FOR THE LAST fortnight, Jarly Óg Burns had been spending a lot of time in splendid isolation as the clock ticked down to an All-Ireland final.
At home, with a GAA President for his father, a strict embargo was slapped on all Gaelic football talk.
As a teacher of the Primary 6 class in Silverbridge, he was on his summer holidays anyway and his girlfriend was in Spain. He decided to go old school, deleting all social media apps and only venturing out for the occasional game of golf by himself.
From such tranquility, to the chaos of an All-Ireland final. But right at the end on Sunday afternoon, he was in control of his and the team’s destiny as the match ball finished in his hands as the game ended.
Once he gathered himself, he bounded up the Hogan Stand to embrace his father, shown on the big screens in Croke Park to thundering applause.
Come Monday morning, he sits in an armchair in the foyer of the Carrickdale Hotel, a feeling of contentment washing over him. After a quick breakfast of Coco Pops – it’s now officially the off-season after all – he sits down to make some sense of it.
“I didn’t know what I was doing. I just caught eyes with him and I thought I might go up and share this moment with him,” he says of meeting his father.
“He missed out in ’02, he retired in ’99. He only wished the best for me so I said I would go up and give him a hug and he would appreciate it.
“He said he was very proud of me and it was father-son stuff. It was a great moment.”
His father retired soon after captaining the side to their first Ulster title in 17 years. Jarly Óg played all the way through the levels of representation, but never won anything.
Not a Dr McKenna Cup. Not a National League. Not an Ulster title. Nothing. The first thing he wins is the All-Ireland.
“Couldn’t get over the line,” he says.
“Obviously you are going through the heartache and the penalties and you think there’s some sort of a curse there.
“I don’t know, we just got a bit of momentum. It’s mad where it can take you and sometimes high-level sport, a bit of luck goes a long way too. We got it in the last couple of games, in big games and tight games. Maybe that’s what has been missing in other days.”
In the Ulster final, a play involving Burns became Exhibit A in the case against Armagh and their lack of success.
Late on, he caught a ball and stuck his arm in the air to signal a mark. Problem was, he was far out and at a serious angle. A David Clifford would have been doing really well to put it over.
With only a few moments left, he instead kicked it backwards. Commentators seized on this and held it up as an example of their lack of ambition and over-coaching.
“You hear stuff like that, people looking for things to why you are not winning,” says Burns.
“If that was in the middle of the game, in the 20th minute, would you have taken that on? Probably not. So why would it be any different at the end, trying to be the hero?
“It’s not a high percentage shot. I could have taken it on, I had a wee glance at Geezer and he said no. Again, they are all just learnings. You have to learn from these things and coming down the home stretch later on in the year, it definitely helped us, big time.”
And it almost never happened for him at all this year. Over the winter, he felt he needed time away from the team, from the life.
“I wanted to take a break. As you know, life as an inter-county footballer, it takes over your life. It’s a 24/7 thing. I wanted to get away from it, take a break from it,” he says.
“I was talked back into it by my cousin Paddy (Burns). He called me up and said that, ‘We need you. I think we can do something big this year. Don’t want to do it without you.’
“He got me round. Stephen Sheridan spoke to me as well and they got me and Geezer sitting down and chatting through it. Thankfully I came back.
“I don’t know what would have happened if I wasn’t here. I am glad I am here, sitting beside you boys now.”
McGeeney accepted it. Said that the door was open for a return in the future. He didn’t make it impossible to reconsider.
Of all the disappointments he has suffered, the last Ulster final defeat to Donegal on penalties stung the most, probably because they felt they were the better team on the balance of play.
The multiple shoot out losses couldn’t break them. But it did hurt.
And now they landed the Big One. He has one medal from his six seasons as an Armagh player, and it happens to be a Celtic Cross.
“It is quite unusual, very unusual,” he says.
“Not sure if it has happened too many times to have the big one. I was even getting texts from boys, Conor Glass, saying look I’m jealous but fair play you deserve it and Brian Fenton texting.
“You nearly can’t believe it still, waking up in dreamland this morning, ‘have we done this?’
“Days like this don’t come around too often in this county. I can’t remember ‘02 but I know it was mayhem. The fans have been through so much so I’m delighted for them they have been with us through thick and thin.”
