God-like Geezer can strike fear into Down
ALL tomorrow’s football matches look interesting, especially as we may finally get a close and competitive Ulster Championship game in Newry. Armagh will be fascinating to watch this summer. Kieran McGeeney is close to God in the county and,when he came in as Paul Grimley’s assistant in 2014, it was considered to be his input that helped the team get to an All-Ireland quarter-final, narrowly losing to Donegal. Since becoming manager, things haven’t quite worked out. Looking on, it occurred me that the young Armagh players were in awe of their manager, because of his status, and didn’t seem to be playing with any freedom. McGeeney is suspended from the sideline, after his rather harsh 12-week ban, and while that will be an annoyance, I don’t think it will have much of an impact tomorrow. Armagh can’t afford to go out in the first round of Ulster again or have another short summer. Jamie Clarke is back and seems to be very focused, judging by what he is saying. I expect Armagh will emerge from this clash with Down, but we should finally get a competitive Ulster clash. In Leinster, I don’t think Meath will be depending on a controversial lastminute goal to get past Louth in Parnell Park. Colin Kelly has done a fine job with the Wee County, and their promotion to Division 2 made everyone sit up and take notice. Ryan Burns is a superb young footballer, whom they can base their attack around. But from what I am hearing on the grapevine, Meath’s preparations have been very intensive. If the McEntee fire can be channelled in the right way, I think they will have enough for Louth. Laois have been underwhelming for the past few years but they will always believe they can put it up to Kildare. However, it would be a major upset for Cian O’Neill and his team if they pulled off a shock here. O’Neill made the mistake of breaking up a winning team by giving his fringe players a run-out against Galway in their last League game. And that appeared to hamper their momentum. But O’Neill has put a bit of structure on Kildare, they a team going places and won’t be halted by Laois.