Kieran McGeeney takes a seat at a table positioned just off the dance floor in the main function room of the Carrickdale Hotel.
This is his 10th year as Armagh senior football manager. If he’s looking for symmetry, it also took him a decade as a player to graft his way to a first All-Ireland final appearance. Back then, in the summer of 2002, he captained Armagh to a maiden Sam Maguire title. Armagh returned to the final 12 months later but left Croke Park empty-handed.
On Sunday, McGeeney will manage his county to a first All-Ireland final appearance in 21 years.
“Ach, there’s no comparison,” he says when asked if managing fills the void of being inside the white lines. “You have to play, you have to compete. I wish I was f**king 25! There is nothing like playing.”
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But then, as the GAA marketing slogan goes, nothing beats being there, either. McGeeney has brought Armagh back to this stage again. The journey over the last decade has not been without its obstacles, though.
Over the years there have been some in Armagh looking for change, some who argue not enough has been achieved over the last 10 seasons.
Sunday will only be Armagh’s fifth appearance in an All-Ireland SFC final — after 1953, 1977, 2002, 2003.
“I don’t say it in a derogatory way, but the way the whole thing is set up in the GAA is not fair. You can’t compare Leitrim to Dublin,” says McGeeney.
“Even Kerry, where my in-laws are from, it’s a football county in a hurling province — they are used to winning. Does that have an effect on mindset or how much loyalty you can get towards football? Of course, it does.
“So, all of those cultural aspects and different things are huge. Was it ‘77? Then it took us whatever it was, 25 years the last time. It’s 10 years to [get to] this one, it’s all fairly relative.
“It’s not that you can’t do it quicker, I totally put my hands up to that, I’m not saying someone else couldn’t come in and do it quicker, but there are so many facets to it. Loyalty, getting people to commit, getting older players to hang on.
“So, it’s hard to say should it have taken 10 years, should it have taken three or four? I don’t really know. I know it’s hard work to keep it in a county like this because sometimes there are as many people gunning for you as supporting you, it’s trying to get everybody onboard.”
McGeeney knows there is a public perception out there about him being too serious, but that has always been at odds with how those he managed talk about him. Many Kildare players still speak of McGeeney’s man-management skills.
And he doesn’t subscribe to a one-size-fits-all all approach to managing players.
“You’ll see some fella sitting in the corner [of the dressingroom] reciting mantras with goals set out in different colour pen, then you see another boy in the corner singing some song and dancing about the place,” says McGeeney.
“It’s whatever works for you. Once the whistle goes and you do the job, I don’t give a rat’s ass what way you do it. I’d be fairly easygoing that way, I learned that a long time ago.
“I know that goes against the persona people have of me, but if you produce the goods you can wear a pink tutu and have pom poms for all I care, if you get out there and can back it up, away you go.
“You see it in the parade, some people soak it up others block it all out — whatever works for you.”
And don’t mention dour football, he’s heard that one too. Having been consistently involved through a genuine period of evolution in Gaelic football, McGeeney laughs at some of the commentary around his approach.
“If I read one more time, ‘he’s holding them back, he needs to let them go.’ It’s like I’m shouting, ‘don’t go for this, don’t go for any more scores, hold back, don’t score any more.’ It’s f**king nonsense! How [do] people even contemplate saying that sort of stuff?
“It would be great if you could get a camera looking from the players’ perspective. We always see it from above, we see the gap they can put it into.
‘Why didn’t you kick it in there?’
‘Well, there were 14 bodies between me and him, Kieran. I just couldn’t really see the f**king gap you could see from 50ft up there.’”
Throughout the difficult periods, McGeeney has been steadfast in standing by his players. They enter Sunday’s final having not lost a championship game all year in regular time.
“Right, they didn’t win some penalty shoot-outs [over the years] but have they shown they are a good football team? Yes. Maybe not great yet, but definitely a good one.
“There are a lot of past players looking to get back at me through barbed comments and stuff, which is grand, you live by the sword you die by the sword, I accept that. But you can’t take away from the fact that they are a good team.
“There are times I regret some of the things I say because you can say it in bad temper, I fully admit that.
“But the one thing I can say when it comes to football, I have never told a lie, ever. You mightn’t like what I tell you, but I’ll tell you what I think. You can always solve a problem when the truth is on the table. Always.”
Win or lose, the Armagh squad will be in the Carrickdale on Sunday night. Rather than staying in a Dublin hotel, Armagh have decided instead to support those who have backed them for years.
“As long as I have been playing and involved in football, they [Carrickdale] have always been willing to put their hands in their pockets and it’s good to give a wee bit back,” says McGeeney.
“Whatever happens, it is good to be surrounded by your own.”
If he has Sam Maguire in tow, it’s not a chair but a throne they will have Kieran McGeeney sitting in on Sunday night.
