1. Huge opportunity for both
Armagh and Galway have both been waiting over two decades for All-Ireland senior football success.
It’s been 23 years since Pádraic Joyce inspired Galway to glory in 2001. Kieran McGeeney lifted the Sam Maguire Cup as Armagh captain the following year.
The Orchard returned to the final in 2003, but they haven’t featured on football’s biggest day since. They have the opportunity to bridge a 22-year gap and win their second-ever All-Ireland today.
Galway, meanwhile, contested the 2022 decider — Shane Walsh v David Clifford, who could forget? — but that was their sole appearance since ’01. They have won nine titles overall.
With big guns Dublin and Kerry gone, the sense of opportunity is bigger than ever. It’s the first final since 2010 not to feature one of the heavyweight duo or Mayo.
Galway sent holders Dublin crashing out in the quarter-finals, while Armagh stunned the Kingdom after extra-time in the last four. Both counties now look to finish the job.
2. Recent rivalry renewed
The 2024 All-Ireland finalists have shared a colourful rivalry in recent years.
They’ve locked horns in each of the last three championship campaigns, with little between the sides on each occasion.
A penalty shootout was required to decide the 2022 quarter-final, where Galway prevailed after a titanic battle. The sides were level at half-time, full-time and after extra-time — on seven occasions overall. Galway were six points — and one player — up heading into injury time of normal time, before two Armagh goals and a monstrous Rian O’Neill free eventually levelled matters. A brawl followed the full-time whistle, with further red cards dished out, and the game ultimately went the distance.
They were drawn into the same group both last year and this year, going head-to-head in the final game on each occasions. Armagh won by the minimum in 2023, while this season’s Markievicz Park meeting ended in a draw.
Crucially, Galway were forced down the preliminary quarter-final route both times as the Orchard county pipped them to top spot in the group.
Now, they renew their rivalry with the game’s biggest prize on offer.
3. PJ v Geezer
The sideline battle is box office. Pádraic Joyce versus Kieran McGeeney. PJ v Geezer.
Both former captains and All-Ireland winners, they’re now hoping to guide their counties to the Promised Land as managers. Whoever does so will join an illustrious list as an All-Ireland winning player and manager for their native county.
Joyce and McGeeney go way back. They regularly faced each other on the field of play, with McGeeney succeeding Joyce as Footballer of the Year in 2002, while they were International Rules team-mates and enjoyed each others’ company on All-Stars Tours.
Both have referenced an exchange after their group stage draw earlier in the championship. After watching his side let a five-point lead slip, Joyce sent his managerial counterpart a text message.
“After the game in Sligo he said he’d see us in the final,” McGeeney revealed in recent days.
“We’ll our win our games, you win yours and we’ll blow this championship open.
“I haven’t asked him yet who he said was going to win it!”
4. Potential match ups
Always a key talking point before a big game, match ups were a significant topic of conversation in Allianz promotion interviews with Kevin Walsh and Stevie McDonnell during the week.
Both reckon Aaron McKay will pick up Damien Comer, while Barry McCambridge will mark Shane Walsh after keeping David Clifford relatively quiet in the semi-final. Paddy Burns could be tasked with tailing Walsh either, McDonnell pointed out, but Robert Finnerty may demand Burns’ attention.
They both think Liam Silke will pick up Rian O’Neill, while Conor Turbitt and Rory Grugan will also need watching. Walsh expects Oisin Conaty and Dylan McHugh to operate in close proximity to one another.
Then there’s the in-form partnership of John Maher and Paul Conroy, and the prospect of Sean Kelly returning from injury. Meanwhile, Niall Grimely and Ben Crealy are Armagh’s men in the middle. And that’s without even mentioning the benches.
“There’s headaches and dilemmas for both sidelines, and we can say what we expect it to be, but you can be sure that there’ll be a spanner in the works there somewhere” said O’Donnell, who predicts “a more open game than a lot of people expect”.
“You’ll not win an All-Ireland final without scoring and both managers played football that way,” the 2002 champion added.
- Armagh v Galway, Croke Park, 3.30pm — RTÉ 2, BBC2 NI and GAAGO.
