How Armagh v Donegal became the biggest rivalry in Ulster

If anything, the bosses in Croke Park are probably tying a big red bow on something special to say thanks for services rendered in the field. In the hourly battle for media space McGeeney and Cork hurling manager Ben O’Connor have held crucial ground for the GAA over the past month.

The idea that the GAA’s wider community wouldn’t tune in seriously when one of football’s most influential figures of the century shares his thoughts on the state of the game never stacks up. When McGeeney does his thing, people listen.

The rewilding of centrefield does epitomise the new coaching challenge posed by the new rules after years spent honing short kickouts and developing playbooks based on patient buildup. It also captures the creeping loss of control that must be driving every manager scatty. Throw in the disastrous pulverising Kerry inflicted on the Armagh kickout in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final, it’s not hard to join the dots on why gaining control at centrefield might be living rent-free in McGeeney’s head.

Kerry kicked 14 points from 13 Armagh kickouts in 15 minutes of the second half that day. Armagh’s most obvious response to that has been to rotate Blaine Hughes and Ethan Rafferty in goals during the McKenna Cup with McGeeney spicing the stew again by playing Rafferty outfield for 20 minutes against Down.

“I just thought youse didn’t have enough to talk about,” he said that night, “so I says right, give them another thing here.”

Much obliged. Hughes started their opening three league games and continues in goal against Donegal today. After Callum O’Neill and Andrew Murnin were the nominal centrefield pairing for the first three games, Ben Crealey gets knitted back in alongside O’Neill for Donegal.

Just as their personnel suggest Armagh are perfectly capable of thriving in the quicker, kicking-based game encouraged by the new rules few Ulster counties over the past 50 years have produced more centrefielders born to win their own ball, from Joe Kernan and Colm McKinstry through the Grimleys and Jarlath Burns, onto the awesome power of Paul McGrane all the way to Crealey. Of Armagh’s 21 All Star winners, four players shared five awards at centrefield. Catching and contesting is in their blood. With Rafferty jousting away with Hughes in goals and so many high-quality centrefielders and middle-third generalissimo types still to filter back into Armagh’s squad, they’ll figure it out.

In the meantime, Armagh punching seven points out of 20 against Galway was the visible by-product of their attempts to control what they can. Whatever McGeeney thinks about how football looks and feels now, striking the balance between what traditionally made Armagh formidable and the structural rigidity that delivered their last All-Ireland in 2024 must make this close to the most fascinating coaching challenge he has ever faced.

Winning that All-Ireland also set a new standard for Armagh that applies in periods like this. Take it away and Armagh are in the same space as a half-dozen other teams, treating a game against their closest rivals, and the entire league campaign, as a marker for the season.

The All-Ireland title buys them time and changes completely the terms and conditions underpinning their relationship with Donegal. In six seasons under Jim McGuinness stretching back to 2011, Donegal are unbeaten in seven league and championship games against Armagh including two victories in a couple of Ulster finals. They were also the only team to beat Armagh in 2024, but Armagh still ended up winning the All-Ireland.

That dominance means Armagh could always do with beating Donegal, but hunting a league title like Donegal? Nah.

Whatever about the damage inflicted by Kerry on Armagh last year, how Kerry shattered Donegal in last year’s All-Ireland final makes winning a league title more of a Donegal thing right now. No one is being rushed back. In their opening three games Armagh started the same half-dozen players from the 2024 final. That number drops back to five today.

Without those players they got embroiled in a couple of epic games against Galway and Roscommon, and lacked the composure to see the victories out. If today carries any value for them, winning against

their closest rivals to avoid any relegation awkwardness is enough to go on for the time being.

After that? Winning an All-Ireland under the new championship system will require Armagh to win at least five successive championship games, something they have never accomplished in McGeeney’s time as manager. Donegal have already done that four times in six seasons under McGuinness.

Donegal crave the All-Ireland Armagh have already won. Armagh are tormented by the games they might have won if they had Donegal’s brilliant consistency. How close both get to those ambitions will go a long way to defining the season for themselves and everyone else.

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