Kieran McGeeney: ‘If you produce the goods, you can wear a pink tutu and get pompoms for all I care’
Grimley, who worked as McGeeney’s assistant in Kildare before bringing him into his Armagh backroom in 2014, insisted the reality was very different.
Still, McGeeney remains one of the most interesting characters on the GAA circuit. Some of that stems from the ferocious reputation he earned as a player and his slavish dedication to preparation and fitness which he retains to this day.
McGeeney reported that before the semi-final throw-in against Kerry, his heart rate was 52 beats per minute. It’s difficult to quantify precisely what that means, but suffice to say, he remains extraordinarily fit.
And some of it comes from his confessed inability not to speak his mind. That compulsion rears its head more than once in a nearly 30-minute interview that lilts across various talking points from big-match preparation to, inadvertently, Theodore Roosevelt’s insistence that it comes down to the man in the area.
“Without doubt,” McGeeney says. “You give me a bad coach but a player with a brilliant attitude, you’ll still get a great result. Give me a brilliant coach and player with a bad attitude, you will still get a bad result.
“Don’t get me wrong, there’s a cultural aspect to that. You have to coax it out of a player and that is the job. But when you have players like [Aidan] Forker and [Rory] Grugan. We have loads of them. [Oisín] Conaty. They are a joy to be with, they bring energy to the session and that’s why we do it. All this is the periphery, you love being on the pitch with them, love seeing them … contrary to popular opinion. If I read one more time, he’s holding them back, he has to let them go. Like I’m shouting, ‘Don’t go fellas, don’t go for any more scores, hold back, don’t score any more’ – it’s f**king nonsense. How people even contemplate even saying that stuff …”
Armagh are eager to get the peripheral stuff out of the way. Tickets and suits are squared away quickly. The media night is called for the Monday after the win over Kerry while the post-match banquet has been fixed for the Carrickdale Hotel on the Louth-Armagh border.
Media commitments are a part of the managerial brief McGeeney has always wrestled with. In the past, he had an unusual post-match policy.
Win and he’d send out one of the Kierans, Donaghy or McKeever. But perhaps as some sort of act of contrition, he’d insist on facing the music himself after a loss.
“It’s a love-hate relationship, you know, I have with all of youse [the media]!” McGeeney says. “I understand the game within this. I do.
“Beige doesn’t sell and there’s headlines and stuff like that. And sometimes, it’s difficult. So when it came to winning and that, like KD [Donaghy] has a great personality and so does Brookie [McKeever] and they can take a bit more out of it. But my job is to take the s**t as well, I don’t mind that, I’m well used to it, so I suppose I did it.
“This year, they were pushing back a wee bit on me and trying to get me to go out for the good ones, it was just something we had. But I’m not in this for me, I’ve had my day and enjoyed every moment as a player, loved it so I did. But sometimes my own personality, I’m good at giving yis headlines because I can’t keep my mouth shut at the right time.
“So I hate taking away from the players. They are a great bunch and the whole idea of them getting the credit they deserve is big with me.”
What emerges from that Monday night briefing is clear. McGeeney’s loyalty to his players is absolute and he is given absolute loyalty in return. This is his 10th season with Armagh, and outside of the natural churn of an inter-county team, the central figures have stayed steadfast. Even this season, when it looked like Jarly Óg Burns might head off for a year, he changed his mind.
McGeeney and Co will pull from their own big-game experience in the build-up to this week, but there’s no one-size-fits-all approach.
“Everyone has their own right or wrong. It’s the same when you go into a dressing room and you’ll see some fella sitting in the corner reciting mantras with goals set out in different coloured pen. Then you see some boy in the corner singing some song and dancing about the place, but whatever works for you.
“Once the whistle goes and you do the job, I don’t give a rat’s ass what way you do it. I’d be fairly easygoing that way. I learned that a long time ago. I know that goes against the persona people have of me, but if you produce the goods, you can wear a pink tutu and get pompoms for all I care. You get out there, produce the goods and you can back it up, away you go.”
McGeeney stands on the brink of joining an exclusive band that has captained and managed their county to an All-Ireland title. Managing might be the next best thing, but it is not a replacement for playing.
“Ach, there’s no comparison. You have to play. You have to compete. I wish I was f**king 25! People ask me, did I get nervous before [the Kerry game]? I was looking at my watch, 52 was my heart rate before the start, as chilled as you are going to get. But extra time, I think it was 100.
“But there is nothing like playing, we all know that. It’s like asking youse, would you rather write a book or an article or read one? It’s being in it, immersing yourself, being part of it and having a say in what’s happening. Despite what people say about managers and coaches, a lot of it is down to the attitude of the players. You make a decision, they portray it.”
