By Shaun Casey

ARMAGH manager Kieran McGeeney has hailed Rory Grugan as “one of the best players” he has seen play the game. Grugan gave a man of the match performance for the Orchard County in their round two win over Dublin.

The Ballymacnab playmaker top scored on the day with 0-8, including a first half two-pointer that helped turn the tide in Armagh’s favour when Dublin were on top. Grugan also put in a solid defensive shift.

He earned two notable turnovers in the second period which led to a brace of scores at the other end and the 34-year-old also captained Armagh at the weekend in the absence of the injured Aidan Forker.

“I’ve said it for years, I think Rory’s one of the best players I’ve ever seen,” Armagh’s All-Ireland winning manager McGeeney said after his side’s 0-24 to 0-19 win at Croke Park. “He’s an outstanding footballer and has been for us for years.

“You always look at it from a different perspective when you see it from the inside out rather than the outside in so it was another good performance from him. We had a lot (of good performances) there today.

“Darragh McMullan was exceptional again and so was (Oisin) Conaty. He definitely got plenty of attention today but he was still outstanding for us. Everybody put in a good shift I just thought our conversation rate when we were in on goals was very poor.”

On the subject of missing scores, McGeeney was annoyed that his side passed up a number of goal opportunities. Oisin Conaty and Andrew Murnin both saw their efforts on goal turned away by Stephen Cluxton in the first half.

“I think we had four or five goal chances and we missed a lot. They hit 17 wides but at least ten of those were well within their range. You could argue the bit out, it could have been closer and conversion rates are important.

“Their wides will look bigger but I think from our four or five goal chances, Dublin actually scored three of four points off them, they were good saves (by Stephen Cluxton) but you still want to be converting one or two.”

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