Dessie Farrell: Dublin struggled without calm Con O'Callaghan in Armagh defeat

Irish Daily Mirror

4 days ago

Dessie Farrell says a wasteful Dublin were 'at odds with themselves' at stages of today's defeat by Armagh at Croke Park, in the absence of captain Con O'Callaghan.
Kieran McGeeney's men emerged on a 0-24 to 0-19 scoreline to top the group and claim the one automatic All-Ireland quarter-final place on offer with a game to spare.
It also left Dublin fighting for their lives going head to head with Derry in the final round at a neutral venue in a fortnight.
A draw will be enough for Dublin to stay alive, but if Derry win and Galway defeat Armagh, the capital side will finish bottom of the group and exit the All-Ireland race.
O'Callaghan was sorely missed yesterday as Dublin had 23 misses in total, including 19 wides, with five of them two point efforts in the second half as they attempted to chase down Armagh, who had just nine misses in total and hit five two-pointers to Dublin's three.
'I think what you're supposed to say in this situation is it's an opportunity for somebody else,' said Farrell.
'But when you're dealing with somebody like Con, it's definitely a loss. There's no denying that. There's no getting away from that. But that's the challenge we faced.
'We faced it in 2022 when he missed the back end of the Championship and we came up short against Kerry in the semi-final.
'We were prepared for not having him on the pitch today, so it's not as if it was a bolt from the blue. But ultimately, I think we missed his leadership out there at different times.
'Obviously, he brings a level of composure and a level of calm that we struggled with at times today.
'We were sort of at odds with ourselves at different stages and to identify the reason for that is a challenge at this point in time. But perhaps missing Con is a contributing factor.'
All-Ireland champions Armagh certainly laid down a marker that they're going nowhere as their remarkable run of not having been beaten in regular time in a Championship game since June 2023 continued.
Tyrone defeated them in a group game that year, and since then a resilient Armagh are unbeaten in regulation time in 16 Championship games.
Even though they're through as group winners, McGeeney says Armagh won't take their foot off the gas in their final round tie against a reeling Galway side fighting for their Championship lives.
Armagh emerged yesterday despite the absence of some of their top names through injury, including All-Ireland winning captain and All Star Aidan Forker, two point specialist Oisin O'Neill and defensive lynchpin Ciaran Mackin.
McGeeney says his side won't let up in the final round: 'No, you can't. We've seen that. You can't, because you'll go soft.
'They (Galway) were beaten by a point by Dublin, and it was a draw again today (against Derry). Galway, to me, are still one of the top three or four teams in the country.
'They'll be smarting, because they know how good they are. If you go soft to that, you'll both lose players, and you can lose a whole lot of other things as well.
'You might be able to get somebody else in and get game time, but the way we do our training is you have to fight for that position. It's not given to you.'