McConville Dismisses Significance Of Unwanted Record Broken By Armagh In Kerry Loss

Considering that many viewed them as favourites to retain their All-Ireland title over the coming weeks, the manner of Armagh's heavy defeat at the hands of Kerry at Croke Park yesterday caught many people off guard.

The Ulster side came into the match as favourites, coming up against an opponent that had looked off the boil in recent times.

The first half would go on to be a very close affair, but it was a different story after the interval. Kerry would at one stage score 14 unanswered points in the second half, eventually running out as winners with an eight-point margin of victory.

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This was a very convincing defeat for Armagh, so much so that it has written them into the record books. Their loss yesterday was the heaviest defeat in 0ver 20 years for a reigning All-Ireland champion.

However, some feel that it would be unfair to criticise them too much on the back of that record.

Speaking on The GAA Social, Oisín McConville said that stat is 'null and void' as a result of the change to the rules of Gaelic football for the 2025 season.

That stat is null and void with the new rules.

This is the first time we have had these rules. When things start to go against you, it can be any score.

If you look at the turnarounds there was at the weekend. Look at the Monaghan one, Monaghan were seven or eight (points) up and within the blink of an eye Donegal were cruising, five up and seeing out the game...

Apart from Dublin, who retains the All-Ireland any more? Those days of that dominance are gone.

Especially a team like Armagh, we hadn't won one for 22 years and before that we never won one, so to retain it was always going to be a long shot.

Armagh ticked so many of the boxes all year. It was a flat performance, but really and truly Armagh fans can't really argue too much with the way they have defended it.

It was a horrible draw to get in a quarter-final. Kerry were massively ahead of Armagh in every facet of the game.

This year has certainly seen a major spike in scoring at inter-county level, with sizeable comebacks in games now also a far more regular occurrence.

The manner in which Kerry ran up the score on Armagh in the second half is not something that you would have seen in the previous iteration of Gaelic football, meaning it might be a tad harsh to brandish them with that record moving forward.

Still, this defeat is sure to sting for quite a while.