All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Qualifying round four: Roscommon 2-22 Armagh 1-19
KIERAN McGeeney and Kevin McStay took an eternity to emerge from their respective changing rooms to speak with the media on Saturday evening in Portlaoise.
And who could blame them?
Everybody needed time to catch their breath after watching Roscommon eventually overcome Armagh in what was easily the best game of the Championship so far.
There were heroic performances in every single sweat-drenched jersey by the end.
Cathal Cregg, one of Roscommon’s match winners, described Saturday’s unforgettable Round Four Qualifier as a “titanic battle right the whole way through”.
Two brilliantly taken goals in each half from Roscommon’s marauding Enda Smith proved the decisive blows to Armagh’s Lazarus-like summer.
Qualifying for the Super 8s was like reaching the Holy Grail for Roscommon.
But, imagine what Armagh could have achieved with Jamie Clarke, James Morgan, Stefan Campbell, Oisin O’Neill in their ranks this year.
Or a match-fit Paul Hughes, Ethan Rafferty and Stephen Sheridan.
“We could probably put another team together from the players that weren’t there and would probably live with most teams,” said McGeeney afterwards.
“[But] You have to want to be here. A lot of the press that those guys got was harsh. They wanted to travel.
“Sometimes it’s hard to watch your mates travel around the world… A lot of those fellas will be coming back in, but my point is the boys that stayed here that nobody knew.
“Like Ryan McShane, Jemar Hall, Paddy Burns, Connaire Mackin – they’ve had unbelievable years, and came from nowhere. They were able to hold their own and looked like some of the best players on the park.”
The Armagh boss expects Crossmaglen duo Oisin O’Neill and James Morgan to return to the fold next season but is unsure of Jamie Clarke as he continues to travel.
“I couldn’t stand here and say off-the-record anything bad about them. They’re all good, genuine fellas.”
McGeeney’s parting summer shot was aimed at the negative voices that have been in “players’ ears” bemoaning the merits of playing inter-county football.
“At times you listen to a lot of shit outside – usually from people who haven’t a clue,” said ‘Geezer’. “They sit outside and they pontificate.
“I played against a lot of these fellas and they were f***ing useless back then and they’re still f***ing useless.
“Some of the stuff they come out with, trying to tell young fellas, just because they’re better than them. These young fellas that are coming through are really good lads, genuine, well-mannered and good commitment to it, but these fellas have to be in their ear telling them because they’re afraid that they’ll do something that they couldn’t do.
“I think they should be given a bit of a break and let them make their own decisions. They want to play at this level and, what’s more, they’re capable, very capable.”
