TIME TO DELIVER
Geezer’s future in hands of players
It would be wrong to dimsiss him as a manager out of his depth
THIS is his 30th unbroken year of service on the intercounty treadmill, but there is little evidence of the fire dying inside Kieran McGeeney.
Indeed, today he will return to the Armagh sideline at Crossmaglen after his latest four-week stint in disciplinary hot-water for a transgression in last month’s drawn clash with Clare at the Athletic Grounds.
It is his second suspension in three years — not quite as serious as the 12-week ban he picked up as a result of an altercation with a linesman during an Allianz League game against Antrim in 2017 — but the likelihood is that it will take more than sideline bans to silence the man who lit a fire under Armagh when captaining them to an All-Ireland title in 2002.
McGeeney’s unbroken sequence commenced in 1990 as a player, he then moved on to management immediately after retiring in 2007 before bringing it all back home, first as assistant to Paul Grimley and subsequently as manager of the Orchard County. However, whether he will have the chance to prolong that continuous inter-county service is now in some doubt.
In truth, that doubt is likely to be a two-way thing as the man they call Geezer will see the window close on his five-year reign as county manager at the end of this summer, and it may just be that he has had his fill.
If he is to be offered an extension, the Armagh County Board will need evidence of a marked improvement during the final year of his term.
Promotion to Division 1, making a decent fist of the Ulster Championship and ending up in the Super 8s would have ticked that box at the start of the year, but right now two out of three would not be bad.
The spring has been another tale of what might have been. Armagh drew against Kildare and Clare in games they should have won and lost to Donegal in a match they did enough, at least, to draw. It leaves McGeeney’s team facing the prospect of being caught up in a relegation dog-fight and the possibility of decamping to the League’s third tier, where he found them five years ago. That would be a damning indictment and it’s a genuine possibility should they lose to Fermanagh today. Defeat to the Erne men would be bad enough in itself, with the counties almost shackled to each other during McGeeney’s tenure. They have been promoted out of Division 3 twice together during his reign, but should Fermanagh win here, it will almost certainly push them into the League’s top flight. Given the latter’s inferior size and tradition, that would invite more questions about McGeeney’s management especially given the manner in which Fermanagh have taken flight under Rory Gallagher.
In the two meetings that mattered last season, Armagh were suffocated to the degree that they managed just 0-7 in both the League and, fatally, the Ulster Championship.
It was McGeeney’s fourth straight defeat in Ulster — a startling statistic, given that he was the poster boy for a team that once ruled the province, winning six Anglo Celt Cups.
To be fair, he hardly has the talent at his disposal to compare with the stars that shone for the Orchard men during his playing days, but Armagh would still back themselves to beat Cavan, Down and Fermanagh most times.
Is it down to him? In the end, it has to be even though that failure has been sourced in a multitude of reasons — the most obvious being their poor defensive displays.
That is a quality issue, but then modern defences are based less on individual talent and more on organisation and Armagh have been lacking in both.
They are a team more comfortable playing on the front foot — they exited the Championship last July in a surreal, thrill-aminute shoot-out with Roscommon, both sides posting a hurling scoreline of 2-22 to 1-19.
Yet, as pointed out above, when they met a stubborn Fermanagh team, wedded to a strict defensice structure, last summer, McGeeney’s men were unable to find a way through.
On the unavoidable grounds that the buck stops with the boss, McGeeney must take responsibility but it would be wrong to dismiss him as being out of his depth.
In his six years with Kildare, he led them to five All-Ireland quarter-finals, reaching the semis in 2010. That record was impressive but it was the reaction of his players — following the news of his departure — after club delegates voted him out, that was telling
Their fury and their disappointment was genuine. The same is likely to apply with this Armagh group.
McGeeney has always been seen as too serious for his own good, something that went back to his playing days when he was the ‘Gaffer’ as much as the’ Geezer’ in how he ruled the dressing room.
His former Armagh team-mate Stevie McDonnell, telling a story against himself, recalled an occasion when he and a number of other players missed training as a result of a hard night out. McGeeney told the rest of the squad to ‘nail’ the party-goers at the next training session.
McDonnell left that subsequent get-together battered and blue, but with an even deeper respect for his captain.
But if McGeeney is as one dimensional as some perceive him to be, he would not command the loyalty he does.
‘People have this image of Kieran that is all wrong. He always puts the player first,’ explained Jamie Clarke last month. However, if his players want to return that compliment by putting him first as a manager, they need to start winning.
And today would be as good as any day to start.