"We must be the most negative sport in the world" - McGeeney

“It’s very hard just to always understand. The high scoring games, nobody is going to say, ‘we need to stop all these scores.’ We have a few low scoring games and football is terrible."

Mon, 19 Feb, 2024 - 16:26

John Fogarty

Kieran McGeeney believes Gaelic football is the most maligned sport in the world.

The Armagh manager has regularly condemned the game’s naysayers and he now appears to be railing against the likes of GAA director general Tom Ryan who recently wrote that Gaelic football needs to be reviewed.

Referring to the Division 1 games between Dublin and Roscommon and Kerry and Mayo on Saturday evening, McGeeney said: “It’s very hard just to always understand. The high scoring games, nobody is going to say, ‘we need to stop all these scores.’ We have a few low scoring games and football is terrible.

“I’ve said this over and over, all I have to do is watch videos – I played it in, and it’s not half as good as people remember, the same as the 1970s and 1980s, it just keeps going on and on.

“We must be the most negative sport in the world, I always get cracked up because I get called dour and sad and I don’t smile, but the stories I read or are sent, it seems to be the world is going to end in the GAA. And yet it has never been as popular, crowds are big, they are making money, I don’t know what people want.”

Armagh’s third consecutive win in Netwatch Cullen Park sets up an appetising top-of-the-table clash with Donegal this Sunday. Donegal also boast a 100% record and Armagh are currently ahead by a point on score difference.

The Box-It Athletic Grounds game sees McGeeney share a sideline with Jim McGuinness for the first time since Kildare’s victory over Donegal in the counties’ Division 1 opener in February 2013.

The pair also pitted wits against each other in the epic 2011 All-Ireland quarter-final, which Kevin Cassidy won for Donegal in extra-time. That game also prompted a war of words between the managers as McGuinness claimed McGeeney’s management had actively contributed to a syndicated article prior to the game to highlight Donegal’s “professional fouls”.

Sunday is the first of three all-Ulster clashes for Armagh and McGeeney can’t wait. “It’s always fantastic if you win them ones. Both teams seem to be going well and there’ll be no quarter asked or given I’m assuming.

“It’s going to be one of those games but it’s our next game and then we have Cavan (March 16, home) and Fermanagh (March 2, away) and the way Ulster is going at the minute every game is going to be tight.”