Football critics ‘trying to belittle’ game

Allianz FL Division 3 final

Kieran McGeeney has accused those who have criticised the current state of gaelic football of trying to “belittle” the game.

The Armagh boss was reacting to recent negativity about the defensive systems being employed by most inter-county teams and suggested to some of the former players-turned-critics that things weren’t always so wonderful during their own playing days.

While he didn’t mention his former Armagh team-mate Jarlath Burns by name, he clearly had him in mind after the county’s former Ulster-winning captain termed the Dublin v Derry League game in Croke Park as ‘the death of gaelic football’.

“It’s a phenomenon in gaelic games at the minute where everyone is trying to belittle our games and unfortunately it’s our own that’s doing most of the belittling,” said McGeeney.

“It’s an unfortunate situation we find ourselves in that people who have played the game and are part of it want to do that.

“Maybe they should just watch TV sometime and see some of the games they played in.

“That might remind them that things have moved on since then.

“If you look back at some of these games, they were scoring 1-9 or 1-8 or even less and this is without what they call ‘blanket defences’. You just wonder.

“It’s getting to the stage now where you literally turn down the TV to watch the games to just enjoy it.”

McGeeney has led Armagh to promotion from Division Three in his first season in charge and face Fermanagh in tonight’s Allianz League final in Croke Park.

It’s an achievement which was expected from a squad who looked a cut above anything else in the division, barring a fortunate win over Tipperary in the very first round.

They are also expected to comfortably see off Fermanagh, despite Pete McGrath’s team scoring five unanswered points in the closing stages of their meeting last month to snatch a draw in the Athletic Grounds.

With a tough first round Ulster SFC tie against the winners of Donegal v Tyrone next up, McGeeney says his players know they are playing at a standard and in an environment that has quality – despite what some might say.“It (expectation) varies depending on who’s writing about it,” he told the Newry Reporter.

“Sometimes you’re doing well and then you hear somewhere else that you’re not. The players have expectation of themselves and where they hope to get to.

“They know that despite what people might say about Ulster football, it’s good football, it’s competitive and anybody that is going to win Ulster is going to have to play three quality games.

“I’m sure somebody will contradict me in the summer about quality, but again I’ll tell them to look at the TV and their own videos. Maybe they weren’t as good as they think they were.”