Flashpoint Of Ugly Armagh-Donegal Melee Identified As Gardaí Needed To Separate Players

Jim McGuinness once again got the better of Kieran McGeeney on Saturdya as Donegal retained the Ulster title, beating Armagh 2-23 to 0-28 after extra time.

However, the celebrations were marred by a schmozzle at the end of the game, which saw All-wreland winning captain Aidan Forker had words with the opposition manager.

Irish Examiner journalist Maurice Brosnan captured the flashpoint of the brawl from the pressbox. A celebrating Donegal player stopped in front of the Armagh bench to celebrate.

A person from the Armagh panel in a black training top and black shorts came off the bench and appeared to strike the Donegal player. The Donegal player didn't flinch but the rest of the Armagh bench soon followed and all hell broke loose.

It will be interesting to see if any suspensions will follow from this melee. A number of gardaí can be seen in the middle of the brawl trying to separate the players.

Michael Murphy’s plan of joining the FRC committee to fix football and to come back out of retirement is all going to plan after picking up another Ulster medal and a man of the match award. RTÉ managed to keep him away from the Clones jungle brawl to get his thoughts on an epic encounter.

“Ulster is always our bread and butter,” Murphy said.

“It’s always been our thing for so many years. We couldn’t win. It's brilliant to get back in the hearts and desires of the lads and the people of Donegal in general. There were times when we were in and we were out. It's just brilliant to get out on the right side today.

Listen, that’s the game of Gaelic now. At the moment, it’s a whole 70-minute game, and you have to be playing the whole way through. You can't have bad days.”

Murphy was full of credit for Armagh, but when asked if they are All-Ireland contenders, he was quick to dampen any expectations, pointing out that their full attention is on their Ulster counterparts, Tyrone.

“Armagh are such an incredible side,” he said,

“They're an absolute credit as All-Ireland champions, and they’ve been in Ulster finals the last number of years, it's not the previous we're going to see of them this year.

We just need to get over the next game and see where it takes us.”

For Armagh, it’s a tough one to take as they become only the second team in Ulster history to lose three finals in a row, along with Down, who did it from 1973 to 1975. The defeat also consigns them to the group of death, with Galway, Dubln and Derry awaiting in the round robin.