Kieran McGeeney is now the longest serving inter-county GAA manager and will lead his native Armagh into a tenth football championship next season.
But a few eyebrows were raised when the man whose side were only denied an Ulster title and an All-Ireland semi-final spot in penalty shootouts faced some opposition to staying on, before eventually winning an August ratification vote 46-16 (74%-26%).
All-Ireland winning captain 'Geezer' claimed six Ulster titles as a player but the Orchard men have won just one since he retired, and that was back in 2008.
Veteran Armagh defender James Morgan waited 11 years to get his first experience of a provincial decider last May and despite that defeat to Derry he is convinced McGeeney is the man to end their silverware drought.
"Geezer got the majority of votes from the clubs and he got all the backing from the players," Morgan told RTÉ Sport at the launch of this year’s AIB All-Ireland Club Championships.
"So there’s a want for McGeeney to manage Armagh and there’s a belief from the players, that he instilled in us, that we can achieve something.
"We’re on that journey, we started it with Geezer and we want to finish it.
"We’ve been nowhere near it at times as well so we know that what that’s like but I think it just goes to show how we’ve developed as a team under Geezer. The best thing he has done is bring the players closer together and instil that belief in us that we can maybe compete with some of the top opposition. Hopefully we’ll get an opportunity for that this season.
"An Ulster title would be fantastic. In 2012, I came onto that panel and I’ve played in one Ulster final so I’d love to get a bit of silverware."
The draw certainly appears to give Armagh a great chance of a second successive provincial showpiece, with a quarter-final against Fermanagh and the winners facing Down or Antrim in the last four.
What can they do differently to go one better next year?
"We need to practise penalties maybe!" Morgan jokes. "We lost our three last most important games through penalties, which shows that we’re not too far away.
"There are similar mistakes happening in the big moments. Whether it’s conceding frees or not taking a scoring opportunity, we’ll try to fine-tune some of those things that might get us over the line this coming year. That will start with Fermanagh now. That will be our big target to try and achieve something in Ulster, which we haven’t for many years."
Morgan is currently recovering from THREE concurrent injuries – plantar fasciitis (heel), a hip operation and reconstructive surgery on his right wrist.
That meant he watched Crossmaglen's Armagh SFC final triumph over Clan na Gael from the sidelines last weekend but the 31-year-old is determined to get back soon for both club and county.
"They’re all kind of running together, which is good in a way because I can get them all tidied up and rehabbed simultaneously," he said. "Some people are unfortunate that they come back from an injury and then sustain another one, at least I have all my injuries at the one time.
"It would be great if Cross were still playing football in January but if not I’ll hopefully be fit enough to get moving then in the National League. I want to play for Armagh and for Cross as long as I can."
It’s not Morgan’s first brush with injury and he says missing out on playing the big day gives him a deeper appreciation of the effort an entire club puts in to win a county crown.
"That’s the tenth title I have now [since 2010], three of the campaigns I wasn’t involved, I was injured. It is difficult watching them but one thing I understand now that I maybe didn’t when I was younger is that the players on the pitch are doing it for a lot more than themselves.
"Whether I’m in the dugout or the crowd, I still feel part of it because it’s your club or your community. You’re doing this for your friends, your family, for everyone and when you step away or you get injured for a while you can understand what they mean by that.
"I still really enjoyed being in the Athletic Grounds and watching the boys lift the cup. Jamie [Clarke, captain] spoke very passionately on Sunday night and it’s not quite playing but I really enjoyed the weekend’s success. I was in the dressing-rooms celebrating with them.
"I was captain a couple of years back when we lost and I went back to the hall and stood on the stage with the mic. The same crowd and the same people were there when Jamie did it. They’re with us whether we win or we lose.
"I suppose when you get to my age you’re starting to think of what you’re going to do outside football and you can’t always look back. Fortunately, I believe I will return to football so I’m looking at that thinking ‘Brilliant, the club is developing, look at the young players coming through’."
Clarke concentrated on Crossmaglen this year after making a handful of appearances with Irish League side Newry City late last year. He hasn’t played for Armagh since leaving the panel to go travelling in 2020 but Morgan thinks his free-spirited friend and team-mate, now 34, could still do a job for the county.
"You want to surround yourself with like-minded people and Jamie’s a competitor," said Morgan. "He’s ambitious and he wants to achieve things in football and outside of football. I kind of branched a few times career-wise outside of football and I would never begrudge doing a bit of travelling because I took a year and experienced that as well. I was glad to see Clarkey coming back into the squad, because I knew he was going to raise the standards.
"I think stepping away gave him the motivation to come back and tie in with the boys so we could win that county title. I’d say it was a proud moment for him and his family with the captaincy.
"I would take Jamie back [with Armagh]. He’s a competitor, he’s a quality footballer and he’s injury free. We’ll see what happens."
Morgan and co will be keen observers of this Sunday’s Tyrone final between reigning champions Errigal Ciarán and Trillick.
Crossmaglen will face the winners in an Ulster club quarter-final a fortnight later as they seek a first provincial crown since 2015, a relative famine for the club who won 11/11 finals in the proceeding 20 years to streak clear at the top of the roll of honour.
"It's fortunate that we have three weeks before the next game. A few lads might take a spin down and see what we’re going to be up against. Maybe the Tyrone lads could celebrate for a couple of days and hopefully that helps us.
"We had a very good campaign last year with Stephen [Kernan], we did a lot of things right, and I think we just need to tweak a few things and that will help us progress in Ulster."
