Rory Grugan felt like Armagh had 'something special' and wanted to go again

Irish Daily Mirror

2 days ago

Rory Grugan was 33 when he helped Armagh land the All-Ireland title - but walking away never entered his head.
It was a long and painful climb to the top with plenty of heartache along the way, including back to back Ulster Final penalty shoot out defeats and All-Ireland exits (2022/23).
But the idea of 'One and Done' wasn't something the Ballymacnab playmaker entertained for a second.
10 months on from that famous All-Ireland Final win over Galway, Armagh are back in the last eight again and looking formidable.
Their five point victory over Dublin at Croke Park at the weekend meant Kieran McGeeney's men not only topped the table for the third successive year, but they also made another piece of history.
Armagh became the only side across the three years of the round robin series to qualify for an All-Ireland quarter-final with a game to spare.
'I think when you reach that pinnacle there might be a perception on the outside like, oh you'd walk away or whatever,' says Grugan, who hit eight points against Dublin.
'I was 33 at the time. It was honestly the opposite - where you wanted to go again.
'You felt like you had something special and that was Geezer's thing straight away. It's just the way he is. It's about driving it again and seeing where it can take us.
'No team in Armagh has certainly done it (back to back All-Ireland titles). It's obviously a very long way away to be talking about that type of thing.
'I suppose it's something that drives you, and we are at a stage where we are at an All-Ireland quarter-final and we'll just see where it takes us from there.'
Grugan says Armagh can use all the experience they had from the good days and the bad ones.
'I think we are in a position where we probably were frustrated,' he says.
'You were in danger of being given a tag of not getting over the line in a close game, or nearly men, or whatever you want to call it.
'Then when you get there and you win that thing, there's definitely a sense of it taking a certain element of pressure off and it liberating you a bit.
'You know that you have that reliance on your experience to get over the line and to win that.
'That when it comes to it, you think that you've been here before. That doesn't mean that it's easy.
'If anything it's actually harder because you have teams that are coming for you now, but I suppose that experience stands to you. You'd like to think that it helps as the year goes on.'
Grugan had an easy sell for his team mates in the huddle at Croke Park last Sunday as Armagh geared up for a first Championship encounter with Dublin since 2010.
'You are talking about being one of the older players,' he continued. 'I think when you know you are closer to the end in your career, you relish these things.
'I said after the game last week (win over Derry) I've never played against Dublin in a Championship game in Croke Park.
'I know it wasn't a sellout but I suppose playing into the Hill, the sun shining in Croke Park. I said it to the boys in the huddle before the game.
'This is why you play football. If you can't enjoy that, there's something wrong with you. It's obviously easier when you win. Those are the days you relish, so we'll be looking forward to being back here.'
Grugan is playing as well as he ever has, conducting the Armagh attack and weighing in with scores and big defensive plays.
'I think you always have to try and improve,' he says. 'The minute you feel like you are the finished product you are in the wrong game.
'Even the new rules have rejuvenated it for me. You are looking for new things all the time. How you can get better and whether that's defensively or with your shooting and different things.
'There is so much of my game I would like to be better at. You'll come away after the thing (Dublin game) and it's all great, but there's so much I know from both the team perspective and even my own that you could do better.
'That's what high performance is. You are always striving for perfection. You will never get there.'
The 34 year old French teacher says Armagh won't be treating the Galway game lightly, even though it's a dead rubber for them.
'I don't think at this level taking a step back or having some sort of mindset of not wanting to win a game is a good thing,' he continued.
'Momentum is a big thing. You have two weeks to Galway and two weeks after that to an All-Ireland quarter-final.
'So I think we are going to be really going after it. We just have to take it as a normal game. I know it's not do or die in the sense of we have already topped the group.
'There is talk about the boys that want their spot. Everyone is going to be pushing on, so I think everyone has enough pride in the thing to be saying they want to go on and win that game.
'It means you are going into a quarter-final with momentum rather than coming off a loss.'