Former Armagh management team blast ‘fabricated stories’

THE former Armagh senior football management team hit back at their critics last night for “fabricated stories”, blaming a “breach of confidentiality” for their resignation.

Peter McDonnell and his selectors Dennis Hollywood, Gary Mallon and Benny O’Kane, who quit their Orchard County roles last week, said they had made Armagh more competitive over the past two seasons.

“With the introduction of many new faces, the players have worked extremely hard and have almost to a man demonstrated loyalty and commitment to our cause,” the insisted last night.

“Despite the setback suffered in this year’s championship, we feel that our contribution to Armagh as a management group and individually has been significant over the years.

“Each of us has had a hand in bringing either Ulster club, Ulster Minor, Ulster U21 and Ulster senior titles to our county and we feel proud of these achievements.

“The expectations we all had for our county’s future while leaving Clones in July 2007 were not high, few would have predicted that one year later we would once again be Ulster Champions.

“Yet, in only achieving Ulster successes, we have failed to satisfy the desire for instant success and have armed influential individuals with all they needed to withdraw support.

“We acknowledge the tremendous work that the county board does and the strong support given to us by the same but particularly for the management and support group who have worked closely with us over these past two years, we realise pressures have been brought to bear on them also.”

The management team also lashed out at media criticism: “Throughout the year a number of fabricated stories have appeared in the press and have been alluded to by pundits on national TV.

“This was a constant source of annoyance to players and management and we now know that this was part of a concerted campaign to undermine the group.

“We are disappointed in a time of accountability that articles could be sanctioned for publication by unnamed scribes and prompts from the same used as the basis for informed opinion by columnists.

“The spirit and camaraderie among the vast majority of the Armagh group was tremendous and has given us experiences to be treasured.

“However, we have concluded that to remain with Armagh after a breach of confidentiality occurred, which resulted in the actual team and tactics being openly discussed in public prior to the Monaghan game, that it was pointless to continue and feel that we have been forced into an untenable position with no other option but to resign.”