McKay frustration grows as Armagh aim to end long wait

It's now 285 days since Aaron McKay has played a minute of football for Armagh and his frustration is ever growing.

While Saturday’s Ulster final against Donegal will come too soon for a player nursing a series of injuries, he is hoping the number doesn’t stretch too far beyond the 300 mark with the All-Ireland group stage opener against to-be-determined opposition on the weekend of 24/25 May the key target.

A shock omission from last year’s All-Star team, the teak-tough full-back was the hero for the Orchard County in last year’s All-Ireland final as he palmed home the only goal of the game in the second half – only his second-ever championship score, with his first coming on debut against Down all the way back in 2017.

Since then, when not injured, he has been an automatic starter. Manager Kieran McGeeney is likely to be equally as impressed with how he read the last play of the final - when the tension was unbearable - to carry the ball out of danger following Joe McElroy’s famous block as much as his green flag 20 minutes earlier.

That’s his main brief in the team; shutting down opponents and sniffing out trouble, but he can’t do that right now - and for the dramatic Ulster semi-final win over Tyrone, it was the Perspex dugout he was sitting behind in the stands that bore the brunt of his irritation.

"Slow, too slow," is how McKay described his recovery from cartilage damage in his hip, osteitis pubis issues as well as a contorted finger that has been strapped up ever since the 2022 All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Galway.

"The plan was to be back for a championship because I knew the league, I wasn't going to be back for the league even way back in say October, November time.

"I knew that because I couldn't even get playing for the club (Dromintee) in August and then I kind of just came to the conclusion that I had to get the operation. So just to be ready for the first group game in the All-Ireland series, anything earlier than that's a bonus."

Aaron McKay palms home the only goal of the 2024 All-Ireland final

"Later in your career, you just care about winning rather than being selfish and looking to come back and playing kind of half-legged and costing the team more than you're giving," he added.

"So I think at this stage I'll be happy as long as we win rather than me being an idiot and trying to play and cost us."

Missing the Tyrone game was hard, not being out on the field this Saturday on Ulster final day will be torture.

He’s not alone. Only six of the starting 15 from last year’s Sam Maguire triumph started against the Red Hands, but those who have deputised have not only filled in, but for the likes of Callum O’Neill and Tomás McCormack, have ensured that the heroes of 2024 have a fight on to wrestle back their jersey.

It’s those new faces who will be tasked with key roles in ending Armagh’s 17-year wait for an Ulster title against Donegal this weekend – a unique quirk of the current squad with Celtic Crosses aplenty but no provincial medals in the dressing room.

"It was funny, going to Clones last week, I was getting off the bus and I knew I wasn't playing or anything - I wasn't going to be contributing to the game but I'm shaking," he said of the Ulster semi-final and the team’s pursuit of the Anglo Celt.

"But on the bus going to the final last July, I was so relaxed and chilled out. I'm like, how am I the polar opposite? I don't know."

McKay’s been on the field of play for the last two Ulster finals though as penalties denied them against both Derry and Donegal.

Having also lost penalty shootouts to Galway and Monaghan in the previous two seasons at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage, that loss to the Tir Chonaill County 12 months ago would have been the death knell for most teams.

Armagh have lost the last two Ulster finals on penalties

Not Armagh. They responded by topping their All-Ireland group before knockout wins over Roscommon, Kerry and Galway saw the county lift Sam for just the second time ever.

"Probably without the last two Ulster final defeats, I don't think we'd win the All-Ireland in 2024," McKay argued.

"When you lose something, you also experience loss and learning from it. And also success sometimes can breed complacency so I think if you achieve maybe an Ulster title last year, you can become a wee bit complacent.

"We wouldn't have approached the first group game (against Westmeath) last year (the same)...if we had won Ulster, then it all could have run differently. That's why I say again, if we had a won Ulster, we might not have won the All-Ireland."

The wait for an Ulster title is "unfinished business", according to McKay, and while he won’t be able to influence things on the pitch at Clones, he’s hoping he can still play a major albeit delayed role in what could end up being another special year for the Orchard County.

Watch the Ulster Football Championship final, Armagh v Donegal, on Saturday from 5pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1

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