Gooch ran into him… it was like a Honda 50 hitting a juggernaut
McGeeney had huge respect in Kerry for being a warrior and now he can steel Orchard for big year
IT IS true that those who laugh last, laugh loudest. If you don’t believe me – ask the Gooch.
Togging out in his first All-Ireland final against Armagh in 2002, at one stage he ran into Kieran McGeeney, which was a bit like watching a Honda 50 having a head-on collision with a juggernaut.
At that moment, there must have been more prayers offered up for the well-being of the Gooch in Kerry than in a season of Sundays at the Vatican, but our boy held his ground and waited until McGeeney turned his back. Then he momentarily dropped to his haunches – in a bid to ease the pain – and while he concealed his discomfort from McGeeney, the rest of us saw it and used it against him in the court of high jinks over succeeding years.
Any time he took an innocuous bang in training he would never be short of comforting advice: ‘why don’t you drop down on your knees and get your wind back…’
Thing is, in the 2006 All-Ireland quarter-final I got to feel the Gooch’s pain. I took off on a solo burst up the middle, swallowing up ground with every stride until I was confronted by McGeeney.
Still, with my momentum as my friend, I assumed that I would brush him aside. Instead, I hit the
‘GEEZER OPENED MY EYES TO HOW A TRUE LEADER OPERATES’
orange wall. I somehow managed to hang on to the ball but not my dignity.
I was still shook from the collision afterwards in the dressing room, when I felt a hand on my shoulder and heard a familiar voice in my ear.
‘Marc, boy,’ advised Gooch, ‘why don’t you drop to your knees there and get your wind back.’
Geezer commanded a respect in our dressing room like few other opponents. Maybe it is because of our football culture where the fear láidir is a revered figure, but we saw McGeeney as a true warrior, a footballer to be respected.
I had the pleasure of playing International Rules with him in 2006 when he opened my eyes as to how a true leader operates. He was the Irish captain, but he did not just run our dressing room, he would also involve himself in management meetings and he was a oneman leadership group before that concept was even heard of on this side of the world.
Anyone surprised by him going straight from retirement as a player into management obviously never saw him up close because he was already running teams out on the field when he was playing.
If you talk to any of the Kildare players who played under him, the respect and appreciation they have for McGeeney is universal. It’s a reminder that you don’t have to be weighed down with silver to prove you are a good manager.
He led Kildare to five successive All-Ireland quarter-finals which is, perhaps, why the Armagh board offered him a five-year term when their favourite footballing son came home. It was a wise move because it has taken him that time to get Armagh back to a place where they can contend again.
They are not the finished article by any means, but they have genuine potential in their team and for once, they might also have good fortune on their side.
The Ulster Championship is a minefield but, having avoided Donegal and Tyrone, they are almost certainly heading for a semi-final clash with Monaghan, who they meet today in Enniskillen.
Even though they have lost Jamie Clarke, they are a team that boast a forward line of Division 1 standard with the outrageously gifted Rian O’Neill, nephew of Oisín McConville, leading the line.
Even though Clarke is a loss, they are well stocked in that department with the likes of Stefan Campbell and Rory Grugan, while they have a strong ball-winning fulcrum in Rian’s brother Oisín, Niall Grimley and Jarlath Óg Burns.
Armagh supporters should be excited at the prospect that the side has yet to reach its full potential and Geezer’s astute appointment of my old team-mate Kieran Donaghy to his management team could go a long way to getting there.
Star’s great gift to our forward line was his ability to knit it together in a selfless way. That was partly down to his basketball roots but also because he backed up his natural intelligence by being an ardent student of all sports.
There was also evidence last year that Armagh’s defence — a source of weakness for so long — had beefed up, even if they still need to be more disciplined in not giving up frees.
However, they now have exposure to top-level football and that is priceless in their development.
Lack of experience against highend teams has cost them dearly in recent years, with Tyrone hammering them by 16 points in the 2017 All-Ireland quarter-final. Donegal beat them by 12 points pulling up in last year’s Ulster SFC.
Those defeats are not a true measure
of where they stand but they have been cursed by this season’s National League format, which guarantees them only four games instead of seven, which they need.
And to make matters worse, their League programme feels like an Ulster SFC round-robin, which might be too claustrophobic for a team who would relish the novelty and experience of playing against Dublin or Kerry.
To make the next step, they must hang on to their top-tier status for next year, which makes today’s game a lot more important than a dress rehearsal for an Ulster semifinal later this summer.
But if they can find their feet quickly, they can leave a few teams on their knees and gasping for air before this season is done.