“WHEN YOU’RE INFALLIBLE, you never learn from your mistakes.”
This was the assessment of referee Maurice Deegan’s performance from Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney following his side’s All-Ireland qualifier exit at the hands of Mayo on Saturday evening.
The Orchard County lost out by just a point after perhaps the match of the qualifiers thus far, as James Horan’s side continue their long and winding road to Croke Park.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, McGeeney couldn’t hide his disappointment.
“It’s gutting,” he said. “We fully expected to put in a performance. We thought it was well within our capabilities to get a victory and it just seemed to escape us at the end. Time ran out.”
He then turned his attention to the amount of stoppages added on at the end of the match and tried to make sense of the decision in calculating the additional minutes.
“When you’re infallible, you never learn from your mistakes. That’s the only way I can put it.
“The fellas did everything that was asked of them. I think they put their heart and soul into it and played a lovely brand of football.
“They really go at teams, but they don’t get rewarded for it.
We had four minutes of extra-time there, with maybe 10 or 11 head injuries. That’s nothing to do with Mayo or James [Horan], that’s not his call. That’s the man in the middle.
“There were more stoppages in that game. But listen, you can’t take away from Mayo. They lost Lee Keegan, one of the best players in the country. They were still able to push on.”
Pushed by Sky reporter Damian Lawlor as to whether he would be able to vent his frustrations with officials in GAA HQ, he said:
“No, that’s not the way it works.
Thankfully there’s a change with the top referees, and hopefully someone will come in and start making it a two-way conversation.
“Most of the referees out there are really good people. I’ve talked to a few of them, they really want to move things on. Some, we’ll probably never be best friends.”
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