Gaelic Games

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Armagh's Jarly Og Burns said the side will "be leaving no stone unturned" before their Ulster Senior Football final against Monaghan on Sunday 17 May.

A record-breaking 3-33 to 0-14 victory over Down in Sunday's semi-final sealed Armagh's spot in their fourth successive Ulster final.

Despite winning their second All-Ireland title in 2024, the Orchard County have not lifted the Anglo Celt Cup since 2008 after losing the past three finals.

"We've been here three times, we've had experiences, but not the experience of winning it yet," Burns told BBC Sport NI.

"The hunger is still there and very much in the semi-final, our wants had to be higher than theirs [Monaghan's].

"We still want it and we'll be leaving no stone unturned in two weeks."

Armagh have had injury concerns during recent weeks with wing-back Ross McQuillan injured before the semi-final and midfielder Ben Crealey sidelined after breaking his ankle during training.

However, Burns added that the side have plenty of players "waiting in the wings".

"It's next man up and you know there's players waiting in the wings, waiting for an opportunity and they're taking it," added the Silverbridge club-man, who scored 0-4 in the win over Down.

"Look they are huge losses to this team and leaders but, again, that's what's all about.

"You're waiting in the wings for an opportunity and when it comes, you have to take it, or you'll be back of the line."

Former Armagh All-Ireland winner Oisin McConville says Monaghan "absolutely have a chance" in the Ulster SFC final, despite Armagh's impressive dismantling of Down in Sunday's semi-final.

Monaghan fought back from 10 points down in normal time to beat Derry 1-30 to 3-23 in a dramatic semi-final on Saturday to reach the decider for the first time since 2021.

Armagh, meanwhile, booked their place in a fourth successive final with a thumping 3-33 to 0-14 victory over Down at St Tiernach's Park and will go into the decider on Sunday, 17 May as favourites.

But McConville believes the Farney men will put it up to Armagh as they have been galvanised in the championship after a tough league campaign.

"Of course they have a chance, absolutely they have a chance," McConville told the GAA Social podcast.

"They have weapons and it will be a cracker of a final, Monaghan will bring plenty. They are coming from a different place and when they won there was a celebration, rightly so, but there was no reveal about how they went about it, all it was about was we ticked that one off and we have a home Ulster final.

"The year Monaghan have had, and the bounce they have had since the championship is massive."

They will have to produce a complete performance to see off the Orchard County, who in scoring 42 points, broke the record for the highest single-team score in an Ulster SFC match, a mark they set in last week's quarter-final win over Fermanagh.

McConville described their performance in Clones as "awesome" and acknowledged they will be clear favourites to end their wait for a first Ulster title since 2008.

"Armagh have a few players playing at the peak of their powers, Oisin Conaty [who was named man-of-the-match after kicking 0-5] is next level at this stage," he added.

"If you think of last week, the one thing you could have thrown at Armagh was too much of a drop off in the second half, they couldn't afford that again and what did they do? [They] kicked on and it was a pretty awesome performance from Armagh regardless of how Down were."

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Tyrone eased into the Ulster Ladies Senior Football Championship final thanks to a 4-10 to 2-7 victory over Donegal in Lifford on Sunday.

Defeat for Donegal sees them exit the championship after they also lost their round-robin opener against Armagh last weekend.

Donegal held an early lead before Tyrone took control and two goals from Chloe McCaffrey helped them move nine points in front.

Sorcha Gormely fired over three points for last year's All-Ireland Intermediate winners while Aoife Horisk and McCaffrey also split the posts.

Tyrone led 2-5 to 0-2 at the break and they made a blistering start to the second half to extend their advantage.

Slaine McCarroll added a third goal before the outstanding McCaffrey completed her hat-trick.

Donegal did manage a response with goals from Evelyn McGinley and Ciara McGarvey, but it was a comfortable win for the Red Hands.

Tyrone and champions Armagh - with one win apiece in the three-team competition - are already assured of their place in the decider before what will be a dress rehearsal between the teams in next weekend's final round-robin game.

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Speaking to BBC Sport NI's Mark Sidebottom, heroic Monaghan goalkeeper Rory Beggan on whether he expected his side to make an Ulster final:

"If you'd asked us a couple of weeks ago, probably not, but we just knuckled down. It couldn't get much worse [after the relegation] but we just put the heads down."

On urging referee Noel Mooney to restart the game after the hooter sounded before Monaghan could take their sideline ball at the end of normal time:

"I just said 'when the ball's dead before the hooter you have a chance' so he corrected himself. Big Davy Garland helped him as well."

On his two-point free at the end of extra-time to seal victory:

"We've won nothing. We have an Ulster final to play now in Clones. First time since 2015 that we are back in Clones on Ulster final day. That kick just gets us there. There are bigger ones to hit in the final."

David Garland, reflecting on the victory:

"It's an unbelievable feeling. The first half didn't go our way but we went in at half-time and said 'let's give it a shot'. We said all week it's about the team."

On confronting Noel Mooney at the end of normal time:

"I'm saying to him 'the rule is it's a set-piece, I think you can change the decision so I'll take the credit for that one! The hooter rule was changed. The hooter can go and we get a shot."

On the Ulster final:

"Listen, we'll take whoever it is, Down or Armagh. Nothing will change. We'll keep training hard and prepare the best we can."

On McCarron and Beggan:

"They're both dead-ball specialists, no matter where it is on the field. All we were doing was looking at the clock and hoping the hooter would go and it did."

Jack McCarron on his two-pointer to force extra-time:

"A similar thing happened in the Ulster Championship against Donegal last year. A few of the Derry players were coming over to shake our hands. It was a bit demoralising but we got an opportunity to hit it.

"The rule was changed. There was no point getting the two-pointer and then going back out and losing in extra-time, so we had to calm down in the dressing room and go after it again."

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Tyrone U20 coach Stephen O'Neill hailed his side's character as they made it three Ulster titles on the spin.

The Red Hands recovered from a slow start to the campaign with defeats by Cavan and Armagh leaving them third in Group B, but recovered superbly in the knockout phase to account for Derry and Donegal before finishing the job against Monaghan in Wednesday's final.

It is the fourth provincial title at the U20 grade in five years for Paul Devlin's side who have also won the last two All-Ireland titles and O'Neill is proud of their latest journey.

"It's been some journey and the learnings we've had, the ups and downs, the boys have responded," O'Neill, a three-time All-Ireland winner as a player, told BBC Sport NI.

"It's great for the character they've had their knock-backs and learned from their defeats. All of that hard work has paid off as they got two massive results in the quarter-final and semi-final, then tonight they put on a really good performance."

While O'Neill is in his first year working with his native county's U20s, for team captain Conor Devlin, it is a third Ulster medal.

Devlin scored 1-2 in Wednesday's victory over the Farney men, saying "I don't think I've scored as much in a game in my life" but took greater satisfaction from Tyrone's collective effort.

Noting they made some "tweaks" to their game-plan after two defeats from three in the group phase, he was happy to see them pay off.

With Ulster now secured, Tyrone's sights will now turn to an All-Ireland semi-final on 13 May against either Kildare or Louth who are through to the Leinster final.

"We've ticked off eight games, so they are in the past and we'll move on to the Leinster champions," man of the match Devlin said.

"We played a few of them [Leinster counties] in challenge matches and they were brilliant sides, so it's not going to be easy."

Odhran Crumley
BBC Sport NI Journalist

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Donegal manager Jim McGuinness acknowledged "the road is hard now" after his side's shock 3-21 to 1-21 Ulster SFC quarter-final defeat by Down at O'Donnell Park.

The Tir Chonaill men came into the game as heavy favourites after claiming the Division One league title by hammering All-Ireland champions Kerry, while Down needed extra-time to eventually see off Wexford to take the Division Three crown.

"A difficult, difficult day at the office I suppose, but it's one we are going to have to take on the chin," McGuinness told BBC Sport NI.

"There was a lot written about Down during the week and a lot of things said in the media about them, which I would say was pure fuel for them in many respects. They came with a game-plan and they nailed it."

Depending on the draw, Donegal will now have to wait four or five weeks before their first All-Ireland opener, where they will have to travel away to one of the provincial finalists.

"The road is hard now, there's no doubt that the road is hard, we just have to get ready for that," McGuinness added.

"We now have four or five weeks to get ready for the All-Ireland series and we will.

"We weren't one percent off today and that's the problem, we had a lot of things that were off today, our normal levels weren't there for some reason, we had had injuries and all of that, but we'll have to take it on the chin."

The big news ahead of throw-in was that Donegal would be without the services of the influential Michael Langan, who was not togged out as part of the match-day panel, but was still sitting amongst the rest of the extended panel.

"Michael (Langan) rolled his ankle in training and he hopefully will be okay in the next week or so."

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Armagh started their Ulster Ladies Senior Football Championship campaign with a 0-10 to 1-4 win over Donegal at the Athletic Grounds.

In a repeat of last year's final, which Armagh comfortably won, the holders were pushed by a late Donegal fightback.

The Orchard County led by seven points at the break with a commanding 0-8 to 0-1 advantage.

Sisters Aimee and Blaitin Mackin scored either side of a Caroline O'Hanlon point, while Evelyn McGinley got Donegal on the board with what would be their only point of the half.

Susanne White and Ciara McGarvey hit the post for Donegal as two goal chances went abegging, before Armagh raced clear as Blaithin Mackin bookended scores from Aoife McCoy and Catherine Marley.

Aimee Mackin extended Armagh's lead after the restart, but Donegal hit back through Eva Gallagher's point.

The hosts were dominant in possession and Niamh Reel landed a point after White had pulled another back for Donegal.

Armagh maintained their seven point lead but there was late pressure as Mia Bennett's point and Mia Rodgers' goal set up a one-score finale, but Donegal could not build on that momentum and the holders held on to win their opening game.

John McGovern
BBC Sport NI Contributor at Brewster Park

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Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney admitted his side had endured a "tough week" but praised their response as they powered past Fermanagh to reach the Ulster Championship semi-finals.

The Orchardmen were without a number of key players due to injury, including midfielders Ben Crealey and Callum O'Neill, but still produced a dominant display at Brewster Park, scoring 2-32 in a comprehensive victory.

McGeeney said the circumstances made the performance all the more satisfying.

"We had a tough week with injuries and lost a fair chunk of players," McGeeney said after.

"But the boys came out and performed. We went to sleep a bit in the second half and had to protect some players too, but they stuck to their task, and we got the victory."

Despite Armagh's control, McGeeney acknowledged there were aspects of the performance that will need improvement, particularly after a dip following the break.

"We stepped off, and we were very slack. We were scoring points and they were scoring two-pointers.

"We weren't as dominant around the middle as we normally are, but the injuries were a big part of that. But if somebody told me before we were going to win by 11 points and score 38 points, I would have said thank you very much."

The Orchard boss also welcomed the return and impact of several players, including Andrew Murnin, who made his first appearance since the National League clash with Roscommon.

"It was good to get a few boys back out there and get minutes into them, with Andrew, Barry [McCambridge] and Ciaran Mackin back on the pitch," he added.

"Overall, there are some things to work on, but some great things as well."

Looking ahead to the semi-final, McGeeney expects another stern test regardless of the opposition, particularly given Armagh's current injury situation.

"It's going to be tough no matter who we face," he said.

"We've had a big turnover of players; it's not ideal. But it was good to get a few boys back today, so it can't all be bad."