McDonnell expects 'eager' Armagh to deliver despite rotation

Irish Examiner

20 hours ago

Armagh great Stevie McDonnell expects the All-Ireland champions to make a concerted effort to try and knock last year's runners-up Galway out of the championship on Saturday.
A defeat for Pádraic Joyce's side in Cavan's Kingspan Breffni Park combined with what happens in Páirc Esler in Newry between Derry and Dublin could be enough to send the Connacht winners out of the competition.
Knowing manager Kieran McGeeney as he does, 2003 footballer of the year McDonnell expects Armagh to try and put their rivals on the rack despite the Ulster finalists having already qualified for the All-Ireland quarter-finals at the end of the month.
'Armagh are going to make changes, but those changes will be seamless,' says the 2002 All-Ireland winner and three-time All-Star.
'Like, Greg McCabe will probably get game time, Connaire Mackin, Blaine Hughes may come in. You saw the run on the form that he went on last year.
'Tomás McCormack has been extremely unlucky to miss out on corner-back over the last couple of games. He's had a fantastic league campaign and played really well against Antrim as well.
'These boys are going to come in with an eagerness and a hunger as well to impress before the All-Ireland quarter-final. So, if anything, it may play into our hands a wee bit.
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'Regardless of what team they put out, Armagh will be good enough and strong enough to go out and beat Galway. The strength of their squad is there for everybody to see, and I think that's the stance they should be going at.'
McGeeney demonstrated last year that he picks on form and that approach will give those beginning Saturday's final All-Ireland SFC Group 4 game massive incentive to perform, McDonnell believes.
'If I had a starting 15 jersey this weekend, I'd be making it as hard as possible for the management not to pick me for the quarter-final. You saw last year the likes of Barry McCambridge and Niall Grimley coming good late in the season. Those two players were absolutely fantastic from quarter-final stage on.
'I don't think it's in the management's DNA, I don't think it's in the players' DNA to go out and underperform or taking things easy just because there's a quarter-final in a couple of weeks. They certainly won't be doing that this weekend.'
McGeeney doesn't do half-measures as McDonnell realised several times when they were teammates.
'One game that sticks out in my mind was the 2003 qualifier against Dublin. First half, we were lacklustre and average at best. Second half, we came out a different animal, and a million percent Geezer and Joe [Kernan] would have fucked us out of it at half-time. Geezer will give the kick up the backside if he sees a drop-off.'
McDonnell doesn't go as far as saying there is Galway blood in the water but there are doubts surrounding them.
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'It's hard to know where they are at right now. They haven't been hitting the levels they have the last few years. Are they able to cope without marquee players like Armagh did when Rian O'Neill wasn't available?
'Damien Comer came off the bench against Derry but they will probably need more from him. Shane Walsh's form has been up and down but I've no doubt he will be a handful this weekend.
'It's Galway consistency that is letting them down. For long periods of the game against Derry, they were outplayed. Then they started to play a bit of football and came back at Derry and they probably could have kicked on and won the game when they were looking dead and buried with 15 or 20 minutes left.'