'Kieran McGeeney stuck at it and built an All-Ireland winning team' – Paul Grimley

He hasn’t laced up a pair of boots since or stood on the sideline directing orders – 11 years from his last game as an inter-county manager, Paul Grimley is very happy to take a back seat.  

The game is still fresh in his mind, the incidents involved, even more so.   

The 2014 All-Ireland quarter-final between Armagh and Donegal in Croke Park would be Grimley’s last. By that stage, he served 14 seasons as coach under Joe Kernan and Paddy O’Rourke, before taking on the main role himself.  

Leading with three minutes to go, it looked like a day for the underdogs. In the end, Patrick McBrearty came to the rescue with a 69th-minute winning point as Donegal booked their All-Ireland football semi-final spot on a 1-12 to 1-11 scoreline.  

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The game was more known for the off-the-ball incidents including the now infamous ‘flying doctor saga’ and the square-off between Grimley and corner-back Eamon McGee just in front of the Hogan Stand.  

“I think Eamon McGee wanted to have a closer look at me, and maybe got a bit too close,” Grimley jokes. “But nothing came from it, Eamon was a great player and we all had great respect for Donegal at that time, I think that was just a heat-of-the-moment affair.  

“Donegal at that time had a team that didn’t shy away from getting stuck in, that’s for sure. Obviously, we were in a rebuilding stage at that time, but we were very much in that game and we played some good football, but unfortunately Michael Murphy and Patrick McBrearty had their kicking boots on that day and sent us out at the quarter-final stage.”  

Now football for him is a social event. The man who stood by his side that day in Croke Park immediately took on the role of manager and is there until this day.  

The difference in 2025 is that Kieran McGeeney must now manage the side of All-Ireland champions, something he’s always wanted to do, but something that hasn’t been done in Armagh since Kernan and Grimley controlled the panel in 2003.   

“I think what Kieran McGeeney has, and Kieran Donaghy, is they have the know-how of what it’s like to carry the tag of an All-Ireland winning team into the next season, they did it as players,” Grimley pointed out.   

“I know Armagh are determined to keep their feet on the ground and get back to working hard on the training field because realistically, as champions, if you want to continue your success, you have to drive on that bit further than last year.”  

Grimley feels Armagh are in a good place, perhaps even better with the fact that their Sam Maguire win last season didn’t come with the same appreciation as champions in years gone by.   

Not that they have to prove anything, but it might light more fire within the Orchard County.   

“Through the media and the general public, I don’t think there’s been that much praise for Armagh in what they achieved last year compared to how other teams may have been treated if they won the All-Ireland,” he said.   

“I don’t think they got the same appreciation because a lot of people would’ve seen it as a lucky win, especially the way they overcame Kerry in the semi-final, but that’s what football is.  

“I think if you go back to the majority of All-Ireland winners since the last time Armagh won it in 2002, it’s fair to say that those winners all had a bit of luck along the way, and more to the point, it was something that Kieran definitely didn’t have in his early days as Armagh manager.  

“Kieran persevered and showed that he had the belief that Armagh could achieve great things. I think other people would’ve thrown in the towel long ago, but because I talk to Kieran on a regular basis, he knew he just needed that bit of luck to go his way.”  

It’s the setbacks from the last decade that Grimley believes drove Armagh to promise land in 2024.  

“The fact that they’ve suffered in the early years, that’s been a plus to the panel and the management team because they’ve learned from their mistakes and it’s made them mentally very strong,” he said.  

“I think they should be held up as an example of what you can achieve if you stick at something and put your heart and soul into it. They’ve all come through the mill and believed that there was something there worth fighting for.  

“I’ve known Kieran a long time and as a player and as a manager, he was never one to walk away from a situation without it being complete. He has that aura about him in Armagh that probably is similar to Jim McGuinness in Donegal, and even though there was unfair criticism towards him where they were calling him to go, he stuck at it and built a team that won an All-Ireland.”