Armagh's Aaron McKay spoke to us ahead of this weekend's Ulster Final against Donegal.
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00:00So, Aaron obviously carrying an injury at the moment. Ulster final next weekend. Do you think you'll make it back in time or one game too soon?
00:07Well, I'll tell Gieser I'm fit. Whether I am or not is a different story.
00:12And whether he decides to have any fit means another question as well.
00:17But hopefully, as long as Armagh win, I don't care if I'm there or not.
00:20Yeah, absolutely. And Armagh as the team, especially through the league, had a lot of injury problems there, yourself and others.
00:25But maybe you could look at the positive because new faces got in and got minutes and now the strength of the squad looks possibly even stronger than it was last year.
00:33Yeah, we made a big deal about that last year, an impact on the bench.
00:36And I suppose when you have so many lads who maybe had been starting last year out injured, the lads who had been making the impact are now starting.
00:43So you're looking to replicate the impact off the bench again and the young lads have stepped up.
00:48So, in one sense, it's a bad thing, lads are carrying niggles, but in terms of the whole progression for the team, young lads who have stepped up and have played really, really well.
00:56Like, Calum O'Neill was sensational this last two games.
00:58So, he's not alone in that.
01:00And it's very hard to displace them fellas for the guys who had been starting last year to just walk back in the team.
01:05Because if they are, it's not showing good signs of progression as a group.
01:08So, yeah, we're in a healthy place, I think.
01:10Yeah, you just touched on it there.
01:11I mean, the in-house games and training must be phenomenal because the likes of yourself and other lads who maybe haven't had their jersey in a while, you'll be looking it back.
01:18Yeah.
01:19To say our in-house games get feisty would be a bit of an understatement.
01:23It could be some rouse or arguments over it anyway.
01:26But, listen, if the B-team's given the A-team some scutcheons over the weeks, even last season as well.
01:33You're maybe going into a big game against Kerry or whoever, and you're panicking going, jeez, our own boys are whipping us.
01:38How are we going to beat Kerry with the Cliffords or whatever it is?
01:41But that's what keeps the whole group so competitive and pushing the whole thing on.
01:45Yeah, and I know we've mentioned the younger players, but you have the likes of Rory Gruggan there, Andrew Merlin.
01:49Boys in their mid-30s who are probably arm-ass two best players overall this season.
01:53It's just incredible, isn't it?
01:54Yeah, I suppose knowing Rory for so long, his attention to detail is unbelievable.
02:01Like, on and off the pitch.
02:03And in fairness to him, he's having an incredible season.
02:06And long may I continue.
02:07Same with Andy, who had probably been very unfortunate with his early days in his career with injury and things.
02:12So, hopefully now he's over that.
02:14He had a great season last year as well.
02:16And, yeah, the two of them are like fine wine now.
02:19Yeah, absolutely.
02:20And obviously last day out, beating your nearest rival's throne.
02:22Probably the manner in doing it as well, winning it right at the end.
02:24Did that give a real bounce in the group?
02:26Do you feel like there's a great atmosphere around the team after such a win like that?
02:29Yeah, it nearly felt like we had to win it twice.
02:32We had won six up in one stage in the second half.
02:35And you're sort of thinking, right, we'll just kick for home here or keep them at arm's length.
02:39And in fairness to the throne, they kicked back at us and obviously went ahead.
02:42And it might have been a game in previous years gone by we would have just lost or let it slip.
02:47And to now have the experience in bigger, tighter games over the last few years, I think it definitely stood to us.
02:52And we were able to clutch it back again with the likes of Rory and them playing a big part in it, Supi and things like that.
02:57So, well, Turbo actually scored a point as well.
03:00But you had a good mix of older and younger lads providing clutch moments to get us over the line.
03:05Yeah, and you mentioned the word there, experience.
03:07And probably everybody in the crowd is a bit nervous or panicking, but the team just looks so calm and composed.
03:11And that probably comes from being involved in so many of those tight games over the last three, four years.
03:16Yeah, and again, it's probably down to management as well.
03:19Like coaching and running drills and set plays in different game scenarios.
03:23So that when it does happen on game day, within a game, it's not something new.
03:27You've been there and worked on it.
03:29Now, nothing in training can always replicate what it's like playing at Clonus with 30 odd thousand.
03:33And the pressure of maybe you having hit the last shot to maybe salvage a draw or whatever it is.
03:38But we try to make training as intense as possible to try and replicate as close as we can.
03:42And hopefully it keeps paying off.
03:44Yeah, and yourselves and Donegal have played a few times now over the last sort of 18 months.
03:48And there's not really any secrets now between the two teams as you know each other inside out.
03:51No, listen, they've been very competitive.
03:54They weren't far away last year either in terms of the All-Ireland, obviously.
03:58Took us to penalties and ultimately they got the win that day on the penalties.
04:02So we know each other really, really well.
04:06So we can't see a whole pile different in terms of tactics and that.
04:12I don't want to give away too much, but hopefully we'll come out on the right side of this one.
04:17Yeah, absolutely.
04:18And look, you had it there last week against Throne.
04:20But these big games, big games in Croke Park, you've had big games in Clonus.
04:23It's really something that in your career you can't really take for granted days like this, can you?
04:28No, like Mark had just asked me there, we were in Division 3 and sometimes we'd only maybe 500 people at games.
04:35Especially when I had first just started, like 19.
04:38And when you were young growing up, you were going to games with 40,000 plus matches.
04:42So for that, how that started off is my Armagh career to now finally have Armagh back where we are with big following and big crowds to games.
04:50And it's just a great place to have the whole county.
04:52So we obviously want to sustain that on and off the pitch.
04:55Yeah, and of course you won the big one last year, Sam Maguire.
04:58But the fact that there's no Anglo-Selt medals in that team is a bit of a crime, isn't it?
05:02There's boys in there who would be dying to get one, I'm sure.
05:05Yeah, listen, the provincials are still as important as it ever was.
05:09I know in terms of challenging for Sam Maguire, once the provincials are over, everyone's back to scratch in terms of their groups.
05:16But an Ulster medal and an Ulster title still is important to us anyway.
05:21I think that's not a secret in Ulster to all the counties.
05:25I don't want to devalue any other provincials there by saying that, but Ulster's still a massive thing.
05:30Especially in our group, the likes of Rory and Ian Forker and Soupy and Andy.
05:35Them boys who've probably soldiered for so long definitely deserve one.