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Irish Daily Mirror
29-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Armagh minds will have been drifting towards Dubs clash says former Orchard star
Aaron Kernan reckons that Armagh minds may have been drifting towards Dublin even before they played Derry last weekend. Despite Armagh leading by 13 points at one stage on Saturday, a couple of Derry goals made for an uncomfortable finish at the Athletic Grounds, though the All-Ireland champions held out for a four-point win in the end. The nature of the round robin stage is that upcoming games are already in the diary and Armagh's second round trip to Croke Park had an allure about it as soon as the groups were finalised. It gets the juices flowing for all sorts of reasons, not least because it's a meeting of the last two All-Ireland winners but the rival managers, Kieran McGeeney and Dessie Farrell, have a shared history having played club football together in the capital for Na Fianna. Kernan said: 'It's a difficult one because you're always preparing for Championship and you sort of just know your next game. Whereas Dublin, Croke Park, big crowds, it's very hard not to let your mind drift forward a week.' The counties met in two high profile Championship games in 2002 and '03, both won by Armagh when McGeeney and Farrell were involved as players. Indeed, Stephen Cluxton played in those games and was famously sent off in the 2003 qualifier. He is expected to start on Sunday, 22 years on. Kernan's father Joe was Armagh manager at the time though he didn't come into the side until the following year and so just missed out on those clashes, with his only Championship meeting with Dublin being a relatively low key qualifier at Croke Park in 2010 which the home side won by three points. At that stage, Armagh were very much a fading force while Dublin were finding their feet under Pat Gilroy in what was a rare trip through the back door for them. 'They were in an unusual place,' Kernan recalled. 'That was the year they shipped the five goals against Meath, so they were trying to find their feet between being defensively solid and not taking away from what their strengths were in an attacking sense. 'Looking back now, or even at the time, I'm not sure that we had the genuine confidence or belief within our group that we were capable of going and beating Dublin in Croke Park. 'I think maybe if it had been a home game at that stage in the Athletic Grounds, we might have been the sort of team that could have performed an ambush. But the genuine belief wasn't there within us. 'I know it certainly wasn't the same spectacle that there was in 2002, 2003 in that qualifier game or that All-Ireland semi-final where they played Dublin in packed Croke Parks and even League games at that stage.' Indeed, the meeting of the counties in the 2003 League opener drew a whopping 54,000 to Croke Park, with Armagh winning well. Kernan added: 'They were the good times in Armagh football and good times in Ireland as a whole in terms of crowds that were turning out. 'But you'd have to think, given the Armagh support and how well they travel in numbers, and particularly Dublin, what they've given their fans, you'd hope again that if you had 50,000-plus, it would still be a brilliant spectacle. 'I think the Leinster final with 60,000 there showed that when you have a good contest and you have a crowd there, Croke Park fairly comes alive. Ultimately that's what players want, that's what you thrive on and that's what all the sacrifice is being done for. It's big days like that."
Irish Daily Mirror
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Dubs win pumps up pressure on Armagh says Orchard legend as O'Neill nears return
Dublin's win in Galway has raised the stakes for Armagh's Group 4 clash with Derry on Saturday considerably, says former Orchard star Aaron Kernan. Although the Dubs' victory was hardly a seismic shock, it was still unexpected in the context of their struggles against Meath, with Galway seen as frontline All-Ireland contenders having just picked up a fourth successive Connacht title. But the result means that any suggestion that last year's All-Ireland finalists would battle it out for top spot while Dublin and Derry scrapped for third is out the window. 'You're sitting watching the game, and as exciting as it was, and it looked like Dublin was going to win, I was starting to wonder, 'Is this actually a good thing from an Armagh point of view?'' said Kernan. 'I think last weekend's result will certainly have heightened them to make sure that they're fully tuned in [to play Derry]. 'I'm not even sure whether they're worried about getting a performance, they're just worried about getting off to a win. Then it just gives you that bit more breathing space and heaps that wee bit more pressure on Derry as well. 'So yeah, it's a huge game for them to make sure that they get a winning start and, like I said, worry about a performance afterwards.' He added: 'There might have been a bit of feeling out in the first 25 minutes, first half. But Dublin have now gone to Galway and absolutely thrown a spanner in the works of what everyone had envisaged for how this group was going to play out. 'I think it just adds even more importance to this Derry-Armagh game." Armagh have received what Kernan describes as an 'unbelievable boost' to their All-Ireland defence with the return of Rian O'Neill to the squad ahead of the Ulster final. His Crossmaglen Rangers clubmate didn't make the matchday 26 for that one-point extra time defeat to Donegal but Kernan expects him to be phased back in soon. 'The soundbites are that yeah, it is a possibility. Whether it's this weekend or not, I'm not sure, but certainly he has been back in training with the squad since the week prior to the Ulster final. 'Obviously he would have missed a lot of football since the All-Ireland last year and since his club campaign last year, but still, he's a young man. He'll not be long getting up to the speed of it. 'But yeah, like I mentioned, just whether it's this weekend and he makes an actual panel of 26, I'm not sure. The inner workings of that group, if you bump into them in the street, they ain't going to tell you anyway.' O'Neill has yet to feature for Armagh under the new rules - but the two-point arc appears tailor made for a player of his kicking ability. Kernan added: 'I think he showed his full array of talent with that two-point arc, even though it was only that Railway Cup competition at the end of the year to test out the new rules. 'So I would certainly see, as he's being eased back in, that will be the role or that's where you'll see him most prominent will be in those two-point zones.' Aaron Kernan is a BoyleSports ambassador.
Irish Daily Mirror
20-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Sunday Game's Tailteann Cup blunders not a great look
Aaron Kernan has said that the Sunday Game analysis of Leitrim-Sligo didn't 'have a great look to it' after analysts made a number of blunders. Last Sunday's Tailteann Cup tie, which Sligo won by four points, was afforded a slot on RTE's highlights programme with former Dublin star Paul Flynn and ex-Westmeath manager Dessie Dolan running the rule over it in studio. Flynn referred to Sligo goalkeeper Aidan Devaney as 'Lyons' when highlighting a crucial save that had been made to deny Darren Cox, while Dolan mixed Sligo manager Tony McEntee up with his twin brother John and also referenced a 'Nathan Murphy' when, presumably, it was Yeats captain Niall Murphy that he meant to single out. The errors were picked up on social media with Sligo PRO Padraig McKeon, posting on X in a personal capacity, saying it was 'just not good enough'. Ex-Armagh star Kernan was drafted into the Sligo set up in a coaching role last winter and is a former club and county teammate of the McEntees. He said: 'I would say their main focus in terms of what analysis they would show on the night would have been based off the Sam Maguire games and then you're only watching clips. 'I know they're twins and they're identical twins but Tony's been operating between Mayo and Sligo for a considerable period of time. He got a bit of slagging over it alright now within the Sligo management with WhatsApp chat. 'But yeah, there was a few names that were incorrectly thrown in there in terms of even goalkeepers and that there. 'I thought the length of coverage it got was very good. The length of time that they chatted about it was very good. Whenever you're getting names mixed up and names wrong, it doesn't have a great look to it. But, at that stage, it was nearly after 11 o'clock on a Sunday night. It's been a long day.' He continued: 'I'm not sure that he [Dolan] was getting mixed up with Nathan Mullen who plays for Sligo and is just out injured. But Niall [Murphy] would without doubt be our most prominent and high profile player. 'Obviously what he's done with Sligo, Coolera, representing in International Rules, it was an unusual one, particularly from Dessie because he was part of the Westmeath management group whenever they won the Tailteann Cup a couple of years ago. 'So we'll put all that there down to late nights and long days,' added the BoyleSports ambassador.
