Just when Ethan Rafferty reckoned his luck had turned and his goalkeeping position was once again pivotal in the Armagh football team, Jim Gavin went and ruined it all. Such was Rafferty’s personal frustration he briefly considered walking away, or at least concentrating more on his road bowling.
His stance was understandable. After spending much of last season recovering from a broken leg sustained in a club game 2023 – Rafferty was arguably the best goalkeeper in the country that season – Blaine Hughes nailed down the number one jersey, retaining it through to Armagh’s All-Ireland win over Galway last July.
Come the start of this year’s league, with included Gavin’s new playing rules drawn up along with the Football Review Committee (FRC), Rafferty was back between the Armagh posts, his roaming style of play especially suited to the 12-on-11 scenario, where the goalkeeper could become an additional attacking player for the team with the ball.
Then in March, ahead of the sixth and penultimate round of the league, the FRC adjusted the rule so that four players from each team must always remain in their own half; the goalkeeper could move out past the halfway line, provided there were still four of his team-mates behind him.
Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney didn’t take any chances: Rafferty had started the first five league games, but was replaced by Hughes before their meeting with Kerry in Tralee, and it’s likely Hughes will also start for Armagh this Saturday when they open their Ulster football championship against Antrim at Corrigan Park.
“I can understand why they’d get rid of the plus-one,” Rafferty says. “It’s obviously a numbers thing, is going to create that overlap. But it’s obviously annoying for me, personally ... the way the game is now, it’s quite hard for a lot of guys, yo-yoing up and down the field, so there was room to use it, trying to find some creativeness.
“It was so frustrating, as a player, I was nearly thinking of packing this in, going back playing with my club and enjoying it a bit more. But like any bad news that’s annoying, you have to step back and think about it logically.
“I think if I was needed out the field more, I’m sure we’ll have that chat, but I think we’re going okay at the minute. You can still use the goalkeeper in some sense, it’s just annoying in the participation side, but I don’t think I was really going to go through with it ... walk away.
“And it’s exciting, we’ve three great [goalkeeping] options there, Shea Magill is in as well. If you’re sitting there thinking ‘I’ve got this jersey for the rest of the summer’, you won’t be long dropping standards.”
At 31, Rafferty may well feel he doesn’t have too many seasons ahead of him anyway. The immediate focus for now is the Ulster title, which Armagh haven’t won since 2008, losing the last two finals – to Donegal and Derry – on penalties. It’s also one thing he doesn’t have on his father Peter, man of the match for Armagh in their 1982 Ulster final win.
“We were quite spoiled as children, [we] were in Clones nearly every summer it felt like. We’d love to win one, and obviously had the heartbreak in the last two of them, but that’s very quickly forgotten after the final whistle. So if you’re to go on to win Sam Maguire I don’t think you’d be too annoyed.”
They say defending an All-Ireland is often harder than winning it in the first place, but Rafferty says belief is strong among his team-mates.
“Outside of Kerry and Dublin, not many teams have done it. It’s just the way things are, but we’ve quite a good squad there, with our own objectives, and it’s best not to listen to anything outside.
“We’re under no illusions it’s a hard task, it’s never the same path, but we have the belief in each in other to push forward, and try get back there.”
Rafferty still enjoys playing road bowls on the side (winning an All-Ireland intermediate title a few days after beating Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final last July), and starting or otherwise, his only focus for now is Antrim on Saturday (12.30 throw-in).
The match will take place at Corrigan Park after the Ulster Council initially moved the game from the Belfast venue (which has a capacity of just 4,000) before reverting back.
“I’ve never actually played in Corrigan Park,” says Rafferty. “It was only mentioned in the sense we were asked what our opinion was of it, and we always said it should be played at Corrigan Park. If you get your draw at home, you get your draw at home. We’re only focusing on the Antrim football team, rather than where the game is going to be played.”
