Lidl National Football League Division Two Final: Armagh v Kerry (Sunday, Croke Park, 2pm, live on TG4)
ARMAGH can bridge a five-year gap and return to the top table of league football with victory over Kerry in Sunday’s Lidl National Football League Division Two final.
It’s the first of a double header at GAA Headquarters, Croke Park, with fellow Ulster side Donegal taking on All-Ireland champions Meath in the Division One decider.
Kerry will start this final as favourites by way of having reached the last two Division Two finals losing out to Meath in 2021 and Waterford in 2019 and they too have shown real intent and desire so far to make a return to Division One having followed Armagh down into the second tier in 2018.
It has been one of the targets for the season from the outset for Ronan Murphy’s side and after an impressive league campaign to date they are now 60 minutes away from that achievement having last played there in 2017.
However, Murphy knows that in just reaching the final nothing has been accomplished yet and they have a real battle on their hands on Sunday if they are to fulfil that season target.
“We set out at the start of the season so it’s no surprise that we set this as one of our targets that we want to get into Division One and so far, we have responded well to that but again we realise that this is a very stern test that we face on Sunday and we need to be at our very best to come out on top,” said Murphy.
It’s not just the attraction of finishing the league with silverware but getting back into Division One, for both sides – not just Armagh - is crucial as they aim to close the gap at the top when it comes to championship football and Murphy acknowledges that.
“Generally we’d feel for the whole squad and county development you’d want to be in division one; you’re playing the top teams in the country week in, week out and division one is the place to do that,” he said.
“It gives you a chance to see different players in different positions against better players obviously and for the evolution of a team and players to grow you need to be playing the best opposition that you can week in, week out.”
The outcome of this final could well come down to a shootout between Allstars Aimee Mackin and Louise Ni Mhuireachtaigh. The latter hit 1-9 of her side’s 1-14 in their four point semi-final win over Monaghan and should Armagh give away frees in a scoreable position, Ni Mhuireachtaigh’s accuracy from the dead ball will undoubtedly punish them. The Kingdom’s over reliance on her to get scores could be a potential worry should Armagh keep her relatively quiet.
Mackin finished with 1-6 against Laois in their semi-final but they racked up an impressive 7-8 and they have no shortage of players who can get on the scoresheet and that is something Murphy can exploit.
He knows where Kerry’s strengths and weaknesses lie and while he will have his homework done he is more focussed on his own side and what they can do to get over the line.
“We are fully aware of Kerry’s potential and saw them in the league final last year but we are fully focussed on ourselves and what Kerry have done in the past really has the experience of Croke Park to stand them but we will just try to focus on ourselves,” he said.
Kerry have a lot of good players but it’s what we do and what they do on Sunday will determine the outcome and really we are just looking forward to our players performing at the highest level.”
