Will the real Armagh please stand up?

Will the real Armagh please stand up?

On this week’s RTÉ GAA podcast, Enda McGinley was channelling his inner Eminem by calling on Kieran McGeeney’s side to give a more consistent performance when they take on Roscommon in Croke Park on Sunday for a place in the All-Ireland semi-finals.

The Orchard County, defeated for the second year running in an Ulster final on penalties, have shown glimpses of their potential throughout the championship, but have also been involved in cagey encounters, taking a pragmatic approach against a number of opponents.

Former Tyrone defender McGinley cited the example of the round-robin draw with Galway, a result that secured their place as group winners, as the perfect example.

Playing with the wind in the first half, they offered very little in attack and trailed at the interval by two points. The Tribesmen looked well in control of proceedings at Markievicz Park.

However, a couple of late defensive errors from Galway, including for Tiernan Kelly’s goal, swung the momentum back in their favour.

McGinley says Armagh “came alive” after the goal, a transformation from the way they played for the previous 55 minutes.

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The three-time All-Ireland winner insists Armagh have the firepower to “potentially take Roscommon apart”, but it depends on their approach.

“So often they seem to come out and play a fairly pensive game to the level of the opposition,” he said. “Then it all becomes quite tentative. We saw that against Fermanagh and Down in the Ulster championship.

“Which part of that Galway performance is Armagh at?”

McGinley was joined by Ciarán Whelan, who is also backing Armagh to advance.

The former Dublin midfielder believes Tyrone’s underwhelming performance in defeat to the Rossies needs to be factored in

“I can’t get over how bad Tyrone were, so that really leaves a question mark,” he said.

“It may have made Roscommon look better than they actually are.

“I know they are very well organised under Davy Burke. They will sit back, play on the counter-attack and utilise their long kickouts.

“They have three brilliant in-form forwards in Diarmuid Murtagh (pictured above) Conor Cox and Daire Cregg, but Armagh have Aaron McKay, Peter McGrane and Barry McCambridge, who would be their chief man-marker, they will invest a lot of energy into tying them down.

“Armagh will be more solid defensively. They are naturally more conservative.

“It’s a different challenge for Roscommon this weekend.”

Whelan argues that Ben Crealy and Rian O’Neill will cancel out Roscommon’s strength around the middle from long kickouts, and with their inside forwards and strength on the bench, he can’t see the Connacht side making it to the last four.

“Armagh have a lot more under their belt. If they execute their game plan and really go for it when it’s the right time to go for it, I think they will have too much.”

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Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-finals, Donegal v Louth (1.15pm) and Kerry v Derry (3.15pm), on Sunday from 12.45pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1