Whelan: Armagh reaching the final not ‘a huge surprise’

Getting past the challenge of Kerry after extra-time in Saturday’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final only served to reinforce Ciarán Whelan’s view that Armagh new-found resilience was going to take down one of the big hitters.

In the end, Kieran McGeeney’s side had two points to spare, their strong showing as the second half wore on and then in extra-time was key as they repelled the Kingdom threat. Armagh have endured the heartache of penalty losses in recent Ulster finals and in the All-Ireland series, but this year, following the pain of the provincial loss to Donegal, they have bounced back superbly and will now contest the Sam Maguire decider against Galway on 28 July.

No doubt, Armagh fans will bring much colour to Croker as the county seeks a second All-Ireland title.

Whelan, speaking on the latest edition of the RTÉ GAA Podcast, paid tribute to how Kieran McGeeney’s outfit has responded to the setbacks.

“I think over a period of time, they have built a resilience within themselves and have come back from defeats, have come back in a positive way,” he said.

“They have tried to channel that energy in a positive way particularly after the Ulster final this year when you felt it was going to be a hard road back for them after another significant knock, not winning that provincial title.”

Honing in on the win over Kerry, the former Dublin star added: “A couple of things probably broke their way but you cannot fault their commitment, their effort, their passion to succeed. It was really the sum of the parts. You were looking at the player of the match – Rian O’Neill got it – and that catch near the end. It was fantastic but they had so many guys that made a contribution throughout the 70 minutes and in extra-time.

“There is a lot to like about Armagh. They were going to put it up to Kerry if Kerry weren’t at their best.”

And in reaching the final itself, Whelan boldly said: “I don’t see it a huge surprise”.

All-Ireland favourites Dublin exited the championship at the hands of Galway, with Whelan seeing similarities as to how that game panned out with what transpired on Jones’ Road a fortnight later.

“In lots of ways it was a strange kind of game, it was very like Dublin-Galway. You felt Kerry in the first half were at the tempo; they were doing really well and their key players were having an impact.

“They were putting the squeeze on Armagh and if you looked at their six points in the first half, two of them were soft frees given for off-the-ball instances, one of the came from a David Clifford turnover and the other two were lapses down the right-hand side where Kerry switched off and McGrane (Peter) and Grimley (Niall) got in behind.

“Kerry were totally dominant in that first half, very like the Dublin game. You wonder about that psychology at half-time. I’ve always felt and I’ve been on the end of defeats myself, that a four, five-point lead at the break is a dangerous, dangerous lead.

“Psychologically, it can put guys in their comfort zone, you come out and the game can change in the second half and momentum can go against you. Even, sitting with Peter (Canavan) watching the match, Armagh needed a spark, something to energise the crowd, so as to give them that belief. And the goal (from Barry McCambridge) gave them that, it really energised them. They then had the energy from the crowd and drove it on to get it to extra-time.”

Listen to the RTÉ GAA Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship final, Armagh v Galway, on Sunday 28 July from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1