Kieran McGeeney (born 18 October 1971) is an IrishGaelic footballmanager and former player, who currently manages his native county team, Armagh, having previously managed the senior Kildare county team from 2007 until 2013.
McGeeney represented Ireland on a number of occasions against Australia, captaining his country in the 2006 International Rules Series. He led the Irish team who faced Australia in the first test at Pearse Stadium and in the second test at Croke Park. Since his debut in 1998, McGeeney made twelve appearances for his country.
He led the county to a Leinster final appearance in 2009. The team also reached the 2010 All-Ireland SFC semi-final in 2010, losing narrowly to Down. In 2013, McGeeney managed the Kildare under-21 team to the Leinster Under-21 Football Championship title.
He was axed after losing a ballot by county delegates by one vote, 29 to 28 in September 2013.[7][8]
In October 2013, McGeeney joined the management team of the Armagh senior football team under Paul Grimley.[9]
In November 2013, it was announced that McGeeney would be involved with the Tipperary hurling team for 2014 as a member of the back room team.[10]
McGeeney took over from Paul Grimley as manager of his native Armagh in 2015.
By 2023, he had become the longest serving inter-county manager after Colm Collins stepped down as Clare manager when his team exited the championship in June.[11]
In 2024, McGeeney managed Armagh to their second ever All-Ireland Championship victory making him both an All-Ireland winning captain and manager.
According to Peter Queally in November 2021: "Kieran McGeeney, this Armagh [Gaelic] footballer, was training there [at the Straight Blast Gym in Dublin] at the time and he was good at jiu jitsu. At the end of the night I was wrecked and ready to pack up and John [Kavanagh, Straight Blast Gym founder] said get back on the mat and points at McGeeney. I'll never forget that 10 minutes. It was the most horrific 10 minutes of my life. I cannot describe to you how bad it was. There's one thing I can vividly remember. Kieran was on top of me and I'm not messing, he started putting his hand underneath my rib cage and I am not messing, his hand was inside my body. He was pulling on my ribs. I thought I was going to break my ribs and I was going to tap, but I didn't. I couldn't bring myself to do it. I kind of knew what was going on, even though John didn't say anything, it felt like a big set-up". According to the BBC, "It was just that. Kavanagh had told Kieran McGeeney — a legend in the GAA world — to 'torture' Queally, to see if he was serious about becoming an MMA fighter".[16]
Honours
In May 2020, the Irish Independent named McGeeney as one of the "dozens of brilliant players" who narrowly missed selection for its "Top 20 footballers in Ireland over the past 50 years".[17]
