By Shaun Casey

HAVING the experience of Kieran McGeeney and Kieran Donaghy inside the Armagh changing room will help the Orchard County players in the build up to the All-Ireland final, says Rory Grugan.

Armagh qualified for their first All-Ireland since 2003 with an extra-time victory over Kerry and they now face Galway, for the second time this season, in the decider.

McGeeney captained Armagh to their one and only All-Ireland title back in 2002 while Kerry legend Donaghy finished his career with four Celtic Crosses.

“I think you have to listen to the people who have experienced it,” said Grugan. “Luckily, we have Kieran McGeeney and Kieran Donaghy, who have experienced both winning and losing finals. So, we have to lean on that.

“They know what’s good and what’s not good in terms of how we spend our energy and how we spend our time in the build-up. I’d like to think their life experience can help us along the way because none of us have been here as players.

“As you get older you like to think that you have more of a sense of what you need.

“You still have to lean on people who have been there before and hope that you get your own processes right to get the chance to perform on the day.

“As much as it is an exciting occasion, it won’t really mean anything to players if we don’t win it. That might sound very harsh and clinical, and the supporters mightn’t necessarily agree with that, but that’s the reality for us.”

Getting their hands on the Sam Maguire Cup is the only thing that matters at the end of the day, and that’s all Armagh will be focused on.

“Winning is everything,” continued the Ballymacnab playmaker.

“I don’t think anyone who plays intercounty football now isn’t that type of competitive person, even when we’re playing table tennis or pool in the hotel the night before a game.

“The boys want to win. There is an element of enjoying the journey and the friends you make, that is really important. But playing at the elite level of our sport, you want the medals, you want the trophies, you want something to show for it at the end of your career.

“The chances to do that don’t come around all that often, so we’re no different when it comes to wanting to win.”

In terms of medals racked up throughout his career, Grugan only has two. Under McGeeney’s watch, Armagh won Division Three on two occasions, 2015 and 2018, when he was the captain of the team.

They’ve had plenty of other opportunities of course. Armagh reached the last two Ulster finals, but both ended in penalties shootout defeats to Derry and Donegal. The men in orange and white have shown serious character to bounce back from all the heartache.

“You had no other choice. What do you do? Do you just jump off and quit?” said Grugan of this year’s Ulster final loss. “Do you just let your season peter out? We decided that wasn’t what we wanted to do. We have had those tough experiences and I think that it hardens you.

“Like all things in life, if you lose, you learn more, and we have definitely had our fair share of tough days. I think we have learned from them, and you see those learnings at the end of the Kerry game.

“I like to think that we are battle-hardened going into an extremely difficult game against Galway. The few days after the Ulster final was pure devastation. I suppose you look back now and think that the human mind has a great way of helping you forget tough experiences.

“I know it is all in the perspective of football, but the beauty of it was the two-week turnaround, we had no choice but to get back on the horse.

“We looked at it as though it was a new competition, and we had a chance to go and attack that and see where it took us. The reality was that unfortunately, we had the experience of penalty shootouts defeats in big games, but we were able to come back from it.”

It all circles back to winning however, and Armagh’s strength of character will mean nothing unless they get up the steps of the Hogan Stand.

“We went back to the quality of our squad, we pushed the training on, everybody got a new lease of life,” added Grugan.

“It feels like a long time ago, but that’s a testament to the management and the resilience of the players to come back and be where we are now. I have said so many times, it’ll only show that we have really delivered if we go and perform and win on Sunday.”