Andy Mallon: last year’s fan is now a player

THIS time last year, Andy Mallon was another Armagh supporter lost in the bedlam.

As he watched Kieran McGeeney lift the Cup, it never crossed his mind that six months later, he would be playing in the same defence as the Orchard captain.

But just a few days before Armagh’s second successive All-Ireland final and Mallon is preparing for the big day in a different way.

There are no arrangements to meet mates in Dublin, no worrying about tickets. Mallon is now a bona fide member of the Armagh team, a teenager who injects the full-back line with a little pace they missed last summer.

It all started back in January. Joe Kernan had taken his victorious team to Mauritius for a deserved break so the under-21 team represented Armagh in the McKenna Cup (an early year tournament for Ulster sides).

Mallon impressed more than most and when Armagh returned, he was invited onto the senior panel. A sub for the early stages of the league, Kernan used him against Donegal in March. Since then, Mallon has been a permanent fixture in the full-back line.

“This time last year, I was a supporter going to the game. So, I couldn’t believe this year, the whole experience has been unreal,” Mallon remarked.

With a face that looks like it doesn’t need the razor too often, the corner-back is a little out of place among all the faces that have grown familiar in the past four or five years.

Even the other new boys, Paul Hearty and Philip Loughran, have been members of the squad long enough to know the hardships the team had to go through to reach the top.

Mallon is completely new, and almost a breath of fresh air. “I didn’t think I would get on this year, I thought I would get on in the next couple of years. But not this year, not so soon after the All-Ireland. But after the McKenna Cup, I was brought into the senior panel.”

His first competitive outing with the seniors was spent sitting on the bench in Croke Park last February, as the All-Ireland champions steam-rolled Dublin.

Mallon was still pinching himself as the butterflies floated around his stomach. “I was sitting on the bench for that Dublin game and I didn’t want to come on cause I seen the support and everything, in Croke Parktoo. And sure, the lads did well enough that day,” he beams.

When he got the call against Donegal, the butterflies hadn’t stopped but it was a game Armagh won easily, so he felt himself settling in nicely.

“There are nerves, there are always nerves but you have to keep your head level and keep going. You can’t think about it too much, because if you do you put too much pressure on yourself but I haven’t thought about the pressure, take each day as it comes and keep the auld head.”

Mallon has some previous experience of the Armagh management team. When he was a minor, Paul Grimley, now Kernan’s trusty side-kick, was the manager.

Grimley is also from the same club, Pearse Óg. The defender doesn’t have great memories of meeting Tyrone at minor level. “Yeah, I played them two years as a minor. The first year, they stuffed us. The second year, they beat us by a point. So, it is time to change that.”

Although Kernan seems to have great faith in the corner-back, Mallon has been looking over his shoulder a fair bit this summer.

There have been occasional moments when his inexperience has shown and Mallon knows, given the strength on the Armagh bench, he is only a couple of mistakes from being replaced.

“Justin McNulty has played full-back on the All-Ireland winning team, so he has pushed me all the way and Kevin McElvanna, he is a class corner-back, so there is serious competition for players.

"Always being pushed for a place. It is working well, if we don’t play well, we know those lads are just behind us, looking for our place.”

He cut his championship teeth on that surprising afternoon in Clones when Monaghan shocked them. Mallon doesn’t recall his own performance with any great pleasure. “I was glad to get the chance against Monaghan, because I didn’t think I would.

“I was glad to get another chance because I didn’t cover myself in glory, I was cat, so I was. I was just glad Joe kept his faith in me for the Waterford game because the defence have been playing really well.

"We only conceded one goal this year and that was a cracker. So hopefully we can keep that up.”

Mallon knows his championship debut didn’t go according to plan.

“Everything went wrong on the day against Monaghan. It was a shocker.

"I didn’t expect us to be beat but Monaghan played very well that day, they were up for it and hit us hard and it was a totally different experience from the league games, the speed was totally different, it was a whirlwind, 100mph, so there was a lot of space in the league and not so much in the championship.”

Every game since Monaghan has been a new experience for Mallon, a further stepping stone on his learning curve. Sunday will be something entirely new again. Not like last year when he chewed nails with the Armagh supporters. This time, Mallon will be centre-stage.

Whatever happens, he is determined to enjoy it and not get swept up by the hype of it all.

“I knew what to expect because I was watching it last year, I was part of the crowd that was following the team. The other lads have been helping me all the time, giving me words of wisdom and what not, so I am just looking forward to it now.