On Sunday evening, we witnessed the finale of the Armagh GAA #WinToStayIn Skills Challenge, with six contestants fighting in it out to be crowned the most skilful player in the county.
44 contestants started out the Skills Challenge, but only one could finish the winner.
The challenge for the final was all the previous skills combined, the solo, fist pass and kick pass and whoever completed the skills in the fastest time would be the winner.
Game 1 – Winnie the Pooh vs Paul Hughes
The favourite for the competition, Winnie the Pooh fought off the President of America Donald Trump in the semi final, setting him up for the top prize.
The Armagh and Crossmaglen “sweeper” Paul Hughes was equal to the challenge and completed the skills in just over a minute.
The One Hundred Acre Wood attacker completed the skills in a quicker time, but VAR determined the solo were illegal, meaning Winnie the Pooh was disqualified, leaving the competition wide open.
As you can tell from the picture below, Winnie wasn’t best pleased!
Game 2 – Kelly Mallon vs Diarmaid Marsden
The Armagh Ladies Captain has led by example the whole way through the competition, and her performance in the final was no different.
Mallon was up against All-Ireland winner Diarmaid Marsden, who showed throughout the last few weeks that age is just a number.
Both players beat Hughes to leap to the top of the leader board, with Mallon edging into the lead by just three points.
Game 3 – Ryan Kennedy vs Greg McCabe
The last game of the final pitted “The Butcher of Ballymacnab” against “Gorgeous” Greg McCabe, both in with a chance of earning the crown.
The lands played out a close affair, with McCabe just shading the contest to take his spot at top of the table.
However, the VAR committee were called in once again and their decision was to disqualify the Shane O’Neill’s man for the illegal use of both hands when performing the solo.
Ryan Kennedy’s method was also questioned, but it was decided the Ballymacnab defender was well within the rules and recorded the quickest time to be crown the most skilful player in the county!
The Armagh GAA #WinToStayIn Skills Challenge has provided great entertainment over the past few weeks, giving the Armagh fans some brilliant laughs in this time of uncertainty.
Well done to all participants involved, Armagh’s PRO Claire Shields, Hugh Campbell and Brian McClelland of BMAC PA who brought it all together!
