Rory Grugan: ‘The feeling of relief is indescribable and that should give us confidence’

Grugan would see out those last six minutes on the sideline. He was empty and exhausted.

Mon, 15 Jul, 2024 - 06:44

Eoghan Cormican

Rory Grugan doesn’t have an answer. He doesn’t know why Saturday was different. So very different to the self-inflicted shoot-out disasters against Galway, Derry, Monaghan, and Donegal.

But Grugan knows exactly where Saturday had the potential to follow in the steps of the Galway, Derry, Monaghan, and Donegal defeats. He can pinpoint exactly when Armagh had the potential to once again lose their way and their extra-time lead.

In a 30-second blitz in the fourth minute of the second extra-time period, Kerry pared a three-point deficit to the minimum. After Cillian Burke kicked the first of a rapid brace, David Gough wasn’t happy with Blaine Hughes’ restart and so threw in the ball on the 20-metre line. Burke won the contest, Paudie Clifford pointed.

As the Kerry challenge resurfaced, so too did a question this Armagh group has time and again failed to answer: Were they capable of holding onto an extra-time lead all the way to the whistle?

“We went three up through Ross (McQuillan), but to be fair to Kerry, they got two big scores in a row, and after the one they got off the hop ball on our D, we could have folded,” Grugan remarked.

Hughes twice sought to go short with the ensuing kick-out. The Kerry press prevented that. He had to go long. Conor Turbitt produced a thumping fetch ahead of Tom O’Sullivan on the Cusack side to see possession retained. The offload to Oisín O’Neill who drove forward.

The play ended with a Stefan Campbell wide. No score, but a marker instead laid down. Armagh were not going to sit and hope to see out the clock as they had tried and failed before.

Grugan would see out those last six minutes on the sideline. He was empty and exhausted. He had been everywhere, conducting everything. He won kickouts and turnovers. Kicked frees and provided assists.

“Oh my God, I could barely watch. I had my head down a few times, I honestly couldn't even look. And I couldn't sit down either as I was cramping that much. I could see why the supporters talk about us nearly giving them heart attacks all the time because it is a tough watch when you are out of control on the sideline.

“I thought we managed it fairly well those last seven minutes. We knew what Kerry were trying to do and who they were trying to get on the ball.

“Couple of big plays. Boys winning kick-outs, Rian caught a ball under the crossbar at the end. It was absolutely massive. Looked a certain goal. They are the big leadership moments you need to get over the line.” If winning the quarter-final was a monkey off the back, Saturday was a troop of the same animal lifted clean off the collective shoulder.

“That was a big monkey off the back against Roscommon because we had been in three previous quarter-finals under Kieran and had not got over that hurdle. There is even more of that today with the game going to extra-time after we had been ahead but were clawed back at the end of normal time, then went ahead again in extra-time and were clawed back again, and to see it through is relief.

“It was a special kind of atmosphere to see it out in extra-time without the penalties. The feeling of relief at the end is indescribable. That should give us confidence.”

If there was anything unrelated to those previous punishing extra-time chapters, it was the bench. Their four extra-time points were supplied by subs Jarly Óg Burns, Ross McQuillan, and another - Conor Turbitt - who had been benched and then brought back in. And that is not forgetting Stefan Campbell’s pair in regulation time and the converted free he won.

“The big impact we got is the one thing that stands out in my head about what was slightly different,” continued the 33-year-old. “That when myself and other players left the field, others are coming in and you just have total belief in them.”

Other replacements such as Aidan Nugent and O’Neill kicked wide. The Orchard barely scraped 50% accuracy from open play. Their first half finishing fell way below that.

“A lot of satisfaction to come through that game. We deserved that. We did ourselves justice, and yet there is still so much to get better at, especially our shooting.

“That is a good place to be in when you will have two weeks where the county is probably going to be going a bit mad, but we'll be focused in on trying to get all those areas better because we know that probably won't be good enough in two weeks.”