Conaty keen to right goal-scoring wrongs of League campaign 

GOAL-HUNGRY: Oisin Conaty of Armagh. Pic: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

After a National League campaign in which he beat himself up for not scoring enough goals, Oisín Conaty probably still scored the goal of the season.

All of his personal frustration came pouring against Dublin at Croke Park when he slalomed in from the left wing, zipped past Eoin Murchan and left Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne on his backside before hammering the ball to the net.

And yet as easy as it all seemed to be for the back-to-back All-Star, it was his only goal from seven Division 1 starts and one of just four goals that an errant Armagh scored in the entire League.

It's why they flirted with relegation and it's an area of their game that the 2024 All-Ireland winners will have focused on intensely ahead of Sunday's glamour Ulster SFC clash with Tyrone in Armagh City.

"It comes down to us as forwards, I take myself massively to task in that category," said Conaty of the lack of goals, when speaking at AIB's launch of the 2026 All-Ireland SFC.

"My execution wasn't good enough and I was missing a lot of chances, especially in front of goals which hindered our results in the end, no bones about it.

"It's something that all of us in the team have looked into trying to improve. That involves doing your own sessions away from the team, whether it's 10 or 15 minutes of extra kicking at the end of the session or whatever, just trying to improve.

"Our conversion got better over the last two games but we still know there's improvement to be made, especially coming into the Championship."

Conaty missed a penalty late in the narrow defeat to Donegal, another dagger to the heart of the Tir na nÓg clubman. 

So when he finally found the net against the Dubs, a score that also helped them lock down a vital win in the relegation battle, it was sheer relief. In all, Armagh had gone over 300 minutes of football without raising a green flag.

"It was about time I put one in the net," said Conaty. "There was a wee bit of frustration in that kick, I'm not going to lie. The frustration was with myself because I've missed a lot of chances, I missed that penalty against Donegal, chances against Galway, I could go through a few others so it was great to finally get off the mark and hopefully there'll be a few more coming into the big games now."

Aside from the improvements that are required in attack, Armagh performed pretty well throughout spring, losing two games by a point, one by four points and one by three points. They finished the campaign by beating Dublin and drawing with Kerry.

So Conaty is confident enough to state that he wants to finally win an Ulster SFC with Armagh this summer.

For that to happen, they would need to beat Tyrone and Fermanagh, probably then Donegal in a semi-final and possibly Derry in a final.

"It's mad, look at the teams you've just rhymed off there," said Conaty. "But if we're doing the right things in training and if we're listening to the management team, and we're improving, we'd back ourselves fully to go and do it.

"It's been a hard few years, making the three finals and getting beaten three years in a row, so we feel that, yeah, no one owes us anything, you have to earn that right, but hopefully we can do that this year and go on and win one and get that medal.

"You want all the medals that are available to you, don't you? Especially after getting beaten three finals in a row, a lot of the lads are champing at the bit to get that medal but as we've just talked about, we know all the massive challenges that lie ahead."