Allianz National Football League Division Two: Armagh 2-21 Cavan 0-12
From Brendan Crossan at Box-IT Athletic Grounds
NOT so long ago, Armagh would have struggled on nights like these. Forever on the cusp of something really good and fans’ expectations going through the roof, they’d inexplicably fall flat on their backsides.
For a good chunk of Kieran McGeeney’s reign, Armagh couldn’t be relied upon often enough.
World beaters one week, awful the next. Nobody did unforced errors better than them.
But, as George Zalucki once said, ‘Persistence is awesome – it is absolutely awesome’ – a phrase Mickey Harte often borrowed during his Tyrone days – it sums up Armagh’s journey under ‘Geezer’.
If you stick at it long enough and you keep unearthing good players, you will get better.
This current crop of players is as good as what ‘Geezer’ has had in his 10 tumultuous years at the helm and, more importantly, they’re clearly a team comfortable in their own skin.
On Saturday night, they swept Cavan aside like they were a harmless bluebottle and gained promotion back to Division One alongside Donegal.
A brilliant full court press on Cavan’s kick-outs, doing everything with high tempo, razor-sharp movement, clear-headed in front of the posts and unforced errors that you could count on one hand.
Cavan brought really encouraging form into this penultimate Division Two game – winning three games, drawing one and losing by a point to Donegal - but they never looked like muscling in on the promotion hunt.
Cavan were so bad it’s hard to imagine them playing as poorly again. As much as Armagh were good, Cavan were clueless in everything they did, and played like they were a bunch of strangers thrown together for the first time.
Their ‘keeper Gary O’Rourke was forced to go long so often but his loopy kick-outs hung in the air for the Ben Crealey, Connaire Mackin, Greg McCabe and the front-footed Joe McElory to pick them off.
Armagh hurt Cavan every time and raced into an unassailable 2-12 to 0-4 half-time lead with hugely impressive defender Peter McGrane rounding O’Rourke to slot home in the 28th minute and Conor Turbitt converting a penalty in first-half stoppage-time.
And the few times Cavan won primary possession from their own kick-outs, they invariably gave it straight back to their hosts with a mindless kick pass.
It was a chastening evening in The Athletic Grounds for young Cavan boss Raymond Galligan.
“We found it really hard to get out of our defence,” said the former goalkeeper. “If you’re not winning primary possession, you’re going to struggle…
“It was a difficult situation for Gary [O’Rourke]. We maybe didn’t give him enough options and it’s another area we can improve on. We’ve had some really positive performances to date. But it’s great to get that wake-up call going into Championship.”
Galligan made three personnel changes at the break while Cillian Brady and Cian Reilly never returned after being black-carded in first-half stoppage-time and the 56th minute, respectively.
Ryan O’Neill, who hit three points from play, and Ryan Donohue were probably the only shafts of light from the visitors’ perspective.
“Look, you’re going to have bad days,” Galligan added. “We’ll just regroup, assess where we went wrong, we’ll dust ourselves down and we’ll come back strong.”
Armagh had a string of brilliant performances in every sector of the field.
Goalkeeper Blaine Hughes was pinpoint accurate with the vast majority of his kick-outs, the unsung Greg McCabe is more than just a defensive stopper for Armagh, breaking forward to hit two classy first-half points.
Aidan Forker, McElroy and Crealey did all that was asked of them, boxing Cavan in, and Rory Grugan was as surefooted as ever.
Conor Turbitt top-scored with 1-4 and Andrew Murnin was majestic at times. His 27th minute point was a masterclass in how to manoeuvre your feet to get a shot off.
The emergence of the exciting young Oisin Conaty of Tir na nÓg has added another dimension to the Orchard attack as Rian O’Neill works his way back to full fitness from the bench.
Indeed, one look at the Armagh subs line-up and you can see why they gained promotion with a game to spare with Aidan Nugent, Oisin and Rian O’Neill, Ross McQuillan, Jarly Og Burns and Tiernan Kelly among them.
“The boys played well and did all that was asked of them,” said a contented Kieran McGeeney afterwards.
“When we were in Division Two three or four years ago, we struggled in every game, scraped by them. We’ve done much better this time around. We’ve greater depth and a lot of younger players coming through, so we’ve two more games now [against Cork and a Division Two final against Donegal] and we’ll see how we get on.
“If you asked me at the beginning of the year, would I have liked that quandary, I’d have taken it.”
Armagh are back into Division One - but they’ve bigger targets in 2024 for sure.