{"id":505282,"date":"2026-06-18T02:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T02:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/505282\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T02:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T02:05:12","slug":"armagh-need-to-be-perfect-on-and-off-the-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/505282\/","title":{"rendered":"Armagh need to be perfect on and off the pitch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Armagh will need to get their big-game preparations perfect both on and off the pitch if they’re to surprise All-Ireland champions Kerry in their own backyard on Saturday, according to RT\u00c9 GAA analysts Dessie Dolan and Nigel Dunne.<\/p>\n

With one second left in their clash with Louth<\/a> on Sunday, Kieran McGeeney\u2019s side appeared to be through to the All-Ireland quarter-finals with a free weekend an extra reward. However, Sam Mulroy\u2019s last-gasp goal, compounding a series of Armagh mistakes in the final 90 seconds, has completely changed their season with Monday\u2019s draw throwing up the most difficult of assignments, facing Jack O\u2019Connor\u2019s side in Killarney with the loser\u2019s season coming to an end.<\/p>\n

As daunting as the fixture is on paper, other factors also seem to be working against the Ulster champions, most notably a day\u2019s less recovery compared to their opponents \u2013 who eased past Kildare on Saturday<\/a> \u2013 and a round trip of nearly 900kms.<\/p>\n

“The real work is done off the pitch,” Dolan, speaking on the RT\u00c9 GAA Podcast<\/a>, said of what Armagh have had to do this week.<\/p>\n

“Reviewing the game just gone through and then previewing what you\u2019re going to do at the weekend in terms of the analysis.<\/p>\n

“The amount of information the lads have to take on in such a short time, the reality is, it\u2019s all about recovery, it\u2019s all about getting your body back to a place that you feel 100% and energised and ready to go.<\/p>\n

\n

“The travel, the mental load, the exhaustion from the game, the training sessions themselves, the travel around going to training, the mental side of meeting and talking to people, there\u2019s an awful lot to take in.<\/p>\n

“You\u2019re trying to get your players as grounded as you can, as rested as you can and as well prepared as you can in terms of the analysis side of it, which is an awful lot of work.<\/p>\n

“Can you imagine you\u2019re listening to draw on Morning Ireland at 8.30am [on Monday], you get your team and from that point on you\u2019re scrambling for information, you\u2019re ringing lads around the country, you\u2019re trying to get videos of this and that.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s information overload.”<\/p>\n

Such a fixture adds real glamour to this weekend\u2019s action, and Dolan said it\u2019s incredible that one of the two will be calling time on their 2026 season.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t think anyone would believe that we\u2019d have Armagh playing Kerry in Round 3, no one would have predicted that one of these teams are going to be knocked out this weekend.<\/p>\n

“To be fair to Armagh, they\u2019ve been absolutely super throughout the year. I know they maybe have lost games they possibly should have won, missed goal opportunities, whatever the case may be, but they\u2019re a very exciting team to watch.<\/p>\n

\"
\nLouth’s last-gasp goal against Armagh has put the Orchard County on a perilous path<\/p>\n

“They really are box office, they\u2019ve massive support, they\u2019ve big characters in the team, a big squad and obviously Kieran McGeeney is a very influential manager in the game.”<\/p>\n

For fellow RT\u00c9 GAA analyst Dunne, those error-ridden final 90 seconds against Louth were very out of character for Armagh, and he feels that if they don\u2019t recover quickly, it could be a long day at Fitzgerald Stadium.<\/p>\n

“With five minutes to go you felt Armagh were in complete control,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The naivety of players such as Aidan Forker, a brilliant footballer, a brilliant leader, to take on a shot…we\u2019ve all been there, when you\u2019re not getting game-time and you\u2019re trying to impress.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s that game management, take on the shot, they get the ball back, throw it away again.<\/p>\n

“There was a strange feel to the last few minutes. It was the first time this year I felt, because they have been ultra consistent, the form team in Ireland, that they were a little bit off.”<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s going to be really hard to recover in six days,” he added.<\/p>\n

Watch the Tailteann Cup semi-finals on Saturday, Down v Fermanagh from 2.45pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player, with Wicklow v Offaly available on RT\u00c9 News Channel and RT\u00c9 Player from 4.55pm. Follow our live blog on all matches on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app and listen to commentary on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n

Watch Clare v Dublin in the All-Ireland Hurling Championship quarter-finals on Saturday from 6.35pm on RT\u00c9 One and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow our live blog on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app and listen to commentary on Saturday Sport on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n

Watch Dublin v Donegal in the All-Ireland Football Championship on Sunday from 12.50pm on RT\u00c9 One and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow our live blog on all matches on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app<\/p>\n

Watch Cork v Offaly in the All-Ireland Hurling Championship quarter-finals on Sunday from 3pm on RT\u00c9 One and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow our live blog on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app and listen to commentary on Sunday Sport on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Armagh will need to get their big-game preparations perfect both on and off the pitch if they’re to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-505282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}