LAY OFF GEEZER
Armagh coach comes out swinging for beleaguered boss
ARMAGH coach Jim McCorry has called for an end to the ‘unfair’ criticism directed at Orchard County boss Kieran McGeeney.
McGeeney heads into his fourth Ulster campaign still chasing his first Championship win in the province when Armagh travel to Brewster Park to take on Fermanagh tomorrow.
His dire Ulster record has been used as a stick to beat him with, the manager hammered by various commentators following defeats by Donegal (2015), Cavan (2016) and Down (last year).
RTÉ’s Sunday Game pundit Joe Brolly accused McGeeney of ‘not having a clue’ about inter-county management in the aftermath of that 2016 loss to Cavan, while also making the false claim that players from Armagh’s top club Crossmaglen would not play for him.
But McCorry, who accepted an invitation to become McGeeney’s assistant last autumn, has made a staunch defence of his beleaguered manager.
‘I think a lot of people are very unfair to Kieran and I am not saying that because Kieran played for me when I was manager and we now work together on the training pitch.
‘Even before I joined him this year I felt a lot of people personalise things when it comes to Kieran McGeeney, more so than they do with others,’ claimed McCorry.
McGeeney has appeared to adopt a low-key approach to his media engagements as Armagh manager this season and did not attend last month’s media launch of the Ulster Championship.
The eight-week suspension he served last summer as a result of an incident in a League match against Antrim may be one reason why he sought to take a more low-key approach, however McCorry believes that the public perception of him of having a ‘dour’ personality is wide of the mark.
‘Kieran’s demeanour is not really his personality,’ explained McCorry.
‘People see this straight-faced dour man on the sideline and he is really not like that at all and the players know that as well.
‘I would like to see him get a wee bit more success and people being less hard on him at times.’
But success has been slow to come, although time is still on McGeeney’s his side having been appointed for a five-year term.
On the face of it, the stats are not that bleak.
McGeeney has won 23 of his 41 games in charge — a 56 per cent win rate — but those numbers conceal the less than flattering reality that 16 of those victories were achieved in the third tier of the National League.
He had to wait until last year for his first Championship win when Armagh reeled off four wins in a row — the high-point an unexpected success over Kildare who he had managed for six years previously.
However, the 18-point hammering Armagh received from archrivals Tyrone following their Kildare triumph bled a lot of the feelgood factor from that run.
However, McCorry is adamant that McGeeney, whose only silverware thus far has been two Division 3 titles (both, ironically, achieved by beating tomorrow evening’s hosts), is feeling the pressure to deliver something bigger.
‘I see no pressure from Kieran at all,’ insists McCorry.
‘I don’t think he deals in pressure, he has a very strong belief in what he does.
‘He has a strong belief in his players and how they go about things so I can’t see him changing what he does and being affected by outside influences.
‘He would probably cringe at the idea of me defending him to the media because he just gets on with it and what happens outside of our group does not really impact on him.’
McCorry previously managed McGeeney in the early 1990’s — reaching the 1994 Allianz League final — and he believes that teaming up with him again after all those years very little has changed.
‘He is as dedicated a manager as he was a player,’ says McCorry, who managed Down to promotion to the League’s top tier in 2015, but stepped down after one season citing a lack of county board support.
‘He always went the extra mile as a player and he does that as a manager as well.
‘He is a lot more astute now with age as we all get but that would be the only real difference,’ added McCorry.