Net gains

OF the many reasons to admire Armagh’s revival this summer, one is often overlooked. Way back in May when the All-Ireland champions made the stuttering start to their title defence in Clones, there were two new faces among their last four players on the field.

A fresh-faced corner-back and a mountain of a goalkeeper. Those new faces are now established names in the meanest defence in the country and have gone some way to helping Armagh keep a clean sheet all summer.

While Andy Mallon, the under-21 sensation, has brought the pace Armagh’s full-back line was widely thought to lack, Paul Hearty was stepping into much bigger boots.

Benny Tierney wasn’t just the custodian last year, he was the smiling and laughing face in a panel that burned with intensity, the one Armagh player journalists sought to wise-crack some perspective amid the flaming desire.

In retrospect, it is hard to reconcile Armagh’s most joyous hour without Tierney, who distilled the seriousness of his team-mates with a quick jibe or two.

As the cliché says, goalies are a breed apart and Hearty seems to be cut from the same cloth as his predecessor.

He certainly has the same carefree demeanour in conversation, a welcome diversion in a squad where most refuse to take their eyes away from the main goal.

Last year, he was the trusty understudy. It is part of the goalkeeping remit to be in the right place at the right time.

Last summer, amid all the mardi gras stuff, Hearty couldn’t help feeling he was in the wrong place at the right time - a constant figure on the bench as Armagh made their historic breakthrough. It grated, but he can’t really complain.

“It was great to be part of, be part of the squad, the celebrations, but not playing, you always feel like you are missing out on something.

“There is a difference. Everyone wants to be playing in Croke Park with 70 or 80,000 people cheering you on, that is the big difference between last year and this. I enjoyed last year, and I think it was good for Benny [Tierney] with me pushing him 100%, it made Benny sharper.

“But playing, that is the big thing. You have to put things in perspective too, I was only one of 15 boys who didn’t get playing last year,” he added.

“And each of us, each of the boys who didn’t get playing, we were as much a part of that effort as anyone else.”

On the field, Hearty’s presence has made Armagh more of a complete article.

In GAA lexicon, Hearty has a savage belt of the ball and his kick-outs, and the variety thereof, have been the springboard for Paul McGrane and Philip Loughran to wreak havoc against any central duo they have met this summer.

Indeed, the changing of the guard has been so smooth, it’s almost seamless. Normally counties would fret losing a keeper, tried and trusted for 14 years.

Tierney was a safe, solid part of the Armagh footballing landscape.

DEPENDABLE. But, in a few short months of consistent clean sheets, the electrician has made himself almost indispensable.

Of course, it helps that Hearty was the confident custodian behind Crossmaglen’s three All-Ireland titles. Helps, too, that nobody has found a way past him in the championship yet.

“A lot has been made of us not conceding a goal. I suppose it has played a big part in our success,” he said.

“What Joe drills into us is to win at all costs, to block every possible way you could be defeated.

“And in football, especially at this stage of the year when there is so little between the teams, a goal is the difference between winning and losing.

“Goals are what win you championship games, you are not going to win an All-Ireland conceding two or three goals.

“In fairness, my defence has to take much of the credit for the record.

“They have been excellent this year, Joe brought young Andy in, he is only, what, 19, and to come in to an All-Ireland team and play the way he has in his first year is just unbelievable.

“Because of his age, he might still lack a bit of experience and cuteness, but his speed more than compensates for that.”

Although, by his own admission, Hearty wouldn’t be as vocal as Tierney, he can still be occasionally spotted berating his defenders. Communication, he feels, is one of the most significant parts of a keeper’s game. And one himself and Tierney, now his coach, have worked closely on.

“It is great to have Benny still around coaching me,” Hearty says.

“It has been a part of Gaelic football that has often been over-looked. Goalkeeper is such a unique position, as well as being so important, the coaching is different than for the other positions.

BUT, for years in Gaelic football, nobody was too bothered about special coaching for goalkeepers. “I think there was a perception that we were just there for the kick-outs and that was about it.

“But, there is so much more to a keeper’s game that needs to be looked at and worked on specifically. Of course, Joe spotted that and that is why he brought Benny on board, and that man has so much experience, I mean he was Armagh keeper for 14 years, what he can’t tell you about being a goalie isn’t worth knowing.”

The respect Hearty accords Kernan is obvious whenever he speaks of his manager. This is Hearty’s ninth year working with the big man with the midas touch and each year he finds another quality in Kernan to admire.

“The man is a legend. Right from Crossmaglen through, he has this thing about him, this aura, that just seems to get the best out of players.

“When you work under Joe, you respond to him. And nobody reads a game like Joe. You see how he operates on a side-line, he sees things on the pitch almost before they happen.

“Looking at a game, you or I might think a defender is going okay, keeping his marker quiet, but Joe senses there might be trouble coming and switches men.

“Things like that just prove what a footballing brain he has. He was the final piece of the jigsaw in Armagh, after working with him in Cross, I thought the county needed him to step over that line.

“And so it proved. Whatever wee bit extra we need to give ourselves an edge, Joe makes sure we get it.”

It has been a strange year for Hearty to become an acceptable piece in this Armagh puzzle. Clones in May was one of the most forgettable experiences of his goal-keeping career, despite acquitting himself rather well for a championship debut.

That torrid afternoon, though, tore asunder all the admiration Armagh have wrought the previous September.

Overlooked were the injuries and the absent players.

Instead, a perception settled in the public mind that this Armagh side were weak All-Ireland champions.

Hearty and his team-mates have spent the rest of the summer disproving that theory.

“Who can explain what happened against Monaghan. It was a disappointing day. I remember Big Joe coming on the bus, we were all sitting there with our heads down, nobody saying a word.

“And Joe didn’t speak, he just let us all brood. I don’t know what happened that day, it wasn’t a case of under-estimating Monaghan or anything. We just didn’t play.”

Somewhere in the silence of that short bus journey home, the seeds of belief for the rest of the summer were planted.

“We knew we were capable of so much more and we knew too that we couldn’t be that bad. To only score nine points in 70 minutes of football, it was terrible.”

Hearty said things didn’t start going right until the second half against Dublin. Working in Malahide, he had heard all week about how their All-Ireland reign was coming to an end. And for a long time in Croker that Saturday evening, he feared his colleagues were right.

“In the first-half, we were crap. We really were. But, I think it dawned on us that we could be losing our All-Ireland title here and that caused the turnaround.

“For 20 or 25 minutes of that second-half, we played some of the best football we ever have.”

Since then, it has been a roller-coaster ride. Laois threatened, but Armagh kept its ship on a steady course.

NOW, it is Donegal in what promises to be a passionate Ulster derby, despite the venue. “Yeah, it is going to be a Clones match in a different venue.

“Donegal have been a little bit like ourselves, they have just kept improving since being knocked out of Ulster. They are getting better with every game and Sunday is going to be a real battle. I wouldn’t like to be betting on it.”

In Armagh, they have become good at gambling. Two new championship faces in the rearguard this summer and still, their goal hasn’t been broached.

Commanded by Paul Hearty, that record looks in safe hands.