THE newly acclaimed ‘Butcher of Ballymacnab’ Ryan Kennedy scooped the coveted title of Armagh GAA Skills Challenge champion last night, fending off stiff opposition from ladies footballing ace Kelly Mallon and former All-Ireland winning forward Diarmaid Marsden.
While many counties and clubs have come up with their own unique lockdown challenges, Orchard officials have out-did themselves with a skills initiative that has reached over 200,000 people through their social media platforms.
Over 40 players from the current Armagh senior and ladies football panels took part along with some golden oldies from the class of ’02.
RTE’s inimitable commentator Marty Morrissey lent his voice to the finals day where Kennedy – christened the ‘Butcher of Ballymacnab’ by Hugh Campbell, one of the competition's organisers - topped the poll in three disciplines: solo, hand-passing and kick-passing.
The star of the show, however, was former All-Ireland winning goalkeeper Benny Tierney.
Holed up in his Mullaghbawn mansion and pulling off a quite brilliant impersonation of well-known broadcaster Eamonn Mallie, Tierney had the entire county chuckling long after yesterday’s final.
In addressing Armagh GAA via Twitter, Tierney described himself as a “former legend” who “single-handedly led Armagh to the All-Ireland in 2002”.
He said he decided not to take part in the skills challenge himself due to “a complete lack of interest”.
County PRO Claire Shields, Hugh Campbell and stats man Brian McClelland helped co-ordinate the remotely run event.
“When people were asked to work at home and then stay at home we tried to think of something to keep players interested and keep them connected to each other,” Claire explained.
“Initially, we thought is there something we could do here to widen it to a bigger audience. We had a call one night and this is what we came up with. So we asked players to send in their videos. We’d 44 competitors in all – including current players from both the ladies and the men’s squads as well as past players.”
Claire paid tribute to her organizing cohorts Hugh Campbell and McClelland. The trio invested many hours in organising the five-week long tournament, which included guest appearances from ‘Donald Trump’ and ‘Winnie The Pooh’ impersonators.
There were unconfirmed reports last night the mystery pair may be members of the Armagh senior football management team.
“There have been loads of skills challenges out there, between the bin challenge and other clubs coming up with their own challenges and keeping people connected,” added Claire.
“And this is just another way of keeping people connected. We’re all missing the games and it is an uncertain time for everyone. It’s important that we all stay safe. But at least this skills challenge has given people something to talk about during the lockdown.
“And I have to say Benny Tierney’s video really added to that and people were really engaged. Everyone knows Benny is great craic. We’d also like to thank Marty Morrissey for helping us with the finals day, everyone who participated and all those who tuned in on social media.”
