Stevie McDonnell: Why the bad press for a final full of kicking quality?

But hear him out. Nobody could ever excuse McDonnell of being a footballer who didn’t espouse its redeeming characteristics. Even now, he would argue that there is a right way to win.

Being a golfer, he reckons the total yardage or meterage of points kicked by Armagh and Galway set a record for an All-Ireland final. In no other of football’s biggest days can he recall as many long-range point attempts being kicked over nor a better conversion rate.

Recency and the other more obvious bias aside, he accepts there were extended periods of lateral passing and mistakes made but he can’t believe the amount of bad press the game has received. “Yes, there were lots of errors. Galway will tell you they didn’t play to their potential but Armagh didn’t either and there was still a lot of quality on display that day.

“If you watch the game back, the quality of score-taking was as good as any you will be likely to see in an All-Ireland. By my count, there were 16 scores taken from outside the ‘D’ area, many of which would be classed as two-point pointers under the new rules. There was also a good spread of scorers across both teams without too much reliance of any one player, which was appealing to me.

“The quality of scores from Paul Conroy, Céin D’Arcy, Cillian McDaid was exceptionally good. For Armagh, Barry McCambridge came up and kicked a fantastic score, Aidan Forker likewise coming up from defence for a point.

“There were points taken on the run that would be toasted in any other game. They’re the ones you want to see scored, the ones you pay into watch regardless of whether you support a team involved or not.

“At times, what happens in open play outside the scores is spoken about too much. There isn’t as much focus put on what has made the final, which were good quality scores from distance.

“On the biggest stage, both teams kicked brilliantly from long range and that shouldn’t be forgotten. Niall Grimley’s point in particular, that was a pressure kick but his kick was pure. I can’t think of another final in the last 20 years that those scores were being kicked consistently over the course of the 70 or so minutes.” 

From captain Forker to manager Kieran McGeeney, there has been slight unease among the All-Ireland champions about the forthcoming rule changes and yet Armagh looked well equipped to embrace them, particularly the two-point score.

“Change was needed but it’s dramatic change and maybe there are too many of them,” says McDonnell. “We have to give them all a go now and see where it takes the game.

“I’m looking at the Armagh team now, Rian O’Neill, Rory Grugan, Conor Turbitt, Oisín O’Neill, Stefan Campbell, and so many of them can kick points from distance. So the rules, the two-pointer certainly, if they’re doing anything, they’re playing into Armagh’s hands.

“The leading teams all have capable kickers and we should see even more of that this year. But the kicking was there in the All-Ireland final, it was overlooked. Now there’s just a greater reward for it.” 

McDonnell sees McGeeney along with some of his selectors Kieran Donaghy, Conleith Gilligan and Ciarán McKeever privately embracing rule changes they themselves would have liked to experienced.

“The best coaching groups will be seen through these new rules and knowing just how good Armagh’s is, I have no doubt they will be in the mix again. Galway will be there too and Derry with Paddy Tally will be well schooled.

“I thrived on what Geezer and McKeever wanted to do with the ball. They were always looking to deliver it long and direct. Conleith Gilligan was a fantastic playmaking No11 who knew how to make space and thread passes and you can see his influence in Rory Grugan.

“Then Donaghy obviously, his game was about the long ball so Armagh have a management group who as players preferred to play that way. I’m not putting them under pressure to repeat what they did last year but if the game does turn into more of a kicking one, it will be natural for them.

“Maybe the game becomes more attacking and speeds up. We knew to run because we knew the ball was coming from Geezer and Aidan O’Rourke and Andy McCann.

“Them boys didn’t want to mess around with the ball in defence, they wanted to make defence an attack as quickly as possible. For us forwards, it made life easy and the game so enjoyable.” 

Looking back on the rerun of July’s showpiece on TG4 on Christmas Eve, he believes people will feel the same about the standard of kicked points.