IN ALL HIS time involved in intercounty football, Kieran McGeeney could scarcely have witnessed so much leadership walking out of a dressing room door as what has happened in Armagh this week.
The first to sail off into retirement was Rory Grugan. It soon emerged that James Morgan was also gone, minus the social media announcement.
This week, it was Ethan Rafferty, and now the 2024 All-Ireland winning captain, Aidan Forker.
This is, by any measure, some loss of life-force, experience, know-how. It is also an appreciation of some of the early years under McGeeney. People forget now, but some seasons were dire. These men endured that and went to the very top.
Four figures that built that thing of theirs with their bare hands have gone. It leaves Armagh in a tricky place.
McGeeney didn’t want Grugan, Forker or Rafferty to go, while Morgan’s injuries made him a separate case.
All players would have consulted with him and even given McGeeney’s famously persuasive skills, they are gone.
In the past, Forker has stated whenever anything significant in his life happens, outside his wife and parents, McGeeney is his next phone call.
Aidan Forker. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
But there always comes a time. The trick is to recognise it when it comes.
Long after McGeeney himself had retired at the end of the 2007 season, even after Armagh won the 2008 Ulster championship, his clubmate Enda McNulty was still soldiering on.
Time to go
For his last three years with the panel, McNulty didn’t get a minute of football. It was rammed home to him one day as he stood limbering up on the sideline of a 2010 league game in Crossmaglen, when Tony McEntee called him over and in that direct way of his, asked what was he still doing.
While McNulty hesitated, McEntee told him it was all over. No doubt it was good to have him around the panel, but McNulty had long outlived his usefulness as a player and was blinded by his own positivity.
Those retiring all have the usual blend of additional responsibilities that trigger these decisions.
In the case of Rafferty, it is a growing family.
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Ethan Rafferty consoled by the Clifford brothers after defeat this year. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Morgan had spent the last few years battling injuries. A big part of his retention was to gain him the best medical care possible so that he could resume his club career with Crossmaglen.
Grugan is developing his career. Previously a languages’ teacher in St Macartan’s in Monaghan, he has undertaken a Masters in education leadership and has started a tutoring business in Belfast, Portadown and Newry.
Forker would have wrestled the most with his future. His ankle, calf and back injuries decimated the seasons after the All-Ireland win.
Last season he was put forward regularly for group interviews at various launches. Most of the time, it is a turn-off if the player in question was not playing, but that was never the case with Forker. When he sat down, he had a thicket of recording devices in front of him as he delivered thoughtful and provoking answers to questions.
This is Aidan Forker. Uncut.
Full interview on YouTube Now - https://t.co/aGmcyBFcUj
As part of our 100 Years in Orange campaign we sat down with Aidan Forker. Last night, he announced his inter-county retirement.
Unfiltered. Unedited. Uncut.
#McKvr @Armagh_GAA https://t.co/kDvPtkZMAl
Privately, those coaching Armagh would tell you that no matter how far off he was from playing, he was the main figure on the training field driving standards. He never allowed his mood to droop publicly and brought no issues.
Game-time
Forker, Grugan and Rafferty had their All-Ireland medals (Morgan dropped out for the 2024 season). They scratched the unbearable itch of winning Ulster this year at the fourth time of asking.
However, it’s worth looking at just how much the foursome have played in the last two seasons.
Grugan started six championship games in 2025, but this season he was reduced to coming off the bench six times. In one game against Tyrone, he came on for the last couple of minutes and did not emerge for extra time.
Morgan hadn’t played since 2023.
James Morgan in action during the 2023 Ulster final. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
Rafferty came back in 2025 to reclaim the jersey from Blaine Hughes when the two-point arc was an obvious area he could profit from, and he made three starts in 2026 after Hughes was injured.
Forker was able to start just one more championship game – the 2025 Ulster final against Donegal, coming on in four other games.
We’ve seen this kind of thing before, and it need not derail everything.
Across six days of November 2014, Kilkenny’s spine walked out the gates of Nowlan Park. Tommy Walsh walked first, followed by David Herity, Brian Hogan and Aidan ‘Taggy’ Fogarty.
Somewhat surprisingly, JJ Delaney then jumped in December and after Shamrocks Ballyhale won the club All-Ireland title in March 2015, Henry Shefflin called time on his county career.
Despite that, Kilkenny still managed to squeeze out an All-Ireland that September, of 2015, their last.
Others have lost less prominent figures, but still collapsed. After Tyrone won the 2021 All-Ireland, Tiernan McCann, Mark Bradley and Ronan O’Neill left, joined by more fringe players such as Michael Cassidy and Hugh Pat McGeary.
With Conor McKenna and Rory Brennan soon following them, their fall was hard and swift.
Phased retirements
If there were lessons to be learned, it was in how Dessie Farrell managed to stage Dublin retirements in phases. He had the ability to keep the likes of Philly McMahon, Jack McCaffrey and Michael Darragh Macauley within the panel while not getting much game-time. He could not have squeezed out the 2023 All-Ireland without that skill.
But Farrell’s old friend, McGeeney, doesn’t have that luxury now.
And it’s not like he is going anywhere any time soon.
People may wonder what McGeeney gets up to when the county season closes. He spends a great deal of time working with different companies, offering his advice and experience on building teams and workplace culture.
This is work that takes him far and wide, and to London this week.
It is not work, however, that could ever replace his role as Armagh manager.
Next year will mark 40 years that McGeeney has spent involved in intercounty, since coming into the Armagh minor team in 1987.
Occasionally, he might fly a kite in an interview that he could do without all the hassle, that in some parallel world there’s something better for him to be at.
He’s kidding nobody. McGeeney is a lifer.
His role this month is not about a rebuild, because he knows a team is in a constant state of flux, a Ship of Theseus with different parts forever breaking down and once-discarded components finding their way back onto the workbench to be repurposed.
There are options for McGeeney. He could see if the competitive fires in Niall Grimley could be stoked. No doubt, the ability to lamp two-pointers has him swapping the odd text with Rian O’Neill, as well as tracking the development and progress of his younger brother Aaron, who could become a major force in 2027.
He will invite the likes of Oisín O’Neill, Conor Turbitt and Aaron McKay to become more vocal and to the fore. He cannot afford to lose the craft of Paddy Burns.
And the obvious choice of captain is Jarly Óg Burns.
Armagh will be different in 2027. That’s the challenge.
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With their generals leaving the battlefield, Armagh need a rethink
IN ALL HIS time involved in intercounty football, Kieran McGeeney could scarcely have witnessed so much leadership walking out of a dressing room door as what has happened in Armagh this week.
The first to sail off into retirement was Rory Grugan. It soon emerged that James Morgan was also gone, minus the social media announcement.
This week, it was Ethan Rafferty, and now the 2024 All-Ireland winning captain, Aidan Forker.
This is, by any measure, some loss of life-force, experience, know-how. It is also an appreciation of some of the early years under McGeeney. People forget now, but some seasons were dire. These men endured that and went to the very top.
Four figures that built that thing of theirs with their bare hands have gone. It leaves Armagh in a tricky place.
McGeeney didn’t want Grugan, Forker or Rafferty to go, while Morgan’s injuries made him a separate case.
All players would have consulted with him and even given McGeeney’s famously persuasive skills, they are gone.
In the past, Forker has stated whenever anything significant in his life happens, outside his wife and parents, McGeeney is his next phone call.
But there always comes a time. The trick is to recognise it when it comes.
Long after McGeeney himself had retired at the end of the 2007 season, even after Armagh won the 2008 Ulster championship, his clubmate Enda McNulty was still soldiering on.
Time to go
For his last three years with the panel, McNulty didn’t get a minute of football. It was rammed home to him one day as he stood limbering up on the sideline of a 2010 league game in Crossmaglen, when Tony McEntee called him over and in that direct way of his, asked what was he still doing.
While McNulty hesitated, McEntee told him it was all over. No doubt it was good to have him around the panel, but McNulty had long outlived his usefulness as a player and was blinded by his own positivity.
Those retiring all have the usual blend of additional responsibilities that trigger these decisions.
In the case of Rafferty, it is a growing family.
Morgan had spent the last few years battling injuries. A big part of his retention was to gain him the best medical care possible so that he could resume his club career with Crossmaglen.
Grugan is developing his career. Previously a languages’ teacher in St Macartan’s in Monaghan, he has undertaken a Masters in education leadership and has started a tutoring business in Belfast, Portadown and Newry.
Forker would have wrestled the most with his future. His ankle, calf and back injuries decimated the seasons after the All-Ireland win.
Last season he was put forward regularly for group interviews at various launches. Most of the time, it is a turn-off if the player in question was not playing, but that was never the case with Forker. When he sat down, he had a thicket of recording devices in front of him as he delivered thoughtful and provoking answers to questions.
Privately, those coaching Armagh would tell you that no matter how far off he was from playing, he was the main figure on the training field driving standards. He never allowed his mood to droop publicly and brought no issues.
Game-time
Forker, Grugan and Rafferty had their All-Ireland medals (Morgan dropped out for the 2024 season). They scratched the unbearable itch of winning Ulster this year at the fourth time of asking.
However, it’s worth looking at just how much the foursome have played in the last two seasons.
Grugan started six championship games in 2025, but this season he was reduced to coming off the bench six times. In one game against Tyrone, he came on for the last couple of minutes and did not emerge for extra time.
Morgan hadn’t played since 2023.
Rafferty came back in 2025 to reclaim the jersey from Blaine Hughes when the two-point arc was an obvious area he could profit from, and he made three starts in 2026 after Hughes was injured.
Forker was able to start just one more championship game – the 2025 Ulster final against Donegal, coming on in four other games.
We’ve seen this kind of thing before, and it need not derail everything.
Across six days of November 2014, Kilkenny’s spine walked out the gates of Nowlan Park. Tommy Walsh walked first, followed by David Herity, Brian Hogan and Aidan ‘Taggy’ Fogarty.
Somewhat surprisingly, JJ Delaney then jumped in December and after Shamrocks Ballyhale won the club All-Ireland title in March 2015, Henry Shefflin called time on his county career.
Despite that, Kilkenny still managed to squeeze out an All-Ireland that September, of 2015, their last.
Others have lost less prominent figures, but still collapsed. After Tyrone won the 2021 All-Ireland, Tiernan McCann, Mark Bradley and Ronan O’Neill left, joined by more fringe players such as Michael Cassidy and Hugh Pat McGeary.
With Conor McKenna and Rory Brennan soon following them, their fall was hard and swift.
Phased retirements
If there were lessons to be learned, it was in how Dessie Farrell managed to stage Dublin retirements in phases. He had the ability to keep the likes of Philly McMahon, Jack McCaffrey and Michael Darragh Macauley within the panel while not getting much game-time. He could not have squeezed out the 2023 All-Ireland without that skill.
But Farrell’s old friend, McGeeney, doesn’t have that luxury now.
And it’s not like he is going anywhere any time soon.
People may wonder what McGeeney gets up to when the county season closes. He spends a great deal of time working with different companies, offering his advice and experience on building teams and workplace culture.
This is work that takes him far and wide, and to London this week.
It is not work, however, that could ever replace his role as Armagh manager.
Next year will mark 40 years that McGeeney has spent involved in intercounty, since coming into the Armagh minor team in 1987.
Occasionally, he might fly a kite in an interview that he could do without all the hassle, that in some parallel world there’s something better for him to be at.
He’s kidding nobody. McGeeney is a lifer.
There are options for McGeeney. He could see if the competitive fires in Niall Grimley could be stoked. No doubt, the ability to lamp two-pointers has him swapping the odd text with Rian O’Neill, as well as tracking the development and progress of his younger brother Aaron, who could become a major force in 2027.
He will invite the likes of Oisín O’Neill, Conor Turbitt and Aaron McKay to become more vocal and to the fore. He cannot afford to lose the craft of Paddy Burns.
And the obvious choice of captain is Jarly Óg Burns.
Armagh will be different in 2027. That’s the challenge.
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Armagh column Retirements the departed