EVERY ex-player will tell you: coaching will never replace playing – but for Ciaran McKeever it’s creeping up to be a close second.
After Armagh lost on penalties to Monaghan in last season’s All-Ireland quarter-final, McKeever had no time to look in his rear view to reflect on what might have been.
You hop off one rollercoaster and jump on another.
Stephen Reel and McKeever’s club - St Patrick’s, Cullyhanna needed him. Six months later, on a cool January day, he was back on the sidelines at Croke Park watching his club win an All-Ireland intermediate title.
You can never have too many visits to the big house.
The Armagh footballers are back again too having advanced one step further than the two previous years, and reaching their first All-Ireland semi-final since 2005.
“It’s been a rollercoaster and in the middle of it there have been a lot of highs and some lows,” McKeever says, who retired from Armagh in 2017.
“You just roll with it. After the Cullyhanna thing, we celebrated it hard, but you didn’t really have time to reflect on it because you were back with Armagh.
“There was always something else you were chasing and that’s where we’re currently at now – we’re still chasing and looking forward to the weekend ahead.”
Kerry, Armagh’s illustrious opponents on Saturday, are aiming for their third All-Ireland final appearance in a row and their second Sam Maguire in three years.
McKeever misses his playing days and says he’d love nothing more than to be “hopping off a couple of boys” at Croke Park – but he draws huge job satisfaction in his role under Kieran McGeeney.
“It’s seeing players perform at their level,” says the 41-yaer-old.
“It’s not about me or anybody else; we’re all sacrificing a lot to be there. There are endless hours put into it but the most enjoyment I get out of it is seeing players perform the way we know they can perform. That’s what keeps me motivated.”
In the latter stages of his county career he endured some gut-wrenching defeats and since he stepped into his coaching role with Armagh, in 2021, there was no let up in those painful Championship losses.
Monaghan at the Marshes in 2021 was a bitter pill to swallow. Losing back-to-back Ulster finals and All-Ireland quarter-finals on penalties in 2023 and 2024 were devastating experiences.
But Armagh are resilient if nothing else.
“The big thing about this group that stands out for me is they don’t take the easy option – they don’t quit,” McKeever says.
“They’re always chasing that extra one percent. They’re eager to learn, they’re all driving the standards, and they always want to get better. The thing for them is and always has been trying is to get Armagh back to the top table again.
“They’ve never taken the easy option and that has been massive on this journey.”
Very few players have left the Armagh squad before their time.
While there were numerous farewells from the Tyrone squad after their 2021 All-Ireland win, McGeeney managed to retain virtually everybody.
The few who did leave did so with no fanfare.
“They’re a tight-knit group,” McKeever says. “They’ve come through a lot of hard times and they’ve stuck together. Everybody has.
“There’s always the bigger picture – and that’s Armagh. Players and managers will come and go, but Armagh won’t.
“That’s what we’re trying to push towards and that’s the standards we’re trying to drive from within. It’s a massive challenge for us on Saturday but we’re going there to win the game as you’d expect.”
The GAA were left slightly embarrassed earlier this week when their hopes of hosting an All-Ireland semi-final press day resulted in no representatives from Armagh, Kerry, Galway or Donegal being made available.
Modern players have never been more cocooned from the media’s gaze - but McKeever feels that they can still enjoy aspects of the build-up to big games.
“Back in the early Noughties, there wasn’t the social media that there is now. Nowadays, every time you pick up your phone, you’re seeing stuff, so there is that aspect of it.
“The key thing is you have to enjoy these moments but you have to get the balance right, that you’re fully tuned in as far as the task ahead of you.
“The modern GAA player can get that balance right. Of course, it’s a big week in Armagh, a big week in Kerry and the same in Donegal and Galway – so there’s a lot of hype around the four counties and it’s trying to marry that excitement and knowing that there’s a job to be done on Saturday evening.”
And McKeever is convinced the Armagh players can feed off the energy from the Croke Park stands.
“When you’re going down the home stretch you do get that energy from the crowd, it does give you a foothold and energy as a player – it definitely does.
“In those moments you have to play with a clear and calm head – you can’t go with the emotions of the crowd either, you still have to be calm with the decisions you make on the ball.
“And that’s something we’ve got better as a group throughout the years – that we haven’t played with the emotion of the crowd and we’ve got better with our decision-making in those clutch moments, when things are hectic.”
As always, McKeever will bring his forensic eye to Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final.
Trusted implicitly by ‘Geezer’ and the Armagh players in equal measure - the Cullyhanna man will forever bleed orange.
