Jarly Óg Burns: Extra-time win 'an unbelievable weight lifted off' Armagh shoulders

The Orchard County had to go the extra mile once more in the Ulster decider on Sunday.

ORANGE CRUSH: Jarly Óg Burns of Armagh celebrates after his side's victory . Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

In Kieran McGeeney’s 57 championship games as Armagh manager, his team have now gone to extra-time nine times. In six of them, they lost out.

For Jarly Óg Burns and this group, that was never something that could be ignored. As the hooter sounded in Clones last Sunday, with Monaghan having fought back from seven down to level, their thoughts immediately turned back to previous heartache. How could they not?

Wins over Down in 2019 and Kerry in 2024 were offset by losses to Cavan in 2019, Galway in 2022, Derry and Monaghan in 2023, and Donegal in 2024 and last year.

“It is just an unbelievable weight lifted off our shoulders,” said Burns.

“This is a long, long time coming. A lot of hard days. A lot of dark days. For us to come through this today, again after extra-time, it just made it all worth it.” Did they reference that record?

“Of course. We knew we had the experience. We have been down the well before. We knew how to lose it. We said, look, it is not going to happen today. We didn’t want to take our foot off the gas. We said, if we go four up. We have to go to five. If we get to five, we have to go to six. Keep going. That is exactly how it panned out. Our legs came through.” 

Armagh’s ability to channel that hurt into resilience is striking. “We’ve been here before” is a phrase repeated repeatedly by players and management. They make a virtue of the setbacks, of putting themselves in the frame repeatedly and eventually coming through.

In his speech on the St Tiernach's Park steps, Armagh captain Aidan Forker made sure to acknowledge this resilience.

“For every Armagh person who kept believing, who kept travelling, kept coming back, today that hurt is turned into joy.” At the same time, the manner of that second-half slip will frustrate them. Jack McCarron and Stephen O’Hanlon kicked sensational two-pointers, but Armagh had chances of their own during that stretch. They conceded seven points in a five-minute spell.

“Not good enough, to be honest,” said Burns, who kicked three points, including Armagh’s only two-pointer.

“We started making very silly mistakes. Giving them energy, giving them opportunities. In fairness, they took them and their crowd really came into it then. We got back to level and had a chance at the very end to win it, you go into extra-time thinking, ‘Not again.’ But you dust yourselves down and said, ‘Look, this is still here for us.’” During that Monaghan storm, Peter McGrane kept a cool head and made a hard run for a short kickout. The corner-back secured possession on a slippery surface and took off up the field. From that possession, Oisin O’Neill scored to settle them.

Tomás McCormack did similar for Ross McQuillan’s point soon after. When they needed to just get hands on the ball and work a score, they stood up.

“People might only see boys kicking the ball over the bar or assisting, but that is just as important, making that 50-metre run along the arc to win a hard ball. To get it and try to give it to someone else, that is just as difficult as going up and kicking a score. That is what those boys are there for. In fairness, they did it today.” As well as the silverware and the sense of release, they will celebrate those moments this week.

“In this group, that is just as valuable as scoring. That is what wins you games.”