Harvey hungry to end Armagh’s final heartache

By Shaun Casey

SUNDAY is Armagh’s sixth appearance in the All-Ireland Premier Junior final in the last decade. Eimear Harvey has featured in four of the previous five.

The one she missed? That was the year they actually got their hands on the trophy back in 2020. Every other season (2016, 2021, 2022 and 2025) has ended in heartache.

A doctor by profession, the Covid-19 pandemic rocked the entire world, and work duties came before the orange jersey for that one season.

“I played in every one bar the 2020 final,” laughed the Tullysaran defender. “Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out with work, I couldn’t go in 2020 because of Covid so I missed it.

“Obviously it was great that the girls went on and won that year and they have the experience of winning and fingers crossed that the girls that weren’t there that year will get that again this year.”

Experience of the big day is something that Armagh certainly aren’t lacking, and the return of Ciara Geoghegan after the Ulster Championship has given PJ O’Mullan’s side a tremendous boost.

But they also have that influx of youth this season and everyone has gelled together perfectly well, according to Harvey.

“We have a good mixture with Ciara (Geoghegan) coming back in, who has been amazing for us over the years. You also have Eimear O’Kane who has been there before and played in All-Ireland finals.

“That experience is huge and then you bring in the minors who have won the All-Ireland in the last couple of years and they’re unbelievable so it’s a brilliant mix.

“I think we’ve got a perfect mix because we have youth, we have experience and we’ve come together as a team really well, so fingers crossed that’ll show come Sunday.”

Reflecting on their previous final defeats, Harvey added: “There is a lot of hurt in the changing room but it’s about channelling and using it correctly to get us ready for Sunday. There’s a lot of hunger there and we know where we’ve gone wrong before and hopefully, we can rectify those mistakes this weekend.

“It has been tough though down the years. There’s been a lot of losses there in recent years and even if it hasn’t been finals, it’s been semi-finals most years so hopefully we can get over the line and move on and get up to the Intermediate competition.”

It’s three weeks since their rollercoaster semi-final triumph over Roscommon, which looked fairly comfortable at one stage before the Rossies made Armagh sweat for their win.

That lengthy lead-in period has been welcomed says Harvey, in terms of dealing with the excitement after such an exciting semi-final but also getting all the girls fit and ready for their date with destiny at Croke Park.

Last Sunday, the Armagh Camogs took part in a light training session at Pearse Og Park before hosting a meet and greet with supporters, where youngsters flocked around for selfies and autographs with their heroes.

“It’s been a lovely lead in. After the semi-finals, it was all about coming back down emotionally and getting back into training, that gap allowed you to get two weeks of really intense training and now we’ve pulled it back,” Harvey continued.

“Those three weeks as well, it gives you the opportunity that if anyone has any niggles or injuries, you can get it all sorted..

“It also allows you to do things like this (meet and greet day) which is nice with the supporters and it’s not impacting training, so it’s been great.

“It’s great from a female perspective. Obviously the men’s football and hurling is brilliant but between the Armagh Ladies and ourselves who are trying to raise the profile, to see everyone out here after last year is really lovely.”

TOGETHER…There’s a nice blend of youth and experience in the Armagh camp

Cavan stand between them and the Hogan Stand steps, between them and the trophy. To end the years of hurt, they’ll have to get one over their Ulster rivals.

Between the Division 3A league campaign and the All-Ireland series, the Orchard County have only suffered one defeat and that was to the Breffni Blues back in early January, so Harvey and her teammates know what to expect and where they need to improve.

“They blew us out of the water that day and they were far better than us,” she recalled two months on. “They were hungrier than us and they were more physical and we knew where we went wrong so we’ll be looking to bring whatever was missing that day into Sunday.

“There’s no doubt about it, they will go in as favourites because they beat us quite well but hopefully, we’ll be able to change how we approach things and then see if we can match them for their physicality and come out the better side.”