THE buck stops with the players, said Armagh skipper Kelly Mallon, after the Orchard ladies lost an All-Ireland semi-final they could have won against Dublin on Saturday evening.
Starting the second half level and with the wind at their backs, Armagh weren’t lacking for effort or commitment but Mallon says the Ulster side paid the price for failing to execute their pre-match gameplan and let pre-game favourites Dublin off the hook.
“We didn’t play the way we wanted to,” said the disappointed Armagh Harps forward.
“It’s our fault, it is not that they were the superior team, it was our own fault.
“We played the ball too much in the middle third and we didn’t get the ball into our inside forwards quite enough and that crucified us at the end of the day.
“Credit to them (Dublin) for putting us under that much pressure in and around that area (the middle third) but the bottom line is we could have went after the game better if we got the ball in earlier. I’m disappointed in that regard because I felt Aimee (Mackin) and I had plenty of space to work with if we had more supply and the quality of ball wasn’t ideal either.
“We (herself and Mackin) were kicking the grass at stages. All I can say it is down to the pressure that Dublin put the girls under and they were deserved winners in the end I suppose, but it is hard to take. I am absolutely devastated for the girls, we worked so hard over the last three months and I don’t even know what to say I am just gutted.”
The second half penalty scored by Carla Rowe was a body blow to the Armagh effort but it was the subsequent sin-binning of full-back Clodagh McCambridge that had most impact on the game. A penalty not have been enough punishment for her foul but with Armagh then reduced to 14 players, the four in-a-row chasing Dubs out-scored their opponents 1-4 to a point in a game-changing 10-minute spell.
“Clodagh is such is an excellent defender and we rely on her heavily to hold the middle,” said Mallon.
“We had a penalty (in the first half), so why did they not get a player yellow-carded? I don’t understand what the difference is. I am not going to bring it to the referee, but he was not great today.
“There was a time I was thrown over the line and I just don’t know what you have to do to get frees. “Referees are inconsistent in general, but we can’t blame them.”
Armagh still have an Ulster final to look forward to on December 20 and, when the dust settles on their season, the Orchard ladies can able to reflect on the progress made by a young side – only four of the panel is aged over 26 – that included championship wins over Mayo and Tyrone.
“At the start of the year, with our league campaign you could say that we would have never of thought we would be in this situation,” Mallon agreed.
“But we are able to compete at this level and we showed that against Mayo, Cork and Dublin, all the good teams. So we know that we are good enough to compete at that level we just need to fine-tune some things. Other teams are cuter at cynical fouling and stuff like that.
“It is an honour to be at this stage of the competition but I’m just gutted not to have gotten over the line today.”
Armagh manager Ronan Murphy admitted after the semi-final defeat that his team had played into Dublin’s hands to an extent. Mallon hopes Murphy and his management team remain in place for the 2021 season.
“We have run through a lot of managers and we maybe need a wee bit of continuity with the whole thing to build something and I know it takes a couple of years to get that,” she said.
“Tommy [Stevenson] is very positive and believes in us 100 per cent and Ronan is brilliant too and then with Ruairi Grimes in doing fitness, we are in good shape and we are playing really attractive football and it would be really nice to get that continuity going into next year.”
