Rory Grugan was there in 2002, sitting above in the nosebleed section, on what remains the greatest day in the history of Armagh football.
Kieran McGeeney was the Orchard County captain in that All-Ireland final when they won the Sam Maguire for the first time. They were back in the decider 12 months later but lost to Tyrone.
“It was a memorable day in your life [the 2002 final], most Armagh fans would say the same, given the fact that it was the only time that we have ever done it,” says Grugan.
“I followed that team through the noughties, and you just looked up to your heroes, to Geezer, Oisín McConville, Steven McDonnell, John McEntee, all of these players.
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“Everyone remembers what it was like that day, and I suppose that hunger for success among Armagh people is still there, I think you still see that with our mad supporters.
“I was in the upper tier, I was with my cousin and I wanted to go down [on the pitch afterwards]. I ran over to my mum, but she just wouldn’t let me go down. I was gutted that I didn’t get on the pitch, but luckily I’ll be on the pitch this time.”
The 33-year-old, who made his debut in 2014, has been a key component of the Kieran McGeeney project in Armagh. Grugan played his part in their semi-final win over Kerry two weeks ago and notched an important second-half point as Armagh rallied to overthrow the Kingdom.
On the way back up the road that evening, the M1 became a car park as thousands of Armagh fans clogged up the toll. On any other day, the whole experience would have been hellish but instead it became a party cavalcade of beeping horns and waving flags.
“I think our bus driver took the law into his own hands and was flying up the hard shoulder at one stage,” smiles Grugan. “I don’t think there were too many people disappointed once they spotted it was us.
“It was midnight before I got into my house and I just couldn’t sleep then. I was looking at all the messages on my phone, all the celebrations, the music playing in Croker at the end, it was fairly special.
“I suppose it is just nice to enjoy that 24/48 hours, before you flick the switch again and think about the final.”
In Sunday’s decider they will face Connacht champions Galway. Armagh haven’t won a provincial title since 2008 but they know quite a bit about losing finals in gut-wrenching circumstances.
They lost the 2023 Ulster final to Derry after a penalty shootout and in 2024 it was another penalty shootout loss, this time to Donegal. But they have shown their resilience.
“What do you do? Do you throw in the towel and say, ‘Our season is going to peter out?’ Or do you push on and try to get to places you haven’t been? I think we have gotten quite good at that,” says Grugan.
“We have built that resilience with a similar squad for a long period of time. I think the way Geezer and the management talked about it was that, as hard as it was, it’s literally gone. It’s a new competition and we approached it like that.”
Many of the standout images from Armagh’s season have included the sheer delight and passion with which some of their players have celebrated scores.
It has become a bit of a GAA trait over the years not to celebrate scores, but Grugan feels there are moments when players should embrace the moment.
“It definitely isn’t something that is planned, and I know in the high performance [space] you’re taught around being emotionless, being clinical, next ball – and there is a certain element to that within every game and every team but sometimes you have to ride on that emotion.
“Someone who would be big on that is Kieran Donaghy in terms of Gaelic football now is about momentum, there’s a lot of slow attacks, a lot of plays where it is point for point.
“So, those moments where you can get momentum, maybe you have squeezed a kickout, you get two or three points in-a-row, you can feel the crowd coming, and that definitely happened us in some of these big games recently.”
