McGeeney braced for “massive” Kerry challenge in Tralee

By Shaun Casey

ARMAGH manager Kieran McGeeney is expecting a “massive” battle this weekend as his side travel south to Austin Stack Park, Tralee to face Kerry with both sides in desperate need of the points.

Both teams are at the wrong end of the Division One table, with Armagh sitting on five points after five rounds while the Kingdom have four points to show for their efforts so far this season.

McGeeney’s All-Ireland champions gained promotion to the top tier last season and won’t want to return to Division Two, while Kerry haven’t played their league football outside the topflight since 2002.

On their way to claiming the Sam Maguire Cup last year, Armagh battled their way past the Kingdom at the semi-final stage with two points to spare after extra-time. Armagh last faced Kerry in the league three years ago, which was also in Tralee.

“Kerry is going to be massive, Tralee will be full again, and Killarney, Armagh will travel in numbers, but Kerry will have their full team back,” said the All-Ireland winning captain and manager.

“The Cliffords are moving well (David and Paudie), Sean O’Shea, they’re all moving really well. I expect to see Gavin White in that game as well and they need the points as badly as we need them, so it’ll be a full out affair, and I’d say it’ll be a packed out ground again.”

Armagh have picked up three points from a possible four in their last two outings against Mayo and Dublin, both played in the home comforts of the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds but are on the road this weekend.

“We delighted to get another two points on the board at home, that’s three games at home and we didn’t get full points but we got five out of six which is a big thing for us,” said McGeeney.

“Dublin are a different team in Croke Park and they weren’t at full strength but neither were we. The big thing for us was getting the two points and getting some players back. Peter McGrane was excellent, Tomas McCormack and Darragh McMullan continue to impress.

“We have Ciaran Mackin and Joe McElroy back in the subs too. Oisin O’Neill got back on the pitch and scored a great two-pointer and was a calming influence up front. On the minus side we lost Ben (Crealey) and Niall (Grimley) and time could be too tight for this week.”

Check out this week’s podcast with Ronan O’Neill and Shaun Casey, looking ahead to this week’s action. The podcast is brought to you in association with Hastings Everglades Hotel