Kieran McGeeney has described the 2023 season so far as a “year of nearly” following Armagh’s relegation.
Armagh won two games in the campaign. They beat Monaghan on the opening night and also overcame Donegal, who’ll join them in Division Two next year.
They suffered defeats to Roscommon, Kerry, Galway and most recently Tyrone, while also drawing with Mayo.
The margin between the teams was never more than three-points. But unfortunately for the Orchard County, they came out on the wrong end of those results.
“It’s a year of nearly,” said McGeeney after his sides two-point loss to arch-rivals Tyrone last Sunday.
“I think we have played well. I know some people don’t like those tight games against the Galway’s or the Kerry’s.
“But when teams play 14 back and one up you don’t have any choice but to try and match that. They don’t score that much more than us, but nobody wants to play open football against you.
“A few teams tried it last year and they know we’re good at that so they’re not going to give you that type of space. They’re going to drop 14-15 men behind the ball.
“There’s a want in us to play that (attacking) game and teams can hold onto the ball longer than we can and we tend to want to go for those scores and we walk into traps.
“It’s frustrating because sometimes the players listen to the crowd and walk in and give the ball away.
“But with a wee bit more patience, they’d be able to hold on and win those games. It’s a tough learning curve but it’s one we’re going to have to do.
“Some games when you get to the latter end of the Championship open up and you can have tit-for-tat.
“Today was a wee bit more open than most, there was a couple of easy scores missed, both teams probably should have been coming away with 17 or 18 scores. But you’re not going to get too many more games like that.”
