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Glory for Armagh as they pip Galway in tense final

Updated / Thursday, 1 Aug 2024 18:48

Armagh, for so long maligned as nearly men, are kings of Ireland after pipping Galway in a tense and suffocating decider to win their second ever All-Ireland title.

As in 2002, it was a solitary second half goal that proved decisive.

Trailing 0-10 to 0-09 on 46 minutes, having never led up until that point, veteran super-sub Stefan 'Soupy' Campbell made an incision deep into Galway territory.

It will be debated whether he was attempting to fist the point but, either way, his ball across goal was perfectly flighted for the arriving full-back Aaron McKay, who palmed into the roof of the net from close range.

It was only the second goal that Galway had conceded in 10 championship games - both coming against Armagh.

The palmed goal was a seismic moment in the context of a cagey, tit-for-tat game, which was more or less in keeping with the spirit of the 2024 championship.

While Galway did reply instantly, the doggedly impressive Céin D’Arcy, a late inclusion instead of Sean Kelly, instantly narrowing the gap to one, Armagh now seized the momentum.

After Shane Walsh dropped a free short into Blaine Hughes' arms - alas, not for the final time in the game - Armagh attacked up the right flank, Oisín Conaty picking out the advanced Niall Grimley with a rare long ball.

Grimley rode a challenge from the arriving Sean Fitzgerald, was awarded the advantage, and curled over a rallying score, the ball clipping off the far post and over.

Moments later, the Armagh bench showed its worth again, Oisín O'Neill hoisting over a majestic score on 66 minutes to push Kieran McGeeney's side three points clear. It was the most any side had led in the game.

Galway, so assured in tight finishes in 2024, began snatching at shots, with Cillian McDaid and Dylan McHugh lashing poor wides as the clock ran down, while Walsh's radar continued to be askew. With Rob Finnerty injured inside the opening 10 minutes, Damien Comer again struggled to influence the game, failing to score for the third game running.

In an echo of the Ulster final, Armagh sat deeper and deeper in their defensive shell as they sought to manage the game to a finish.

Galway, after a few costly misses, finally worked a score with two minutes left in normal time, D'Arcy burrowing through a gap in the defensive wall to force a point inside the far post.

From the next play, Galway won possession and worked a rare swift point, McDaid shrugging off an earlier miss to hoist a point from the right hand side as the clock ticked past 69 minutes.

With six nerve-jangling minutes of injury-time to play out, the two teams stood facing each other in quasi-stalemate - Armagh now crouched deep in their defensive shell; Galway nursing possession nervously, wary of another loose shot or a run down a blind alley.

Eventually, four minutes into the allotted six, McHugh, Footballer of the Year-elect prior to this afternoon, was found in sufficient space inside the '45 that refusing to shoot would have constituted a dereliction of duty.

The Corofin wing-back opted for a swerved shot off his right peg, the ball hanging in and swirling in the air for an eternity before clipping the near post and away wide.

In the stands, the Armagh fans raised another deafening triumphant roar, the Galway supporters slumped back in their seats, all hope rapidly receding.

On the sideline - or rather a few metres inside of it - the two Kierans, McGeeney and Donaghy, were gesturing frantically.

The game appeared done and dusted after McDaid was horsed out of possession on the 75th minute, Armagh tearing up the left flank in search of an insurance score, but the ball coming back off the inside of the post.

With the Armagh crowd whistling shrilly for full-time, Galway mounted one last desperate attempt to force extra periods. The willing D'Arcy broke past a tackle into midfield and made a sole charge as far as the 30 metre line. He doubled back and managed to squirt the ball back to the arriving Paul Conroy.

The veteran midfielder, one of the few Galway attackers whose shooting had been on-point, tried to side-foot an equaliser while slightly off-balance but his effort was blocked by a diving Joe McElroy.

The westerners' chances were all used up by now and Armagh came away with the ball, constantly throwing glances at Sean Hurson while baying for the final whistle, which finally arrived with Jarly Óg Burns, son of a jubilant GAA President holding the ball in his clutches.

Jarly Óg Burns celebrates with his father, GAA President Jarlath Burns, on the steps of the Hogan Stand

The hotly-anticipated final, the first Ulster-Connacht decider since 2021 and only the ninth in the history of the association, had produced a cagey opening '35, in line with most pre-match predictions.

Matthew Tierney, as per usual, won the throw-in, after which Armagh funnelled back into a defensive formation, asking Galway to pick through them.

The Connacht champions slotted into the usual measured, methodical that has characterised so much of their attacking play in 2024.

While they had frequently found gaps close to goal in the third round group game in Markievicz Park, they found the going harder on Sunday.

The crowd, in a frenzy before the start, settled into the usual lull which ended when Paul Conroy hoisted a low-percentage shot towards goal, which hung in the air for an age before dropping just over the bar. It was the midfielder's first score in an All-Ireland final in 17 years of trying, having failed to score in the 2022 decider.

Armagh's follow-up score was a much snappier affair. Oisín Conaty being found in plenty of space on the right wing, he cut inside a tackle. There was the merest hint of a goal but he opted to fist the point.

Galway's second resembled their first, Liam Silke, scorer of two crucial points late in the semi-final, cutting in from the right flank to curl a shot inside the near post.

Finnerty curled over a free nudge Galway two clear, their biggest lead of the first half but shortly afterwards was hauled off injured, a major blow and a continuation of what had been a sorry theme throughout their All-Ireland run.

Armagh hit two on the trot, with Conaty and then Ben Crealey swinging over points from play.

The game then settled into a consistent you score-we score pattern for the remainder of a stodgy first half.

Both sides were afflicted by free-taking yips, though Galway's misses, being more numerous, were particularly glaring.

With Finnerty sadly off the pitch, Walsh assumed duties on both flanks. He was shortly after summoned across to take a free from the right side, albeit only slightly off-centre.

Contentiously, he went to take it with his left peg but skied it badly wide of the far post. The decision to go with his nominally weaker foot was initially branded cavalier though he ultimately fared no better with the right boot and did, in fact, nail his sole successful free with the left early in the second half.

After Conor Turbitt, who struggled to impact the final after a stellar season, missed a relatively straightforward free, Galway worked the score of the half on the subsequent play.

John Maher, especially influential in the first '35, was heavily involved in a swift hand-passing move down the right wing, Galway showing terrific handling under heavy pressure with D'Arcy riding a hefty challenge before clipping the first of his three scores from a tightish angle.

We were now firmly in tit-for-tat mode, Armagh's scores all coming from play and largely from defenders and midfielders.

Captain Aidan Forker curled a beauty inside the near post, before Maher found a rare pocket of space in the 'D' to restore Galway's advantage.

Sean Hurson's officiating was generally light-touch and he was content to allow a prolonged hurling style ruck to play out at one stage in the first half, a gathering of players from both sides clustering over the ball before, finally, the throw-in was eventually called.

Comer, constantly grimacing, had a point attempt ruled 'Níl' by Hawkeye for the second game running, though it appeared an incredibly close call on the screen.

Barry McCambridge's leveller initially elicited groans from the Armagh crowd as it skied unpromisingly off his right boot before curling and dropping inside the post.

Conroy, at the end of a wonderful season, finished the half as he started it, swinging over a magnificent point from outside the '45, with minimal space in which to execute the shot.

His midfield counterpart Crealey stepped up to slot his second and leave them level at the break.

"That's alright, then," one Armagh fan chirped contentedly as the half-time whistle sounded, while down below, Rian O'Neill and Johnny Heaney shunted into one another.

As in the quarter-final, Galway started quickly on the resumption. Conroy, slipping back into the pocket, side-footed over a trademark score, with McDaid doubling their advantage a couple minutes later.

It would be as good as it got. Former Portadown soccer player Conaty again came trumps, clipping over his third point of the game to arrest any Galway momentum and bring the deficit back to the minimum.

The totemic Rian O'Neill followed it up with a trademark point - and celebration - his towering score from the right wing probably what he had in mind when he fortuitously dropped the ball short in the semi-final, resulting in McCambridge's vital goal.

Walsh finally landed his first point of the day, swinging a left-footed effort over his shoulder but Tiernan Kelly responded immediately to level it at nine apiece. The game was still stuck in the set-pattern when Walsh converted his only free from five attempts.

Immediately afterwards, the grizzled folk hero Campbell was sent into the fray, galvanising the support. Within a minute, he would tee up the goal for McKay and Armagh hit the front.

Thanks to Galway's rare wastefulness in front of goal and some last-ditch defending, they would never relinquish the advantage.

The final whistle sparked scenes of joy almost on a par with 2002 though on this occasion, Plan B wasn't required.

Like Brian Lohan last weekend, Kieran McGeeney was hoisted high on the shoulders of his players and backroom team, in what is already in danger of becoming a GAA tradition.

After all the brickbats and the often vituperative criticism, McGeeney finally has his first championship silverware as a manager. And it couldn't come any bigger.

Armagh: Blaine Hughes; Paddy Burns, Aaron McKay (1-00), Barry McCambridge (0-01); Connaire Mackin, Tiernan Kelly (0-01), Aidan Forker (0-01); Niall Grimley (0-01), Ben Crealey (0-02); Joe McElroy, Rian O'Neill (0-01), Oisín Conaty (0-03); Rory Gurgan, Andrew Murnin, Conor Turbitt.

Subs: Stefan Campbell for Turbitt (46), Ross McQuillan for Kelly (46), Oisín O'Neill (0-01) for Grugan (53), Jarly Óg Burns for Mackin (59), Jason Duffy for Forker (75)

Galway: Connor Gleeson; Johnny McGrath, Sean Fitzgerald, Jack Glynn; Dylan McHugh, Liam Silke (0-01), Seán Mulkerrin; Paul Conroy (0-03), Céin D’Arcy (0-03); Matthew Tierney, John Maher (0-01), Cillian McDaid (0-02); Rob Finnerty (0-01, 1f), Damien Comer, Shane Walsh (0-02, 1f).

Subs: Johnny Heaney for Finnerty (10), Sean Kelly for Glynn (44), Tomo Culhane for Comer (65), Daniel O'Flaherty for Tierney (65), Kieran Molley for Heaney (74)

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