The All Ireland football semi final 2002, Ray Cosgrove has a fairly routine looking free kick in front of Hill 16 filled with Dublin fans expecting him to level the game and send it to a replay. He sets the ball out to the right of the right post, it curls back but not enough, hitting the post and dropping down in front of goal, an Armagh and Dublin player go for it, the Armagh player fists it away and another Armagh player carries it to safety. The referee blows his whistle, Armagh players and fans go ballistic. A first All Ireland final since Joe Kernan, Armagh Manager, lost to Dublin in 1977, lies ahead.
The All Ireland Football semi final 2024, Armagh have just extended their lead to two points and we are in the one added minute at the end of extra time. The fans have turned Croker orange but their team are playing in black. Kerry, in the green and gold, bring the ball up into the Armagh half, they move it back and forth across the middle of Croke Park looking for the best angle to launch the match winning attack. Armagh fans are at fever pitch in the stands, many of them haven't even realised the game isn't over yet as thoughts already turn to getting tickets for the final. Dangerous thinking. A long ball is fired in high, heading for the square, it drops like a stone right under the cross bar, Rian O'Neill, wearing 11 but playing all over the pitch, rises like a ruck man above everyone, catches it and takes it safely to the ground. The ball disappears in a scrum of players. Everybody is waiting for the whistle, a whistle, any whistle but it doesn't arrive. Finally after the longest few seconds that you sometimes experience in sport, Armagh keeper Blaine Hughes barges out of the square with the ball and fists it to the safety of another pair of Armagh hands then another as it's hand passed up the line and away from goal. A first All Ireland final since Kieran McGeeney, Armagh Manager, lost to Tyrone in 2003, lies ahead.
This is my son Arlo's first game at Croke Park. We'd done the stadium tour last year and can imagine the scene at half time in the Armagh changing rooms as McGeeney tried to get across the plan that was going to get them back into this game from 4 points down. Whatever was said it didn't work immediately because Kerry spurned two very good goal chances but didn't let the third one pass. A four point lead was now five. It was starting to look a long way back for Armagh. Ironically, that goal was the beginning of the end for Kerry. Scores from Turbitt and O'Neill brought the Orchard within a goal, the Kingdom answered back with a point of their own before Barry McCambridge, the star of Armagh's quarter final win but today detailed with successfully man marking David Clifford out of the game, fisted the ball, handball style into the bottom corner of the Kerry goal following a spill by goalie, Shane Ryan. Game on. Armagh have been brilliant all day at stripping ball and winning it back but too often haven't used it well enough. The older Armagh fans urge them forward "too much of all this hand passing shite" the younger fans like Arlo only know this style of football and see nothing wrong with the patient build up. Stefan Campbell is now on, arguably Armagh's best playmaker. He scores to get Armagh within a point again and then another one to draw them level. Rian O'Neill, from beyond the 45, sends a majestic point high over the same bar he will later catch the ball under in the dying seconds. Armagh by a point. They force a turnover again but can't get the insurance score and inevitably Kerry get the equaliser. Jack O'Connors men still have time to win it and it looks like they might get a free but the whistle isn't blown. The ball eventually goes wide. Some fans are willing Armagh to go forward again. I'm in the calm it down camp. Let's take our chances in extra time.
Dinner will be in McDonalds on the way back to the campsite in Kilkenny tonight. We bought a caravan on Thursday off a fella from South Armagh. I asked him did he go and watch Armagh, he said he used to but can't watch gaelic football anymore. Across from us at the campsite a Down flag is unfurled. I speak to the owner later asking him if he's for Croker. He tells me there was a time he would never have missed a game but he finds it hard to watch now. Down look to be cruising to victory in the Taitleann Cup which Arlo refers to as being like the Europa League when I try to explain why the county we live in are in a final against Laois and the county his father grew up in are playing in a semi final after. A late goal from Laois makes it interesting but Down deserve it. Arlo, wearing an Armagh jersey purchased on Friday in Kilkenny, loudly cheers on the boys in red and black, his mother's county. He's not alone, there's a woman in a t shirt with Armagh and Down badges on it but there is a still a great rivalry here and the mourne men will hope they are on the rise again. McGeeney keeps his team in the changing rooms a few minutes longer before extra time begins. It works. There are only 2 points scored in the first half, both by Armagh. Ross McQuillan increases the lead to 3 but Mike Breen replies and an infringement from the kick out results in a hop ball, Paudie Clifford gets it and we have a one point game again. Kerry on top, can they now find the equaliser? Kerry shoot but it drops short, the ball is cleared to Conor Turbitt to race clear from the halfway line and create a 2 on 2, "GO ON!" Everybody is out of their seats now. He has a man inside for a goal opportunity but he sensibly fists the ball over the bar for the 2 point lead that will send Armagh back to the All Ireland final for the first time in 21 years. This is gaelic football now. It's different from what it was in 2002 and it was different again then from 1977 but the drama is still as great as it ever was.
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