The occasion, he said, was for the supporters. Until Sunday night, it won’t be, couldn’t be, for his squad.
Over the past week, former Armagh manager Paul Grimley has seen the county immerse itself fully in the pre-game excitement. Flags and bunting were erected overnight, turning the county into a sea of orange as the ticket scramble got under way.
“There’s a sense of euphoria around the place,” he says.
It’s 22 years since Grimley was part of Joe Kernan’s backroom team when Armagh were preparing for the 2002 All-Ireland final. Like McGeeney now, managing the occasion was foremost in their thoughts.
“It was all new to us,” Grimley remembers. “It was very new to us. The safest place to be for us was the training pitch. Joe Kernan came up with a great idea of letting a family member, so you’d nominate someone, to take care of the tickets and that took the pressure off the players and that was of great benefit to us.
“But yeah the quietest place to be was at training pitch because you were away from the public eye so to speak. But it was difficult at times.
“But this has all the makings of a great final and it’s time for Armagh to make new memories and have new heroes to talk about.”
Armagh are, he says, in a good place. Beating Kerry in Croke Park does wonders for confidence.
“I spoke to him [McGeeney] the night of the match. He always says that the players are ready. He’ll always tell you that, that they have everything in their tool box to go and beat anybody they just have to believe it. And I think that is one thing that has really come through with this Armagh team.
“They went through hell obviously, getting beat on penalties and close calls and stuff like that, bouncing up and down the divisions.
“But the fact is they stuck it out. They believed they have the materials to win and now they are showing everyone else.
“To have that belief in your camp is great. And as I said before, maybe they needed a bit of luck and maybe they got that with Kerry. But that’s all part of it.”
Naturally, Grimley’s heart says Armagh and the head does too. Grimley points to the power of the Armagh bench, which saw them pull away from Kerry in the semi-final, as perhaps the area that can decide Sunday’s clash.
“I think when you have players like Soupy [Stefan Campbell], Ross McQuillan, Jason Duffy, lads like Jarly Óg Burns, lads coming off the bench who are strong on the ball pacey, and in Soupy’s case he’s well capable of kicking points from 50 yards out.
“Young Ross has pace to eat up 20 or 30 yards into the D and scoring zone and lay it off or put it over himself. Jarly Óg is the same, Jason Duffy has done well and [Aidan] Nugent so the subs are performing. But knowing when to bring them in and how many to bring at one time their timing has been fantastic as well. They have a team to start the game and a team to finish too.
“I do think they will win. I think it’ll be won coming down the home stretch. It may even go to a replay because the two teams are very tactically astute and I don’t see any team building up a bigger lead that two or three points and I don’t see too many goals going in … coming down the straight Armagh could come good, these boys don’t know when they’re beat and that will stand to them.
“Kieran will know the pitfalls, he would know about the ticket thing and above all he would probably be saying – and the players will know this – but he’ll be saying, ‘The job is not done. We have no silverware won here, we have to go down the road and come back up with an extra passenger, that’s what we have focus on’.”
