Kieran McGeeney on Armagh's All-Ireland win: 'It’s like wearing a pair of earmuffs, quietens all the noise'

The Orchard legend guided his county to another championship victory.

Armagh's Rory Grugan Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney and Joe McElroy celebrate. Pic: Bryan Keane

The noise quietened. The noise quenched.

The opening question to Kieran McGeeney was the obvious one to toss up the front of the media room: What does it feel like to have guided Armagh to football’s summit?

“You know, it feels quiet. It’s like wearing a pair of earmuffs for a change, quietens all the noise,” replied the now All-Ireland winning manager and All-Ireland-winning captain.

“To be honest, I’m just delighted for these boys. Back when we were playing, we had a couple of knockbacks. But these fellas have got knockback after knockback after knockback, and they just keep coming.

“Penalty shootouts, everybody telling them they can’t win tight games, can’t beat teams above them, [they] gave them a perfect answer. All-Ireland champions 2024.

“Delighted for them, absolutely over the moon. I couldn’t be any happier for them now, a great bunch of fellas. To do what they’ve done over the last four or five years has been outstanding, to come back and win that one today.” 

In a final quarter where Galway pressed and pressed, McGeeney hailed his team’s choosing of “belief” over “self-sabotage”.

“The third quarter, Galway are usually very strong, and we had our goal in that quarter to keep ourselves well in the game.

“And then the last quarter, we’ve great legs coming off the bench. Gave a couple of balls away – which will happen when you haven’t won it before.

“Just that sort of belief, rather than self-sabotage. But a brilliant tackle, I think it was by Ben (Crealey), on the far side that turned it over, changed the game.

“But they’re the thin margins. On other days we’ve been on the wrong side of it. Today, we got on the right side of it.” 

On the right side after 10 years at the helm. There have been more successful inter-county managers who didn’t get half the time McGeeney has been given. He knows as much and so regularly sought reaffirmation from his players as to what and who they wanted.

“Time is a commodity not afforded to most people these days, and I’m lucky with these lads here. I’d ask them every year – or every week – whether they still wanted me about. They tell me a few different things! But in the whole, they did.

“And once Armagh wanted me about, that was an easy choice. I know what it takes in a small county and a small club to try and win something. It takes a while. It takes a lot of people.

“But we’ve some fabulous players. Tiernan Kelly didn’t play for most of the Ulster championship. I remember sitting beside him in the semi-final, and sort of saying, ‘Just wait, your time is going to come’. And it did, and he’s been outstanding for us.

“Oisín O’Neill’s the same, he’s been one of our best players over the last five or six years. I asked him to take a different role this year, coming off the bench, because he’s one of the smartest players we have, he’s able to see things that other players aren’t. But it’s not always available at the beginning of the game.  

“And for those fellas to be able to bury their ego is not an easy thing. The best players in their club, by a mile, and to be able to do that for the team, and I think that’s why they did it.”