Joe Brolly has launched a scathing critique of Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney in the wake of Sunday’s Ulster SFC Final loss to Derry.
The Orchard County were denied a first Ulster title in 15 years as the Oak Leafers retained the Anglo Celt Cup with a 3-1 win on penalties after the sides could not be separated after extra-time.
It was Armagh’s second penalty shootout loss in Championship football in less than a year following on from their All-Ireland SFC quarter-final exit to Galway last summer.
Read more: 2023 Ulster SFC Team of the Year: Champions Derry lead the way with nine places
Writing in his weekly Gaelic Life column, Brolly stated: “The Ulster final turned out precisely as we knew it would, yet another Kieran McGeeney team flunking it.
“I kept saying to the Derry 1998 lads around me, “Don't worry, they’ll blow it.”
“When it went to penalties, I was taking bets. Kieran hangs over them like a tone weight.
“Fifteen years (Kildare then Armagh) without a trophy. Maybe management is not his forte?”
While McGeeney did manage to win Division Two with Kildare in 2012 and a Division Three title with Armagh in 2018, success in the provincial championships has eluded him during his managerial career.
However, he brought Armagh from Division Three to Division One and, although they were relegated this season, the Orchard County will fancy their chances of progressing to the latter stages of the All-Ireland series.
Yet, Brolly was unimpressed by their performance on Sunday, labelling it “boring and predictable” and claimed they were reliant on moments of magic from Ethan Rafferty and Stefan Campbell.
“Everything was slow, boring and predictable probing,” said Brolly.
“In the end, they were totally dependent on their ’keeper Ethan Rafferty (a truly superb footballer) and Stefan Campbell, who had been left on the bench to start with.
“Rafferty kicks points every bit as well as David Clifford and casually scored a few monsters. A few monsters from the ’keeper delights the crowd but does not win games.
“Campbell, meanwhile, was the only Armagh man able to create an overlap with his powerful rampage, including the one that gave them the equalising free at the death."
He added: “Armagh were saved by a free that wasn’t a free as Campbell rampaged through like Mack Hansen, but the reprieve was temporary.
“Armagh, tense and anxious and stiff in their body language, were about to endure a second consecutive disaster in a penalty shootout. In the quarter-final against Galway last year, they managed to score only one penalty.
“On Sunday, they scored another one. Derry, meanwhile, by this stage focused and composed, gleefully blasted them out of it.”
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