Farrell and McGeeney battle will be 'quite personal' as Dubs and Armagh face off

Irish Daily Mirror

31-05-2025

It was at the Olympia Theatre a few years back that Paul Caffrey last crossed paths with Kieran McGeeney.
Copperface Jacks The Musical was on and Caffrey was in attendance with Cathal Jackson, the owner of the legendary nightclub that spawned the show, and much else besides.
'Pillar' and McGeeney picked up seamlessly, just as they will whenever they bump into each other again in the future. That's the nature of their relationship and, Caffrey senses, McGeeney's with those whom he will share the Croke Park sideline with tomorrow.
'I had a great chat, that's just the way he would be,' says Caffrey. 'He was with his wife Maura that night.
'I'd send him the odd text or WhatsApp after big games or before them and he'd always come back to me, be very respectful to me and all that, so I'd imagine that's the way he operates with the likes of Dessie or Mick Galvin or these fellas that would still touch base with him.'
As it happens, it was in Coppers that Dessie Farrell and McGeeney first made acquaintance in the late '90s, which led to the Armagh centre-back throwing in his lot with Na Fianna. Managed by Caffrey and with Galvin having joined from St Oliver Plunkett's, they won three Dublin Championships in-a-row, a Leinster title and reached the 2000 All-Ireland club final, losing to Crossmaglen Rangers.
Farrell and McGeeney were also key figures in the formative years of the Gaelic Players' Association and well beyond, serving as chief executive and secretary respectively.
In 2002, they faced off in an All-Ireland semi-final, with Farrell placed at centre-forward to keep the shackles on his clubmate rather than the other way around, though he carried shoulder and calf injuries into the game and made little impact.
Armagh squeezed through and Tommy Lyons's Dublin reign fizzled out.
'That Dublin team wasn't the same after,' says Caffrey, a Dublin selector at the time. 'We had a great chance of getting to the All-Ireland final in 2002 and we had huge momentum and who knows what would have happened had we got there. Armagh took their opportunity and went on and won their All-Ireland.
'So these matches, they can have a significant part in history in the following year or two and how things pan out for teams.'
Armagh came to Croke Park for a League opener the following February. A crowd of 54,000 turned up to see them beat the Dubs by 11 points.
'I remember talking to Geezer actually about that game. He said they put huge emphasis on hammering us, in terms of the young players that we were trying out that day, to really go hard after us, not to give us any hope.
'They went really hard to put a bit of fear into Dublin in relation to the Armagh jersey and subsequently got us in in the Championship.'
That was a qualifier match in which Paddy McKeever and, more famously, Stephen Cluxton was sent off and while Armagh couldn't retain their title from there, they remained a force at the back end of the Championship for years afterwards while Dublin struggled to get a grip on Leinster.
Farrell finished with Dublin in 2005, Caffrey's first year as manager, while McGeeney went until 2007 with Armagh before moving straight into management with Kildare.
Farrell threw himself into the Dublin underage scene and worked his way up while this is McGeeney's 36th consecutive season involved at senior inter-county level.
'As individuals, they're just two hugely, hugely driven guys,' states Caffrey. 'There's lots of fellas that are serious about football but if you look at the two fellas, the careers they put in after they finished playing, like it's up there with Sean Boylan in terms of the longevity, in terms of what these guys have done year after year after year.
'It's nearly like an addiction to them that there's been, there's been no break. Like Dessie has done it all; the minor up, up through the 21 grade and now in the senior grade.
'A lot of people expected him to step back this year but no, he still is willing to put the hard yards in and try and come back with a newly-formed team with so many retirements.'
They first met as managers in a League tie more than three years ago. Farrell had come off a difficult season which had seen him suspended for breaching the Covid training ban and Dublin relinquish their All-Ireland, while impatience with McGeeney was growing in Armagh with League promotions all he had to show for his five years in the job.
Since then, Farrell delivered an All-Ireland that was all his in 2023, while McGeeney silenced his critics last year.
'In the eyes of the public these two men are viewed quite differently after winning the two All-Irelands that they have won,' Caffrey explains.
'Dessie overseeing the reintroduction of McCaffrey, Mannion and Cluxton and a winning formula, and for Dublin to achieve that All-Ireland for a lot of them players was quite incredible.
'Geezer finally succeeds and wins a fantastic All-Ireland, beating Kerry in a semi-final and producing a brilliant second half to beat a much-fancied Galway team in the All-Ireland final.
'They're looked on in a different light by the GAA public now. They're not only two of the greatest players that ever played the game but also two of the greatest managers that have ever managed.'
And their friendship will drive them to get one over on the other tomorrow.
'I'd think it would be quite personal, yeah,' Caffrey insists. 'Be under no illusion - whoever wins this game is in a much stronger position than the losing manager going forward on Sunday. That's why I don't rule out the draw.
'I think there's more than bragging rights on the table in relation to Geezer versus Dessie. This certainly could shake up the rest of the Championship.'