority over Tyrone – questions went unanswered as a result of last year’s defeat in the All-Ireland semi-final.

Primarily this revolved around the theme of David Clifford staying on the field in extra time!

As Cahair O’Kane rightly pointed out in his Tuesday column, there are enough reasons coming out of last weekend’s game to assume that Jack O’Connor’s men are far from the finished article.

That is both a source of motivation for Kerry and indeed a great boost for the other contenders who had assumed that The Kingdom are primed to take over Dublin’s unbeatable mantle.

You still feel that the final of the National League is important to both Mayo and Kerry as the nature of their provincial competition means that they need very competitive games closer to their own competitions as possible.

The Ulster Championship is a Championship within a Championship and the progression of a number of our teams over the last 24 months has seen it possible now to throw a blanket over any potential winners.

In the previous decade, Dublin were the exception rather than the rule.

On the basis of history you can arguably point out that Tyrone struggle in the year after an All-Ireland win.

It’s a hangover of sorts.

And it’s totally normal.

Integration of Darragh Canavan into the starting XV becomes important and helping Cathal McShane get back into form takes patience.

When Dublin were winning and dominating, Jim Gavin integrated a small number of debutants into the team seamlessly without weakening the entire group.

Perhaps this is a luxury that only they had, but the fact remains that every Championship-winning team needs new blood coming through.

Retaining their Division One status and beating Kerry are two reasons why Tyrone will be extremely confident in approaching the Ulster Championship.

Another fighter, Monaghan showed again why they are the envy of many teams across Ulster and beyond.

As I highlighted a few weeks ago, don’t be surprised to see them get out of any relegation battle, and to do it in the circumstances that they did, further solidifies the character type within the squad.

Narrowly beaten in last year’s Ulster final, you would have to say that the Farney County are certainly on course to have a big say in this year’s Championship.

Their opening round fixture against my own county is never a ‘gimme’.

But I think Monaghan will have learned that lesson in 2020 against Cavan.

Conor McManus is being carefully managed too and with Jack McCarron and a few of these lads starting to come into their prime footballing years, they have every reason to be confident.

Down will need the footballing Gods to be smiling on them come late April and even then this may be one request too many even for the Divine.

Donegal will rely again on Michael Murphy this year.

No one player has influenced a county this much since Peter Canavan did with Tyrone throughout the 90s.

Certain players become once-in-a-generation type - and Murphy is one of these.

We happen to be seeing another in David Clifford and while he can’t turn water into wine just yet, he could certainly teach any Messiah a thing or two about an O’Neill's football.

We live in a time when bashing the quality of the game appears a convenient narrative.

The game now is less of a duel between two individuals but a duel between two ideals.

It is Pep versus Klopp - Tiki-Taka versus Gegenpressing.

The skill levels are higher as a collective than even in my time with corner-backs soloing and kicking points for fun.

Sport evolves and our game will evolve.

The forward 'mark' hurts my eyes and needs to go.

Aside from the possible adoption of a back-pass rule preventing the ball returning back across the half-way line - adapt and survive - that’s what all great sports teams do.

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I'VE been looking over my proverbial shoulder since last Thursday.

Some members of the Down County Board may have deemed my opinion piece on Down’s woes to be unfair.

All joking aside, a mere 200 supporters turned up at last weekend’s defeat to Clare which would indicate that I may not be far off the mark.

The fans are voting with their feet – enough is enough.

My solution is very clear and equally as simple. But that’s for another day...