Kieran McGeeney and Armagh won’t give two monkeys about what anyone thinks this morning.
They won’t care about what’s written in the media, they won’t care about who’s complaining about a low-scoring draw with Fermanagh and they certainly won’t give a toss about the PA system.
The Orchard county are back in Division Two and they’re there with injuries, with players leaving in the winter and they’re there with what looks like even further improvement on what was supposed to be a weaker team.
Everyone has seen those pictures of match day programmes with as many as 15 lines through one team as changes were announced prior to throw-in.
The team that’s announced on a Thursday – to the public – is very, very rarely the actual team that will take the field for the start of the game so journalists in the press box are often at their busiest just before and for the first five minutes of the game trying to work out who has actually started.
It’s gone further now than the late changes to the team which the announcer on the PA system usually gets before the action starts. Now, sometimes, no-one is being told what the side will be – apart from the players themselves, hopefully.
Last summer in Mayo, the Derry manager was asked straight out if there were any changes to his team. He said no.
When Derry took the field, Emmett McGuckin wasn’t starting and, in his place, Michael McEvoy – a defender – was.
On Sunday in Brewster Park, the Armagh team didn’t so much feel the need to lie as they did just refuse to co-operate. Cahair O’Kane of the Irish News reported the following:
Man on the PA at Brewster Park: "The Armagh team we're not sure of as their management refused to furnish us with it" #GAA
— Cahair O'Kane (@CahairOKane1) March 18, 2018
There were said to be murmurs around the stadium thereafter and, as it went, the Armagh team never got read out.
The teams drew 0-7 apiece in the end and Armagh’s promotion and place in the Division Three final was confirmed.
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