Armagh, remember them? They had a decent season last year, lifted the big one. The 2024 All-Ireland champions. Armagh. Remember?
The dearth of any real focus on Armagh in much of the pre-championship chatter was one of the curiosities of the build-up over recent weeks. It’s not that nobody is talking about Armagh, it’s more that nobody seems to be talking about Armagh with the same assured conviction on display when they reference Donegal or Kerry or Galway.
And you can be sure it has not gone unnoticed in the dressingroom of the All-Ireland champions.
Armagh begin their Ulster campaign at the very un-championship time of 12.30pm on Saturday. The unusually early start is to facilitate Armagh fans who wish to take in the women’s league final at Croke Park later in the day, but the 12.30pm throw-in at Corrigan Park is very much in keeping with a theme that Kieran McGeeney’s side have being largely out of sight and out of mind so far in 2025.
It’s something I expect McGeeney is happy enough with, though, because what Armagh are trying to achieve this season is something no team from the county has ever managed before – retaining the Sam Maguire. Winning back-to-back All-Irelands is difficult. For that second season you are the team everybody wants to beat, they raise their game a couple of per cent, they want to take the scalp of the champs.
My first year on the Dublin senior football panel was 2012. I featured during the league the season after what had been a breakthrough All-Ireland win for the county. I didn’t make the championship panel that summer but it was evident that season the challenge for the group was to try to win back-to-back for the first time since the 1970s. It didn’t happen.
I got called back in for 2013 and thankfully we went all the way that season, winning the All-Ireland. So in 2014 the task was set once more to try keep Sam in the capital. Again we fell short.
We had been playing good football that year and we were in a good head space, but we got caught by Donegal at the semi-final stages – they were better than us on the day and outfoxed us tactically. They went off to the All-Ireland final, we went back to the drawing board.
We won Sam in 2015. Then, finally, in 2016, and at the third time of asking, we managed to retain the All-Ireland. After that we went on a run to win six on the bounce but getting over the hurdle to achieve the fabled back-to-back had been the mountain we had to summit before scaling further heights.
I even remember Dessie Farrell referencing back-to-back after he managed us to the All-Ireland title in 2020. That had confirmed our six in-a-row but it was his first as manager and so 2021 would have been his first back-to-back. But we came up short the following year. It’s tough.
Prior to our success in 2015-16 the most recent back-to-back champions had been Kerry in 2006-07. Before that again was 1989-90 when Cork managed the feat So, what Armagh are hoping to achieve is outstandingly difficult.
But they have unique and invaluable experience to draw upon from their back room team. Kieran Donaghy was a key player on Kerry’s back-to-back teams in 2006-07, while McGeeney was there for the post-2002 years with Armagh.
That 2002 Armagh team of McGeeney, Oisín McConville, Steven McDonnell, Ronan Clarke and Paul McGrane would probably feel they could have, should have, finished their careers with more than one All-Ireland medal.
To win any All-Ireland is a fantastic achievement but given the players they had I’d imagine they might look back with some regret they didn’t take away another one or two.
I have no doubt McGeeney will implore his players not to end their careers with such regrets. For every team your window of success is small so you must make the most of it while that gap remains open.
Despite never winning a second All-Ireland, though, history will forever recall that 2002 Armagh team as the county’s maiden Sam Maguire winners. Their place in the annals is secure.
For the current crop back-to-back All-Ireland titles could be their legacy. It is something the county has never done. When you play intercounty football you are trying to create a little bit of history, so it is certainly something that will be motivating the Armagh players – though they might not necessarily admit it in public.
We were particularly motivated to go win a five in-a-row and a six in-a-row because they had never been done before. It’s no different for Armagh – I’m sure they would love to become the first team from their county to go back-to-back.
The long gap between the end of last year’s championship in July and the start of this one might actually help their chances of doing so. When All-Ireland finals were played at the end of September the celebrations could spill on and the cup would still be turning up at events and functions the following January or February. Armagh might have got all that out of the way before the turn of the year.
There were some issues during their team holiday to America but for now none of that seems to have disrupted the camp and largely they spent the spring tipping away under the radar. Their league report card finished up with three wins, three defeats, one draw. Lifting no trees, breaking no bones.
The loss of Rian O’Neill is significant though – he is one of those rare X-factor players and with the new rules in mind you’d imagine he would excel in this game.
However, Armagh are certainly no one-man team and they have some really accurate forwards in Conor Turbitt, Rory Grugan and Oisín Conaty. They also have some really good defenders who are well able to match up and go man-to-man.
And when you consider the proliferation of long kickouts now because of the new rules, the Orchard County have plenty of options around the middle third – strong ball winners like Niall Grimley, Ben Crealey, Oisín O’Neill and Ross McQuillan.
I’d imagine you will see Armagh really pressing the opposition keepers and forcing them to go long because they will back themselves to win possession in an aerial battle out around the middle.
Before the Ulster SFC got under way last weekend there was plenty of talk about Donegal and what Jim McGuinness might bring to the table this summer, and since their victory over Derry the positive talk around them has only increased.
The bookies have Kerry, Donegal, Dublin, Galway and in some cases even Tyrone ahead of Armagh in the race for Sam Maguire. Those external things don’t matter, until you want them to matter. “They don’t rate us, they’re dismissing us already, they aren’t giving us the credit our All-Ireland success merits.” You can spin it around and use it to your advantage.
Whether any of it is true or not is often incidental, still it is noticeable how little has been said or written about the reigning All-Ireland champions recently.
The backdrop to their championship opener had threatened to get very messy there for a few weeks but thankfully common sense prevailed and the Ulster quarter-final was fixed for Corrigan Park.
Antrim rolled the dice by declaring they would only play the game at the Belfast venue – if the Ulster Council fixed it for elsewhere Andy McEntee’s men were adamant they would not be turning up.
The Ulster Council blinked first and so Antrim will hope to harness that siege mentality when Armagh arrive to Corrigan on Saturday. However, we have already seen the difference in standard between teams in Division 1 and those lower down the tiers.
Ultimately Armagh will have too much class and firepower for Antrim. McGeeney’s men will move onwards to an Ulster semi-final against either Tyrone or Cavan.
We should all really start paying more attention to them again then. Because Armagh will have plenty of a say in this year’s championship.
