CYC ambassador and Armagh footballer Rian O'Neill at the CYC Launch 2024 at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
By Paul Keane
Staring down the barrel of a five-point deficit, and with just 15 or so minutes to go against Galway last Sunday, you might imagine that Armagh were a little concerned.
It was a sticky spot, no doubt, but if any team has displayed an ability to extricate themselves from such situations it's the Orchard County and, sure enough, they found a way again.
Stefan Campbell's late, late fisted point eventually tied up that game and the draw locked down top spot in Group 1 for Armagh, securing automatic qualification for the All-Ireland quarter-finals in under a fortnight.
Galway, meanwhile, became just the latest team to fail to get the better of Kieran McGeeney's men over 70 minutes.
Remarkably, just one county, Tyrone last year, has managed to beat Armagh over the regulation 70 minutes in their last 17 Championship games, a terrific record that stretches right back to an Ulster SFC opening round loss to Donegal in early 2022.
That's not an attempt to whitewash Armagh's four defeats on penalty shoot-outs - two of those came in Ulster finals - from the record. But it does clearly underline that it is going to take something special this summer to get the better of the third favourites for Sam.
Speaking at the launch of the GAA's Continental Youth Championships, which will be played in Boston in late July, versatile attacker Rian O'Neill said it is a record of stubbornness that he is proud of.
"You sort of think back on that and then it comes into your head that you actually haven't been put away in normal time or extra-time even," said O'Neill, who reflected on their latest show of defiance against Galway at neutral Markievicz Park.
"To finish it out the way we did, considering they went a point up towards the end, and to work that last score, when maybe we haven't in the past, it was a nice way to finish it out to get the draw and top the group.
"We have an awful lot of experience in the team and we have been there and topped the group last year, been in the last two quarter-finals and in the last two Ulster finals, so we definitely have that experience.
"In those last few minutes of games it's all about getting the shot off, getting the ball to the shooters and we worked it lovely down the wing and were able to get the ball over the bar."
Rian O’Neill of Armagh is tackled by John Maher of Galway during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 3 match between Armagh and Galway at Markievicz Park in Sligo. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.
To finally get their hands on the Sam Maguire Cup will require Armagh to set another record straight. They haven't won an All-Ireland quarter-final since 2005, losing six in the meantime.
Not that it has left O'Neill and his colleagues with any sort of hang ups about games at this stage.
"I don't know if it leaves a residue as such," he said. "I think there's a bit of hurt there surely, but you've just got to park that and move on. That's in the past, you can't change that now. I think everyone in the panel, everyone in the squad, the management included, has parked those defeats.
"We don't talk about them so much. Obviously there's things you have to talk about around the end of those games, seeing them out and what not, and we take the learnings from them, but that's it really. We'll just be going out the next day and it's just another game and another step hopefully towards a semi-final."
In his 10th season in charge, nobody has put more into delivering another All-Ireland success for the county than boss McGeeney. Asked if he believes Armagh can get over the line at some stage under the former captain, O'Neill nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah, absolutely," he said. "We've complete faith in the manager. He has a great backroom around him and he instils that belief in us that we're there and we're as good as what's around and we firmly believe that.
"At the end of the day, we have to show up in these big games and give a good account of ourselves and hopefully that's enough but if you're asking me if we believe, absolutely, 100 percent."
Armagh trailed Galway by two points at half-time last weekend and it came as no surprise that the players were held in the dressing-room for longer than normal.
"There actually wasn't that much said at half-time, it was more a case that we didn't play up to scratch and they were addressing a few things," revealed Crossmaglen man O'Neill.
"I think we ran over the time a bit but it wasn't an intentional thing at all, we just ran out of time. Look, we knew ourselves we hadn't played well, we didn't need anyone to tell us. We just needed a bit of a gee up and thankfully it worked out."
