ARMAGH have had a roller-coaster of a season so far, but the journey has mostly been ups, with the occasional setback.
Before the Championship, Armagh were hurting after losing to Ulster rivals Donegal in the Division Two league final by one point after a stellar League campaign in which they went unbeaten.
Despite this loss, the Orchard regained their place in Division One for next season.
Follow live updates of the All-Ireland final here.
Ulster Senior Football Championship quarter-final: Fermanagh 0-9 Armagh 3-11, Brewster Park
SOME would have forgiven Armagh for taking it slow and steady whilst trying to recover from a gruelling League campaign that had ended on a sour note two weeks previous.
It all started with a trip to Brewster Park in Enniskillen, and the Orchardmen comprehensively beat Fermanagh.
The team started their Championship campaign in style as goals from Stefan Campbell, Conor Turbitt and Jarly Óg Burns set them on a good trajectory.
The Ernemen provided little to no challenge from the start, only registering their first score after 22 minutes.
Ultan Kelm’s black card was a turning point in the game as during his 10 minutes spent watching from the sidelines, Turbitt and Burns found the net to make the second half a mere formality
Ulster Senior Football Championship semi-final: Armagh 0-13 Down 2-6, St Tiernach’s Park, Clones
AFTER their quarter-final win, Kieran McGeeney’s men faced the first real test of their Ulster campaign in Clones when they played big rivals Down in the semi-final.
A sunny evening in Monaghan was the perfect backdrop for a cagey battle, with Down almost overcoming a 10-point swing from the meeting between the sides at the same venue and at the same stage 12 months earlier.
The Mournemen proved a tough egg to crack. Conor Laverty’s side, who went on to win the Tailteann Cup, gave a good account of themselves and the Orchard side were forced to show the strength of their bench for the first time in the summer.
A game that ended with such drama began with Down setting out their stall to frustrate the favourites. Two goals, both with a touch of good fortune, kept Down in the game throughout and they still held a slender lead in a low-scoring game as the clock ticked towards the 70-minute.
However, Armagh’s bench, which was to prove its worth later on in the summer, came to the rescue as first Aidan Nugent levelled, and then Jason Duffy popped up with an injury-time winner to break Down hearts.
Ulster Senior Football Championship final: Donegal 0-20 Armagh 0-20 (after extra-time; Donegal won 6-5 on penalties), St Tiernach’s Park, Clones
HOPES were high that this was the day when Kieran McGeeney would finally land some silverware to silence the critics.
The Division Two final between the two six weeks earlier had been a nail-biter, with Donegal claiming the spoils thanks to an injury-time point from Aaron Doherty.
This one was even closer as the sides shared 40 points over the 80-plus minutes. Some of the score-taking from distance in the first half was simply breathtaking, notably from Conor Turbitt and Ben Crealey in orange and Oisin Gallen for the Tír Chonaill.
Armagh dominated the third quarter and going into the last 10 minutes were in pole position with a four-point lead.
Donegal had endured a barren spell of 20 minutes without a score but as Armagh tried to see the game out, Jim McGuinness’s side threw caution to the wind and chipped away at the lead with points from Michael Langan and Jason McGee reducing the gap to one going into injury-time. Patrick McBrearty then popped up with the equaliser to send it to extra-time.
Even 20 more minutes with tiring limbs failed to seperate them and so it was to penalties Armagh went for the fourth time in a Championship knock-out game in two seasons.
Unfortunately for them, the script didn’t change from the previous three and Shaun Patton proved the Donegal hero, with Shane McPartlan suffering where many of his team-mates had in those previous shoot-outs.
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship round-robin series: Armagh 0-16 Westmeath 0-11, BOX-IT Atheltic Grounds
In front of nearly 6,000 fans at the Athletic Grounds, Armagh dispelled any worries about their confidence levels with a convincing win against Westmeath.
Visiting manager Dessie Dolan admitted in the build-up that he saw Armagh as a wounded animal after their Ulster final heartache. That turned out to be far from the truth.
Despite a cautious first half, after which the home side led by just a point, Armagh put in a resurgent performance, killing the game in the third quarter.
“If we had executed a bit better we could have put them under a bit more pressure, but they showed what a good team they are,” said Dolan afterwards.
Armagh stepped on the gas to turn that one-point interval lead into a five-point win, with two late frees flattering the visitors further.
“The boys worked really hard, they put in a good shift and probably should have been further ahead,” said Kieran McGeeney.
“I was happy with it but we could have done with a wee bit better shot selection in the second half and it wouldn’t have been as close at the end.It wasn’t all good news for Armagh though, as they lost Conor O’Neill, who had to be stretchered off with a ruptured Achilles.
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship round-robin series: Derry 0-15 Armagh 3-17, Celtic Park
If anybody was doubting Armagh’s strength and All-Ireland credentials, they were very much convinced after this devastating victory over Derry in Celtic Park.
The Oak Leafers had been looking like a shell of the side that won Ulster and got to an All-Ireland semi-final in 2023 and then won the Division One League title at the end of March, and Armagh’s 11-point victory was clinical and a sign of things to come.
Conor Turbitt, continued his stellar season, scoring 1-4, as the Orchard recorded a 70 per cent efficiency rate.
Midfield was another crucial area as the combination of Niall Grimley and Ben Crealey, with the help of Rían O’Neill, stifled Derry’s kick-out.
It was a positive sight to see Grimley back in county colours again, with the Madden man starting his first game in two years.
Cahair O’Kane said it best on these pages: “They (Armagh) were ruthless, they were energetic, they were individually dominant. Armagh could not have done any more right.
“But Derry were just so, so bad that you cannot even give Kieran McGeeney’s side the level of credit they might expect.”
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship round-robin series: Armagh 1-12 Galway 0-15, Markievicz Park
WHEN this game came around, few thought that it would be a dress rehearsal for the All-Ireland final.
Galway needed to win to top the group, while a draw was good enough for Armagh to progress straight to the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
The latter scenario looked highly unlikely when they trailed by five points with 57 minutes gone. However, just past the hour mark, they were level.
Tiernan Kelly, the villain of the piece two years ago after his gouging of Damien Comer in a fracas between the sides during the All-Ireland quarter-final, made amends and also emphasised his side’s squad strength by smashing to the net after Conor Turbitt had intercepted a misdirected kick-out from Conor Gleeson.
Turbitt then kicked an equaliser but the drama continued deep into injury-time as the Tribesmen regained the lead through Shane Walsh.
But Stefan Campbell stepped up in the last play of the game, racing through to fist over the score that levelled it and gave McGeeney’s side a precious week off.
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship quarter-final: Armagh 2-12 Roscommon 0-12, Croke Park
ARMAGH, having finished top of their group, advanced to the All-Ireland quarter-final, where they met Roscommon at Croke Park, who presented a tough challenge for the Orangemen.
Clann Eireann duo Conor Turbitt and Barry McCambridge had green flags raised and those goals were the ultimate difference between the sides.
The Orchard county progressed to their first All-Ireland semi-final for 19 years with a scrappy, but deserved, victory as Roscommon failed to take their chances.
The Rossies enjoyed plenty of possession in the first half but lacked the pace and movement to trouble Armagh.
When they did create scoring chances, they were unable to take them and sent four shots wide and dropped another four short before half-time.
Armagh were at their best when they turned the ball over and broke from the back.
PICTURE COLM LENAGHAN
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final: Armagh 1-18 Kerry 1-16, Croke Park
THERE was a sense of quiet confidence from Orchard fans going into this semi-final against Kerry.
These sides have played historic battles before, with Armagh’s only All-Ireland win so far coming at the expense of the Kingdom in 2002.
The spirit of ‘02 lives on through their current manager, and captain that day, Kieran McGeeney
For a long time, Kerry seemed to have Armagh’s number, leading by four points at half-time and in control. However, uncharacteristic slips and mis-hits would prove to be their downfall.
Barry McCambridge’s sweeping punch of Kerry keeper Shane Ryan’s dropped ball galvanized Armagh and, backed by a feverish support, they began to play with much more purpose.
Rían O’Neill’s monster score put them ahead for the first time with just four minutes remaining, but a last-gasp Dylan Geaney point took the game to extra-time.
The spectre of another shoot-out hung over Armagh, but points from subs Jarly Óg Burns and Ross McQuillan gave them a lead in extra-time which they were never to relinquish.
Conor Turbitt raced clear on the counter-attack to put them two points ahead and although Kerry threw everything they had to try and get the goal they needed, talisman Rian O’Neill popped up on his own goal-line to field a high ball and see Armagh over the line.