"I've had many a slow dance in here," Ciaran McKeever says with a laugh as he takes his seat in front of the press in the Lacey’s suite of the Carrickdale Hotel for Armagh’s media briefing ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland final against Galway.
The Orchard County coach knows the room well, and its side bar Cagney’s (the owners obviously fans of police procedural dramas).
The famous former disco hall provided the backdrop for celebrating big wins and commiserating big losses.
It’s where McKeever, as captain, and the Armagh Under-21s headed to after winning the county’s first All-Ireland at that level in 2004 and it’s where they drowned the sorrows as senior campaigns came to an end in the years following.
If it was still going, the Cullyhanna players would have surely talked their coach into joining them after their All-Ireland Intermediate win over Cill Na Marta back in January.
But of all those nights in the vast room, nothing will hold a candle to this Sunday if they manage to take an extra guest up the road from Dublin for the post All-Ireland final banquet.
Like everything on the side’s journey, the finest of margins are going to make the biggest of impacts.
"You need luck, there’s no doubt about it; you need the rub of the green, the bounce of the ball," said the man those who have ever shared a dressing room with refer to as 'Brooky'.
"There are different aspects we have improved too. We would have been criticised a lot for not seeing out games, not being better on the ball. It was probably a case of we were always trying the right things but maybe not executing in those tight matches going down the stretch.
"Maybe we got lost with the emotions of the crowd and played with the crowd; don’t get me wrong the Armagh crowd is brilliant, it gives you energy, but at the same time you have to play with clear emotion and make clear, decisive decisions in those key moments.
"We did delve into that a lot over the last number of years. We tried to work on it and we tried to come up with different set scenarios. We have grasped that and we have got better at that.
"There are loads of different one percenters that we have looked at over the last few years to try and add to our game. It’s probably no coincidence we find ourselves where we are."
A teak-tough enforcer on the pitch, McKeever came into the Armagh panel in 2003 as new blood tasked with helping Joe Kernan’s side repeat their heroics of the previous season. By 2005 he had already broken into the starting line-up but Tyrone and Kerry ended his Sam Maguire hopes in the short term before the following campaigns brought the breakup of that great side.
As the years rolled by, the quality of the side diminished and there were few bright sparks bar a brave run to the All-Ireland quarter-final in 2014 when they came within a point of a Donegal side at the top of their game.
That loss brought with it a raft of departures and when the sides met in the Ulster opener the following season, only eight starters from the quarter-final were again in the first 15.
Armagh fans travelled in huge numbers and colour for the early afternoon throw-in at the Athletic Grounds, expectations high from the previous season, but it took just 35 minutes for Donegal to remind them of their place in the pecking order as they led 1-09 to 0-02 at the break.
"After the 2014 All-Ireland quarter-final when we lost to Donegal by a point, you would have liked things to go in an upward trajectory after that but it didn’t happen," McKeever continued.
"People from the outside wouldn’t realise, we had nine, 10, 11 retirements – boys who were able to still offer something even if it was just staying around the squad helping younger players or being impactful off the bench.
"People left for various reasons, they were getting married, had young families and maybe they felt that was there last shot at winning an All-Ireland or getting to the late stages of an All-Ireland.
"Then 2015 until I retired in 2017, it was difficult, there’s no question about it. We weren’t getting the buy-in, players were committing then dropping out after six months. We just weren’t at the standard that the other top teams were at.
"I remember going in to play Donegal in 2015 at the Athletic Grounds and people were talking about us maybe going and winning Ulster and potentially being All-Ireland contenders, their heads were cut – we couldn’t get out of Division 3 and that was the level we were at.
"We knew it was going to take time. I had several conversations with 'Geezer', I was done, finished, I felt I couldn’t play at that level anymore truth be told, but he got me to stay on till 2017 just to be about the squad.
"I retired in 2017 and I was sent down to the Armagh minor squad and I was given conditions to look for, what he wanted from that 2019, 2020 minor team. What he was looking for in terms of different aspects of how to build a squad to take us to where we are now.
"That’s the way he was thinking and we got that. From that team we have Peter McGrane, Oisin Conaty and another four or five players who are in the matchday squad.
"That was 'Geezer’ thinking of those missing links and what we had to develop at academy level for that three, four-year project to leave them in a good stead to compete at senior level when they come in."
McKeever has always been an acolyte of McGeeney, the sort of player he modelled his game on and the sort of coach he has tried to emulate when involved with the likes of the Armagh minors, Cullyhanna and Down club Mayobridge.
He knows the sacrifices that the manager has put in to get the team to where they are; he’s heard the criticism – often verging into abuse – that has been thrown at McGeeney’s feet as recently as the start of this season.
"It’s insane," he said of the manager’s impact on Armagh football.
"Look, people fire a lot of stick at him but that’s part and parcel of being at that level. We always say when you put yourself above the parapet you’re there to be criticised.
"The amount of hours he puts in, the detail he goes into. In 2017, that’s one example, he knew he was missing links and we were sent to look for them at academy level, Peter McGrane and Oisin Conaty are part of that and are consistent starters now at 21, 22 years of age.
"He’s always thinking outside of the box. Even when we lost those penalty shoot-outs, you’re coming home on the bus and you’re dejected. He’s on that bus onto us, looking for the one percent, there’s a reason we didn’t win today and we need to find it.
"That’s just the way the man is, that’s the way he played and that’s the way he manages. That’s the culture he has embedded in this group of players in Rory (Grugan) and Aidan (Forker) and ‘Soupy’ (Stefan Campbell) and Andrew (Murnin) and Aidan Nugent and players like that."
Those one percenters all add up, and if Sam Maguire joins McKeever in the Carrickdale on Sunday, the maths has been right.
Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship final, Armagh v Galway, on Sunday from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
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