Armagh Senior Football Championship, Group D, round 2: Ballymacnab v Armagh Harps (Friday, 7pm)
ARMAGH Harps burst out of the traps against Mullabawn last weekend but on Friday night they run into a Ballymacnab side that dug themselves out of trouble to beat Dromintee in their championship opener.
The Round Towers’ one-point victory was all the more impressive given that they were without Rory Grugan – still struggling with the injury that forced him off in the second half of Armagh’s All-Ireland final win – his brother Jack and former Armagh defender Ryan Kennedy, so the Harps can expect to earn whatever comes their way in what is a derby encounter for them.
Sam Maguire-winner Joe McElroy (playing in midfield) led the way against Mullabawn with 2-1 and James McCoy also netted two majors in the 13-point win for the Pascal Canavan-managed Cathedral City outfit.
McCoy is one of the young players who have come into the team since Harps last won the Gerry Fagan Cup back in 2017. Since then the team has lost the likes of Charlie Vernon, Ultan Lennon and Conor Coulter who is now part of the management team.
“Over the last couple of years we’ve had a huge turnover of players,” Coulter explained.
“With Charlie and Ultan retiring in 2022, we’ve had injuries, lads travelling to Australia and we’ve had Joe (McElroy) away with Armagh and three U20s in Tadhg Grimley, Luke McKeever and Cathal Agnew.
“So we’ve been missing those boys for a large chunk of the year and a lot of young players coming through and it has been difficult for us to have a consistent team and to get a bit of back-to-back form going.
“We managed to stay up (in Division 1A) last year and we broke into the top four this year which we’re happy with.”
Armagh U20 star McKeever - part of Ulster Club San Francisco’s run to the North American finals last weekend – will soon be welcomed back into the fold and could return to action in time for the third round.
Ballymacnab have some very notable absentees of their own and the scoring power of the Grugan brothers will be almost impossible to replace. However, experience remains in the Round Towers’ side with the likes of Kieran Hughes and Ryan Watters among the survivors from the teams that reached back-to-back county finals in 2018 and ‘19.
“Ballymacnab is essentially our derby game now since Pearse Og went down to intermediate,” Coulter explained.
“We’re under no illusions about what they’re going to bring. They played very, very hard in the last 20 minutes against Dromintee and took some great scores and they will be a serious challenge no matter who they have on the field.
“They’re one of those clubs that probably has suffered from losing county men over the course of the year but have always been able to put in a serious showing in championship football.”
The winners will move to pole position in the group and be in the box seat to win their section and progress to the knockout stage of the competition.
“Winning games and building momentum is massive for us, especially with such a young team,” says Coulter.
“The more championship games and wins we get the better. Last year we had a mixed-bag; Silverbridge beat us well in our second group game and we got a draw with Madden but it felt as if we were scraping through into the knockout stage. That’s not where we want to be at – we’d prefer to go with the confidence and a bit of momentum to get a run in the championship and make an impact.”
Meanwhile, also in Group D on Friday night (7pm), Dromintee host Mullaghbawn. Dromintee looked on course for an opening round win against Ballymacnab last weekend only to be overhauled in the second half. Meanwhile, Mullaghbawn, who lost their last three league games despite clinching promotion to Division 1A, showed no signs of recapturing their lost momentum against the in-form Harps.
