Given the famously tight bonds he forges with his players, Kieran McGeeney was never going to make Ethan Rafferty the patsy after his mistake handed Louth another famous victory last Sunday.
But Rafferty’s error puts the Armagh goalkeeping position under intense scrutiny, and what only weeks ago looked a source of strength for McGeeney is suddenly a big problem.
Armagh’s Ethan Rafferty is unable to prevent Louth scoring a late goal last weekend
‘Listen, everybody makes mistakes,’ said McGeeney after the match. ‘We gave the ball away three or four times.
‘If we hadn’t given it away, the ball wouldn’t have went in. It’s not Ethan, it’s all of us.
‘It’s just the way you go. You win together, you lose together.’
That’s more than a soundbite in the Armagh dressing room, and McGeeney’s talent for fostering collective spirit means that Rafferty will not have been left to suffer alone.
Yet, the inescapable truth is that the mistake of a goalkeeper is more obvious, and often more consequential, than an error elsewhere on the field.
And Rafferty’s devastated reaction after he misjudged Sam Mulroy’s late, dropping ball and let it slip from his grasp into the net, testified to the loneliness of a mistake by a No1.
He appeared to jump a fraction too soon, misreading the flight of what looked like a two-pointer attempt and getting under the ball, to fateful effect.
And it means that goalkeeper is now McGeeney’s main concern as he prepares for a daunting visit to Fitzgerald Stadium.
From a position where Armagh were envied by opponents for having two high-quality keepers competing to start, they now have a first choice with a fitness doubt and an understudy with the psychological baggage that often accompanies high-profile mistakes.
Armagh goalkeeper Blaine Hughes makes his way to the pitch ahead of the Ulster final
Rafferty was only starting against Louth because Blaine Hughes was injured.
There was, as per best modern practice, no insight provided into what ailed Hughes afterwards, but McGeeney made positive noises about his availability for this weekend.
Hughes was seen on the pitch during the Armagh warm-up. He wasn’t togged out, but the fact he was present indicates it wasn’t a serious injury that kept him from playing.
That matters because he has firmly established himself as the county’s first-choice goalkeeper this season; he had started all four championship matches for Armagh prior to the Louth game.
The quality of his kick-outs is what sets him apart, and that is doubly relevant when anticipating Saturday’s blockbuster, because it was Rafferty who was in goal when Kerry demolished the Armagh kick-out in last year’s gripping All-Ireland quarter-final.
Armagh led by five points five minutes into the second half that day in Croke Park, but there followed an awesome introduction to the importance of re-starts in the revolutionised game.
Kieran McGeeney and Ethan Rafferty celebrate after the Ulster final win over Monaghan
In one 15-minute spell, Kerry pressed Rafferty’s kick-out ruthlessly, winning nine of 11 balls and turning the game upside down as they shot 14 points without reply.
Of the 0-32 that Kerry finished up with in the game, 14 points came off Rafferty’s kick-outs.
If he is selected to play in Killarney, then he’ll have that memory as well as the more recent Louth one to address.
It’s been a bitter turn of events for Rafferty, who broke his leg in 2023 and sustained serious damage, including a dislocated ankle. That injury kept him out for months and meant Hughes stole a march in 2024, taking the position and being the man in possession when Armagh won the All-Ireland that July.
Rafferty fought tirelessly to get the shirt back last summer and then came the Kerry press and the potential lingering effects of that. It’s why getting Hughes back in goal is so important to Armagh’s hopes.
Despite their misfire against Louth, they remain a highly accomplished team, and one whose relentless running game would be well suited to the prairies of Fitzgerald Stadium.
Kieran McGeeney celebrates the Ulster final win over Monaghan with Paddy Burns
But the quality and variety of Hughes’ restarts would bolster their attacking game enormously.
And the strengths he brings would be emphasised further if Shane Ryan remains sidelined.
The Kerry goalkeeper hasn’t featured for the county since a McGrath Cup game in mid- January, and Jack O’Connor revealing after the Kildare match that Ryan hasn’t resumed full training makes his return look a remote prospect.
That means another outing for Shane Murphy, who has actually been very solid in the championship so far.
But the memory of what Donegal did to his kick-out in the league final remains vivid.
That match has taken on a different context given the alarming swings in Donegal’s form this summer, but they pinned Kerry back off their own restarts that day to decisive effect.
Murphy fared much better in the teams’ championship meeting last month but, as with the Armagh case, this is an instance of the understudy not having the variation or quality of kicking that the first choice does.
Kerry would back their big men in the middle third battle, and, with Ben Crealey out for the season, Armagh can’t call upon their full legion of primary ball winners. But, while big men who can win direct possession are important, they are secondary to a keeper who can find an alternative way to get the ball to a team-mate. That is where a repertoire of short and mid-range kick-outs is required, and it’s Hughes who offers the wider shot selection to Armagh.
One of the features of Rafferty’s difficulties against Kerry 51 weeks ago was his reliance on long restarts, even as the opposition hoovered up the breaks.
At the end of last season, Rafferty gave some insight in an interview into what Croke Park was like as the match, for quarter of an hour, became a battle between him and an unstoppable Kerry force.
McGeeney has a massive decision to make as he bids to take down Kerry in Killarney
He plays outfield for his club, so it’s only on the biggest days that he deals with the singular demands of tending nets.
‘It’s quite daunting,’ he admitted. ‘It’s a different kind of pressure. It can be quite an isolated, lonely spot, so you’re trying your best to get something to work.
‘Then you start to force some, which was probably my scenario, trying to force a couple and then kicking some, over the line.’
Blame can never attach to just one player in a team game, but for the second time in less than a year, Rafferty was the man in focus after Armagh were undone in a famous battle.
He will convince himself that, if selected, there is no better place to cast off old ghosts than in the crucible of Kerry football. He has to believe that. If Blaine Hughes isn’t fit, then Armagh’s championship hopes will hinge on it.
