ARMAGH grabbed the headlines by winning the All-Ireland football final – but were pushed to the pin of their collars by a seagull.
The rogue bird went viral on social media after remaining on the pitch for nearly 25 minutes at Croke Park while the action took place around it.
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It was a cameo that inspired a lot of reaction on social media, and led to RTE referencing it in a wonderfully subtle way on The Sunday Game.
As the panellists reviewed the game, a CGI seagull could be seen in the corner of the frame in an instance of exquisite framing.
Many viewers spotted the nice little detail while watching, and praised the subtlety of it.
Michael McCarthy posted: “The Sunday Game graphics team wins the night. Outstanding.”
Petula Martyn tweeted: “The seagull makes an appearance on @TheSundayGame. Someone had fun in the Graphics Department.”
Sean Carey said: “Okay nicely done Sunday Game” while another said: “The seagull has found its way to the RTE Sunday Game studio to help analyse Galway and Armagh in the All Ireland final.”
Someone else said: “Brilliant from the Sunday Game” while a shocked Bernard posted: “Is that the f***ing seagull on the studio imagery on the Sunday Game?”
LONG WAIT OVER
Armagh’s winning of Sam Maguire was their first since 2002, when manager Kieran McGeeney captained the Orchard to All-Ireland glory.
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Twenty-two years on, he joined a distinguished class of GAA legends who have skippered and managed their county to the holy grail.
Their 1-11 to 0-13 win over Galway was also redemption after a tumultuous road that saw them lose back-to-back Ulster finals.
They also came up short in consecutive All-Ireland quarter-finals, both of which after penalty shoot-outs.
An overjoyed McGeeney referenced those setbacks after their triumph on Sunday, and said those heartbreaks fuelled their ultimate glory.
Geezer said: “Sometimes your strongest steel is forged in fire.
“There’s no doubt about that.
“It affects you in a way that’s very hard to articulate to people — that when your personality is entwined in a victory or defeat and the impact that can have on you and what it can do.
“In those moments that we lost on penalties and those moments where we sat in there with our heads in our hands, did that have an impact on the last five minutes? Definitely.
“When they refused to be beaten, even though we were trying our best to beat ourselves in that five or six minutes, there were fellas like Ben Crealey, everybody, throwing their bodies on the line.
“Hopefully, as it did with us back in the day, it can change and you can have a bit of a bounce off that.
“I hope this county does. But they’ll have a week to celebrate first.”