Steven Poacher: Armagh’s culture club

WE always hear the many buzz words associated with football teams and management teams.

We hear about philosophy, culture, standards, values, expectations and many more. The majority of the time, unless you win, they are deemed worthless.

For Kieran McGeeney and Armagh, this was a work in progress for a long time. Despite not having won an Ulster Championship match for a number of years, including defeats to Fermanagh, and not having won a significant championship game to reach a semi-final of an All -Ireland, any coach with a touch of knowledge could see what McGeeney had created and was building too.

Creating the correct culture is the starting block for any group. The great Dublin six-in-a-row team had a phenomenal culture. It was led by Jim Gavin, and enforced by Stephen Cluxton.

Culture within a group of people is the behaviours, beliefs, values and symbols that they all accept.

Armagh are very blessed in not only having a manager with the standards McGeeney has, but a backroom team oozing with pure quality.

The consistency in their conditioning has been key in getting them to the top of the tree. I said for years, the top five or six counties were not just ahead with quality, but more importantly their supreme levels of physical conditioning.

This is an area Derry made massive strides in under Rory Gallagher and it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time.

Julie Davis has been there as long as McGeeney and he rates her highly. He trusts her and the players have huge respect for her.

I remember playing them in challenge games in 2017 and 2018 when I was with Carlow. We were playing a mixture of their seniors and panellists. Those who needed extra conditioning were being put through a horrendous session on the pitch adjacent the playing field with their GPS vests starting to shed smoke.

Having this consistency unquestionably helps, whereas other teams are chopping and changing their strength and conditioning on a regular basis.

From a football perspective, Ciaran McKeever, a former teammate of ‘Geezer’ and a friend, was the Armagh minor manager. He has been a serious addition and an unbelievable coach particularly in the defensive side of their game.

The scant concession of goals and goal chances this year has undoubtedly come about as a result of McKeever’s top-class coaching.

Throw in Kieran Donaghy four years ago and now you have a lovely balance, between attack and defence.

Donaghy’s basketball background has been so important, particularly as Armagh, until his arrival, were deemed a team who struggled to break down deep lying defensive blocks.

Their basketball set plays and game clutch moment plays are clearly a result of his basketball experience.

Donaghy’s personality can only be a positive among a camp as well, with his boundless energy a big factor in making a group really enjoy coming to training.

Conleith Gilligan is a similar personality with the high energy coaching style. He was been another addition this year and mentioned in an interview earlier in the year how he did a forensic review of the impact of the bench. Interestingly, it has been one of Armagh’s greatest weapons this year.

This was McGeeney’s finest moment, his greatest hour and I would say it surpassed his achievement of winning the All-Ireland as a player. This was a significant moment and it can never be taken away from him.

It does prove that when you have the respect and faith from the players, that’s all that matters.

In football, always take your lead from the players, not from some dinosaur sitting on a committee.

The players know and as ‘Geezer’ said: “It’s the people that know very little that make the most noise. Sometimes your strongest steel is forged in fire.”