By Shaun Casey

KIERAN McGeeney isn’t the type of fella to sit back and bask in his fine stack of achievements. Instead, he’s always on to the next thing. He has that unrelenting drive that makes the best sportspeople who they are.

Think Roy Keane, Michael Jordan, Cristiano Ronaldo. Nothing is ever enough and no matter what happens, they’re always determined to go one step further, to reach the next level. ‘Geezer’ was like that as a player and the managerial version is no different.

This year, he sketched his name on a very unique list of individuals that have now captained and managed their county to All-Ireland titles. Without McGeeney, the face of Armagh GAA would look extremely different.

He’s not one to reflect and reminisce about years gone by. His team are living in the glory days and he wants them to continue.

“There hasn’t been an Ulster team to win back-to-back All-Ireland’s in 65 years and there’s a reason for that, it’s tough,” said McGeeney.

“One of the hardest things to manage is success because there’s a lot of backslapping and you can maybe get a bit soft. For us to do it, we’re going to have to train harder, we’re going to have to give it more and we’re going to have to get more support.

“In terms of plans (for next year), what we plan to do is to give our all. If we can get the same support and the same feedback from our fans and the people around us, not looking for failure but looking for success, I think we have a great chance to make history.”

Support isn’t exactly in short supply for McGeeney’s men. Those inside the Orchard County often hail the Armagh fan base as the best in the land, and many outsiders say the same. It’s a sentiment that McGeeney certainly shares.

“I think they’re the best supporters in Ireland every year,” he added. “When you’re in a job like mine, you take a lot of flak, but I’ve been around inter-county football since I was 14 years old, and I’ve seen the same faces and new faces come and go too.

“99 per cent of our fans are the best of the best. They want to see you win, they’re not looking for you to fail and they’re not looking for something to give out about, they’re looking for something to roar about.

“And when you give them that opportunity, you get something special. Like in 2002, the atmosphere around the semi-finals tends to be better. Finals tend to be more corporate while semi-finals are all fans.”

Reflecting on that semi-final victory over Kerry, the 2002 Footballer of the Year continued: “The atmosphere after the Kerry game was an extraordinary energy, there was a huge buzz around it.

“Someone described it to me as nearly like a nightclub. What our fans brought to our players that day, wasn’t just a celebration of winning a semi-final – it gave them the energy to plough on for the next two weeks to win the final.

“It shouldn’t be underestimated that when that kind of goodwill and joy spills out, it can’t help but seep into a team. Even the two weeks coming up to the final, you couldn’t help but get swept away by the joy that was coming through all of our fans.

“We’ve had some tough years, there’s no doubt about that. As I normally say, it doesn’t come around too often but when it does, there’s no one like our fans to drive us across the line.”

While Armagh’s immediate task is to retain the Sam Maguire Cup in 2025, McGeeney, and the county, have their eyes on further down the line. Armagh are currently in the process of building its own multimillion-pound training facility at St Malachy’s, Portadown.

The behind the scenes work of creating an environment that will help Armagh compete at the top level for years to come goes hand-in-hand with the success that the Orchard County are currently having on the field of play.

“We haven’t done much in that regard in a long time, it takes a lot of money to do that. We’ve been camped in Callanbridge now for as long as I can remember and that’s a fair while and in fairness to Ronan (Harte), he has a tough time keeping us all happy with one pitch.

“To say it’s important would be an understatement. Luckily, we’ve had a year behind us that will accelerate the fundraising.

“It’s not easy always begging and asking but unfortunately where we find ourselves both in Ulster and in Northern Ireland. We can’t access the same amount of money that other counties can.

“We have to do most of that ourselves and to be fair to the county board, they’ve done some great work but we’ve a bit to go. We have grass out there at the moment and it looks like we’re going to get into it sometime this year.

“It’s a fantastic step for the whole county, not just for the senior team or in terms of football or hurling, but for the whole county in terms of having actual pitches now that we can use for our underage academies and for our clubs as well.”

Check out our analysis and reaction from Errigal Ciaran’s win over Kilcoo.