It’s in the final throes and Galway are pushing hard. At this stage, it’s down to the survival of the fittest, with much of the tactical discipline that permeates a high-class modern game of football long since dispensed with. Galway are hunting an equaliser, Armagh are trying desperately to cling on. With the game’s biggest prize on the line, each player is trying to win whatever battle is in front of him.
McElroy sees Paul Conroy coming and knows he’s the dangerman.
“I had no choice,” McElroy recalls. “I thought time was up but the ref gave them another bite of the cherry. At that point it was just get on the man’s foot. I had a quick scan around and [Cein] Darcy had made a strong run from half-back so he was being pushed out towards the sideline. I identified that Conroy was one of their main shooters and he was hovering.
“He has a very good right foot so basically I had to get across as quickly as possible because I knew he was pulling the trigger. I just dived and hoped for the best and luckily I got something on it because I had four or five dives in the game and I didn’t get anything on the others!
“Look you have to keep going, keep diving and eventually it’ll come off. We hadn’t got many blocks against Roscommon or Derry so I was just really happy to get one in those last moments of the game.
“It got us the ball back and we got up the field and thankfully the final whistle went.”
The final whistle marked the end of 10 years work under Kieran McGeeney. McElroy was there for eight of them, and holds the distinction of being the only player from Armagh city on the 2024 winning vintage.
“We’ve been on this journey for a long time. I took two years out but this is my eighth year with Armagh and a lot of the boys have been soldiering on through the whole 10 [that McGeeney has been manager] and Geezer has kept us together and got everyone going in the same direction.
“He just completely changed the mindset of the starting 15 and how 16-to-42 is equally as important. Some of the in-house games we had before the final … the so-called ‘blue team’ or the B team has spanked the A team a couple of times.
“I think that keeps you very honest and accountable. There’s always good competition for places and that’s what drives the team on … Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday mornings.
“Geezer giving us that mantra and that belief is what pushed the whole thing on.”
And he points out that there was remarkable work done by those in the backroom team, not least former Armagh captain Ciarán McKeever.
“My first year on the panel was 2016 and we actually got beat by Laois twice in the championship – it was a low-enough day to be honest and there’s a lot of players who soldiered on. There’s the likes of Brendan Donaghy, he’ll not be collecting an All-Ireland medal but he pushed us on from the depths of Division 3, Charlie Vernon is another and Ciarán McKeever as well.
“He finished in 2017 when I was in my second year and he showed all the young boys the standards, what they had to do right down to the diet. He was an unbelievable leader and, as a coach, the defensive stats speak for themselves this year. In the championship we only conceded three goals and five in the season.”
McElroy goes down as one of the unsung heroes of Armagh’s campaign. Often given the job of handling their opposition’s more dangerous runners, he’s already looking forward to the new season.
“Geezer gave me a role of tagging key ball-players or key runners/dangerous players and I did my job and that’s what kept me in the team.
“I did whatever my role was – to take a key player in one game or he’d tell me: ‘Nullify him’ in the next one … That’s what kept me in the starting 15 and I was getting the full game all the time. The way it is now, everyone attacks and everyone defends, there’s no set positions. I play 10 or 12 but I’m not naturally a half-forward, I’m naturally a half-back.
“The game is up and down, up and down, transition and pressing kick-outs so it was a brilliant year for me and I’ve really enjoyed every single moment of it.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to pre-season already and seeing what extra one per cent I can get whether it’s physical, technical or tactical whatever it is. I just want to improve again and move on.”
