While the full draw for the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals is yet to take place, there's every chance the meeting of Kerry and Armagh next weekend will be top billing.
The draw will take place live on Monday morning on RTÉ Radio 1 with the four preliminary quarter-final winners – Dublin, Kerry, Galway and Donegal – up against the winners of the four round-robin groups, Armagh, Monaghan, Tyrone and Meath.
As Armagh have three possible repeat pairings, they are automatically matched with the Kingdom, a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final where Kieran McGeeney’s men emerged victorious en route to Sam Maguire glory.
The Orchard County failed to add provincial silverware earlier this summer, but have at times looked in top form in the championship.
Kerry, by contrast, laboured to victory over Cork and fell to a heavy defeat to Meath in the All-Ireland series before putting Cavan to the sword in their preliminary quarter-final as manager Jack O’Connor continues to battle an injury list, with Diarmuid O'Connor forced off and Mike Breen ruled out before throw-in.
Speaking on The Sunday Game, former Kerry player and five-time All-Ireland winner Tomás Ó Sé says the win over Cavan was a "marked improvement" from a Kingdom perspective, led by the 3-07 haul of talisman David Clifford.
Tomás Ó Sé expects the Armagh quarter-final to be Kerry's defining game of the championship, and they will have no fear, while adding that he could make an argument for six of the eight teams to win the All-Ireland. #TheSundayGame pic.twitter.com/0ksDzE03Yx
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) June 22, 2025
"David Clifford has been absolutely outstanding all season long and he gave a performance yesterday that was brilliant," he said.
"The first ball he got, he made a statement. He got the ball in the corner, took on his man and buried the ball to the back of the net."
Looking ahead to next weekend’s quarter-final, Ó Sé believes the game will offer a true litmus test for O’Connor’s side.
"It’s the defining game of the season," he said. "They won’t fear it. Kerry are more than capable of showing up on the day, but they will have to offer more in scoring than David Clifford.
"Kerry will need a full team back. Diarmuid O’Connor is a huge loss in the middle of the park and Paul Geaney is possibly gone as well, their second highest scorer.
"Everybody is saying that Armagh, even though they didn’t win Ulster, have been the team of the season so far.
"It’s going to be a cracker of a game."
