Petulant Armagh only losers in this sorry mess

Congratulations to Armagh on making absolute fools of themselves. At this rate, you’d swear they were facing more than Donegal this Saturday.

Commiserations to them on their poor attempt at a media ban. Let’s be clear on this: this attempt at pulling the shutters down on the press has been a botch job.

If it truly were, Grimley and Peter McDonnell wouldn’t be talking to Armagh-based journalists. Grimley wouldn’t be speaking to Newstalk — he did so because he was asked to by their pundit and Armagh U21 selector Billy Joe Padden. Last Saturday’s man of the match Stefan Campbell wouldn’t have agreed to be interviewed by Sky Sports after beating Meath.

In this modern age, quotes are easily and quickly accessed and transferred. When Grimley and McDonnell have spoken to local press, we have carried the quotes while accrediting the sources. If this impasse was meant to hurt the national media then it can be put down as a miss and a strike.

But yesterday what had been an embarrassment for Armagh became one for the GAA. Pulling out of a media event in the Carrickdale Hotel organised and promoted by Croke Park will not go down well among the Association’s top brass.

It had been joked on social media that the press conference was like peace talks as it was taking place on neutral ground in Louth. Of course, the hotel has been regularly used by Armagh teams down through the years, and news of it on Tuesday was encouraging although it would clash with Tipperary’s All-Ireland semi-final press briefing in Thurles.

They might think they’re not the flavour of the month in GAA HQ for other reasons such as Grimley’s wholly inaccurate claim that GAA president Liam O’Neill and director general Páraic Duffy were influenced by the media to order the Central Competitions Control Committee to throw the book at them for Paradegate.

In fact, they are close to personae non gratae for that ridiculous accusation by Grimley on top of their poor behaviour along with Cavan prior to the counties’ Ulster quarter-final.

Then last week, Kevin Dyas turned up at a GAA media event in Croke Park only to say he was not permitted to speak.

And now this. Dale Carnegie’s How to win friends and influence people wouldn’t appear to be on any reading list in the Armagh camp.

The greatest irony in all of this is the main sponsors of Armagh are a communications company. They might not be all that concerned about brand integrity but maybe they should be.

But, worst of all, we highly suspect not everyone on the Armagh panel is fully on board with this stance. It’s known that when one or two have been approached to talk by media outlets, they have said they can’t, not that they won’t.

Armagh have some of the most articulate Gaelic players in the country. Aaron Kernan is as eloquent as they come. On Twitter earlier this week, he revealed he and his wife had welcome their first child into the world last week. What a great story that would have been, to celebrate a birth and then a win through to an All-Ireland quarter-final in the space of six days.

His Crossmaglen clubmate Jamie Clarke is as affable and outgoing a guy as you can meet. What must these guys privately make of the stance taken in their name?

We should be writing about this group of men’s impressive run through this year’s qualifiers. But we’re not. Not because we can’t but because with non-events like yesterday we are not permitted to. Seemingly, Armagh aren’t satisfied with being spoken of in lofty terms. They need the denigration.

The only losers are they themselves. Sorry, Armagh, but you’ve confirmed it’s definitely not us — it’s you.