All-Ireland SFC: ‘It was a good warning for us’ – Turbitt

Conor Turbitt believes the opening round of the All-Ireland SFC provided a “good warning” for Armagh, after both provincial champions suffered defeat.

The Orchard County claimed their first Ulster title in 18 years a fortnight ago, and backed up that victory by opening their All-Ireland series account with a 1-18 to 1-13 win over Derry at the Athletic Grounds.

Last weekend’s first round clashes saw both provincial winners suffer defeats, Munster kingpins Kerry beaten by Donegal in Killarney and the following day Connacht winners Roscommon losing at home to Tyrone.

“It was a good warning for us. Those teams, they do have four weeks just to prepare for a team that’s coming through, so they maybe do have an advantage that way, but we sort of felt like we’d come out the right side,” Turbitt told BBC Sport NI.

“The provincial momentum sort of took us into this game and it was good that it carried through and we got the win.

Yeah, we’re happy. It’s always going to be a tough game though, but just to get into the next round with the rest of the winners from this round, it’s a good thing.”

After losing three provincial deciders in a row, no one would have begrudged the Orchard players a few days of celebrations after eventually getting over the line, but Turbitt insists focus quickly turned to the Oak Leafers.

“You just have to really reset and refocus and go again,” the Armagh forward said.

As we said, Derry were waiting in the wings for us and we knew that. It is a case of just resetting and thankfully we had that momentum that carried us into today. There’s things that happened out there today that we’re not really happy with and that we’ll need to clean up.”

The prize for winning the opening round of the new All-Ireland championship is having two bites of the cherry to reach Croke Park, and the last eight of the competition.

If Kieran McGeeney’s side can also win their Round 2A fixture in two weeks time, they’ll also secure a treasured break week ahead of the quarter-finals.

“You also have that carrot dangling that if you win your next game, that’s you straight through back to Croke Park into the last eight. That’s the goal now. It’s just to get to Croke Park the last eight.

“That’s what we’re going to be going for in the next two weeks.”