By Michael McMullan

FORMER Armagh star Jimmy Smyth played on the first Armagh team to beat Kerry.

Looking ahead to the latest clash of the counties on Saturday in Killarney, Smyth feels the earlier you play the Kingdom in the championship the better.

As a commentator, Smyth was the voice of the Ulster Championship for many   seasons. He feels the Orchard County must embrace Saturday’s All-Ireland Round 3 clash.

For the winner, they’ll have their passport stamped for Croke Park the following week.

On the other side of the emotion, it will spell the end of the line. The fact that one of the last two winners of the Sam Maguire Cup will exit the arena without getting a championship outing in Croke Park tells the magnitude of Saturday.

Smyth looks at the consistency of the current Armagh team. Even with 70 minutes on the clock in Ardee, as Sam Mulroy wound up his final shot, Armagh were still ahead.

“I’m just nitpicking but you know what I mean,” he said, referring how Kieran McGeeney’s side have played in so many tight games, only to be undone after penalties or the finest of margins.

Smyth reckons Armagh’s level of performance is related to the intensity they bring and uses the contrasting elements of their Louth defeat to explain

“The end result didn’t come about because of an incident in the last second, it built up during the match,” Smyth said.

“When Kieran McGeeney, Denis Hollywood and Ciaran McKeever look back on that, and the players themselves, they’ll see Louth fellas waltzing through and kicking points for fun.

“That is not Armagh’s form, Armagh always make life very difficult. There’s a whole lot of factors involved in that.
“The line about the most important space in a football field being between your ears is very true.”

Smyth highlights how Armagh arrived in Inniskeen as Ulster champions and after handing Down a hammering on the way. There was also the factor of having beaten Derry.

“No matter what you try to keep players out of the papers, they’re going to read different things,” Smyth points out.

“Louth and Monaghan, they’re so similar that it’s frightening. They are neighbours for a start and neighbours’ children don’t like losing.

“Monaghan don’t like losing and Louth never liked losing. Any time we play Louth, they always give us trouble,” Smyth added.

He refers to a recent meeting in the 2024 league when Armagh earned a slender 0-12 to 0-11 victory on home soil.

Smyth references the pace and power Armagh generated on the way to Gareth Murphy’s goal last weekend.

“It was just straight off the training ground and they gave me the impression they could do that nearly any time they wanted,” Smyth added.

It wasn’t enough. Armagh didn’t tag on points on the occasions Louth closed down their goal threat.

At other end, the Wee County kept the scoreboard ticking over, stayed in the game and Mulroy’s late strike was the sucker punch. Now, Armagh face into this weekend’s trip to Kerry.

“The last shake of the dice,” Smyth said, adding in the topsy turvy nature of the championship to date.

“I was going to say you need to start looking back at results but the results this year are nuts

“I still cannot figure out Donegal,” he added. “I’m not taking away from Down, but Armagh scored a 3-33 against them and then Donegal go out and beat Kerry.

Big cars

“Then Cork go up and beat them (Donegal) so there’s no continuity here at all – that’s why bookies drive big cars.”

Smyth can see Saturday’s latest instalment going all the way. The history books point to it.

“I go back to 2000 when Maurice Fitzgerald kicked an equalising free to get them back into the match,” he said.

“I go back to 2002 but the game hasn’t changed all that much. It’s still down to inches and to seconds.

“It’s about people getting a tackle in or not getting a tackle in, people getting a block in or being blocked. The margins are so fine.”

That’s why questions the use of hooters and clocks to countdown the time. It needs to be 100 per cent accurate.

“The clock on Sunday (in Inniskeen) was at the bottom of the scoreboard and now we can’t see it, sitting on the stand,” he added.

“Tomás Ó Sé was making a point that the players couldn’t see it. If you’re on a basketball court, for example, you look up and you see the clock.

“Basketball is bound by seconds. The clock is the bible, so the same thing applies to Sunday but the clock isn’t the bible because people didn’t know where it was.”

That was then. This is now. Kerry and Armagh lock horns with just one quarter-final spot up for grabs.

“Armagh will be going in on a sort of a low but knowing McGeeney, he will turn that low into a high,” he said.

“He’ll turn it around, that’s what very good managers do, he’d tell them all the good things they’ve done.

“The whole thing is up in the air. Kerry will think that they can beat Armagh but if you go to win the All-Ireland, you are going to have to beat them  (Kerry) somewhere along the line.”

Smyth agrees with the thoughts of many. The earlier you meet Kerry in a championship, the better, before they build up a head of steam.

“If you had a choice, you wouldn’t have taken it (being drawn against Kerry) but now that we’ve got it, we’ll take it and we’ll embrace it.”