Following Armagh's latest humiliation in the championship, Joe Brolly and, to a lesser extent Colm O'Rourke, went to town on Kieran McGeeney in what seemed like an extra-long post-match discussion (there was no second leg of a doubleheader to cater for).
The modus operandi of Kieran McGeeney has become a hobby horse for Brolly over recent times. Sunday's result provided the perfect opportunity for him to mount it once more.
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/266804362" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /]
He reiterated the point he has made time and time again, this time with greater emphasis in the wake of the loss. Namely, that the high dropout rate among Armagh senior footballers was the fault of Kieran McGeeney's management style
And he said that the Crossmaglen Rangers players, in particular, find McGeeney's approach draining, stultifying, offputting
What is the point of this? They swear allegience to the cult of Kieran. You get eight Crossmaglen players leaving the panel because of the lack of imagination and the lack of fun in the group.
On the evening show, Pat Spillane disputed this claim, saying it was his information that there was no rancour.
I've been a critic of Kieran McGeeney and I certainly don't rate him as a top manager. But I think the criticism of him has been over the top. They haven't the conveyer belt of young talent coming through.
I was listening to Joe today and felt he was over the top in his criticism. When he talked about Crossmaglen players not making themselves available. Talking to Crossmaglen players, that is not true.
We spoke to Crossmaglen and former Armagh midfielder Johnny Hanratty (he opted out of the county panel in 2014, frustrated by the lack of game-time).
He hasn't been asked to join the panel. But he sees no evidence of a row. In Hanratty's telling, various players have opted out of the county scene but for reasons other than hostility to the manager. Primarily, a mixture of holidays and burnout from a heavy club schedule.
We've nothing against Kieran like that. It's Kieran's choice whether he asks you to play. The players he asked and the players he's wanted have other commitments and it didn't suit at the time to play for Armagh. I don't it's as big a thing as people talk about. People are trying to make out there's been a row but there doesn't seem to be a row that I know about.
I think that's inaccurate (Brolly's argument). I was never asked to play under Kieran. If you look at the couple of boys that were, Paul Hughes (highly rated defender) opted out because he's going to America and Paul McKeown opted out because of family and work commitments. And obviously then you've Jamie and Aaron. And if you take those four boys he was looking at. It's not Crossmaglen's fault, it's not the rest of the players' fault. It's just not suiting the Cross players to go down and play with Armagh. Whenever you've a long year with the club, you don't have the commitment to go down and play with the county.
Jamie (Clarke) leaving is a big loss to McGeeney. It's massive. I don't know whether there's much persuading on Jamie... He's gone to New York on Thursday. He's looking forward to it. He'll be walking down Manhattan with a coffee one of these days. Jamie's a real city boy. He's not for a wee town, a poxy town like Crossmaglen. He wants the built up cities. Jamie loves getting away. I don't think he'll ever come home. If he misses two years, then the edge will be gone off him for Gaelic football
Aaron Kernan, he obviously still could be fit to play senior football. He was commiting to his family. And he had enough. He talked about giving young players a chance... They haven't replaced Aaron Kernan.
Hanratty is a bit more circumspect than at least one of his teammates.
Only seconds after the final whistle, Crossmaglen player Johnny Murtagh did tweet that Joe Brolly was spot on and that Armagh needed 'a good manager in'.
Very poor show from @Armagh_GAA @JoeBrolly1993 is spot on!! Need a good manager in.
— johnny murtagh (@johnnymurta) May 29, 2016
Has Hanratty a take on Johnny's view?
(Ha) Johnny would be like myself. Maybe he'd post up the wrong tweet. Sure, that's Johnny's point of view. And whatever he thinks... And sure maybe he's right. But everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Does Hanratty agree? Does he think Armagh should look at the manager's job.
(pause) I'm not sure. The quality of players definitely are in Armagh. There's no question about that. We're not seeing their full potential at the moment. I don't know whether it's that the system of play isn't suitable to them or that they just not all buying into it. It's not up to me to say whether they should get rid of Kieran McGeeney or keep him.
Look, I'm sure now if we go out against a weaker team and get beat, there'll be a lot people questioning it. There's a lot of pressure on him at the moment. And I suppose, he'd probably enjoy that maybe.
However, while he disputes the narrative that Cross boys are steering clear of the county scene purely because of McGeeney, Hanratty is very frustrated by the tactics Armagh are employing. Crossmaglen play in a much more exuberant, fearless manner than Armagh do these days.
This, on could argue, isn't a million miles away from Brolly's contention, that Crossmaglen players find playing the Armagh way a grim and jarring experience.
We'd (Cross) rather play an attacking style of football. It's just much more enjoyable. There's nothing worse than a forward going back defending his own 45 when he'd rather be up kicking points. Whether Kieran is trying to turn half forwards into half backs, I'm not sure. Maybe he should try to keep them up the field a bit more, and get them expressing themselves a bit more in the forwards than in the defence.
They need to embrace a more attacking style. As far as he's concerned, even with all the players stepping away, McGeeney still has the men at his disposal. They need to evolve a new style.
Is there a better quality of players in Cavan than there is in Armagh? I don't think so. I think Armagh need to back to the drawing board with their tactics a wee bit and maybe express themselves more going forward and quit worrying about being so defensive. The statement we always used to hear here (Crossmaglen) is that attack is the best form of defence.
I think he needs to change something up. The system he's playing with the players he has definitely isn't working. That's one thing we do know. It's a funny one. I don't understand it. Because the players are there but it's not happening. People are talking about the Crossmaglen players, that he's missing them and there is so many opting out. But why can they not do it with the players that are there? It's not as if he has poor quality of players at the moment.
Last Sunday was a dispiriting day. While the national media has zoomed in on their brooding manager, Hanratty says the players will be examining themselves rather than McGeeney.
There's two arguments. There's people who are sick of McGeeney and his tactics and there's others saying that the players aren't performing and he's losing out on players through injuries and different commitments.
But I know by the couple of Armagh players in the county setup now. They'd be blaming themselves and saying that it wasn't Kieran McGeeney's fault, it'd be the players fault. I know by the way they'd react.
It's probably one of the first times I've ever seen a game with Armagh colours involved that Armagh never even hit one solid shoulder or one solid tackle on a Cavan player. There wasn't one Armagh man that stood up and hit a Cavan man square on. They just ran through us like butter. I was disappointed with the physicality. I would have expected more from some of the bigger players, the leaders in the team. It felt like the game passed us by.
Ultimately, Hanratty despairs at the current stasis in Armagh, harking back continually to the defeat to Donegal last year. Armagh, he says, haven't learned anything since then. While unwilling to crucify McGeeney, his annoyance at the defensive tactics are clear.
We didn't learn anything from the Donegal game last year. We were eight or nine points down against Donegal and we still played the same system in the second half. We still played with two or three sweepers. I'd rather get beat by twenty-five points and have a go and get beat by five points and not have a go. It just feels like we're stuck in the same place. We're not learning from anything.
