Croker pain no more as Armagh edge out Kerry in cracker

Armagh are through to the All-Ireland final for the fifth time in their history after edging out Kerry by two points in a wildly engrossing semi-final in Croke Park.

It was the third year in a row that an Armagh knockout game in HQ had gone to extra-time, except this one ended not in penalty heartbreak but with scenes of delirium at the final whistle.

For Kieran McGeeney, who took over the county side at a relatively low ebb and has been failing better for much of his long reign, it was the most cathartic of victories as he guided Armagh to their first decider since he was a player back in 2003.

It was a game that appeared to be out of their reach for much of normal time, until Barry McCambridge’s opportunistically taken goal, the wing-back palming home after Shane Ryan spilled a skied Rian O’Neill point attempt.

Having only first taken the lead in the 65th minute of normal time, Armagh had what momentum there was in the opening period of extra-time, Jarly Óg Burns and Conor Turbitt clipping over the only points of the first 10 minutes to leave them in control of the contest.

They briefly pushed that lead out to three but McGeeney admitted afterwards that the thought “oh God, not penalties again!” ran through his head after Paudie Clifford narrowed the deficit to a point midway through the second period.

But after a late equaliser attempt from Sean O’Brien dropped harmlessly into Blaine Hughes’ hands, Armagh countered boldly, with Conor Turbitt racing into open country behind the exposed Kerry defence.

With a two-on-one situation developing, he opted to fist the point to establish a two-point gap, celebrating gleefully in front of the Hill afterwards.

He nearly had cause to regret the decision in the final significant play of the game, with a ball floated dangerously into the square where David Clifford and Seanie O’Shea had gathered. But Rian O’Neill, in superhero pose, hung in the air to field the ball spectacularly in his own square. In the ensuing scramble, goalkeeper Hughes somehow emerged with the ball and Armagh held onto it until the finish.

In his post-mortem, Jack O’Connor was quick to stress the impact of the crowd and Armagh fans easily made up the bulk of the 55,000 strong attendance. As in the 2022 quarter-final against Galway, they created a wonderfully heightened, frenzied atmosphere which seemed to have a tangible effect on the game at key moments.

It was Armagh’s first appearance in a semi-final since 2005, back during Joe Kernan’s reign and they were determined to savour it. Beforehand, Dorset Street resounded to a particularly folksy number celebrating the 2002 All-Ireland victory, which was blaring from a circling car (John McEntee, Stevie McDonnell and Joe Kernan were all invoked, among others.)

Early indications were that the Kerry-Derry borefest – which prompted another state-of-the-game debate – was in the rearview mirror, with two scores on the board before the game was a minute old.

On the first attack, Seanie O’Shea clipped over a point from a tight-ish angle on the right hand side, Armagh responding immediately, Peter McGrane finding himself in an advanced position to score the leveller after being picked out by Niall Grimley.

Kerry had been installed as clear favourites by most commentators beforehand and they were largely in control in the opening 20 minutes, Paudie Clifford, Tony Brosnan, Dara Moynihan and O’Shea with further points from play as they opened up a 0-06 to 0-02 lead.

The Ulster runners-up rallied well, midfielder Niall Grimley landing a brace of points on the trot, the latter after a smartly taken short free from Aidan Forker.

The huge crowd in orange were making their presence felt and there was a massive swirl of noise at every big turnover, none more so than David Clifford fumbled the ball on the 20th minute, sparking a move which ended with O’Neill’s first point which narrowed the gap to one.

Clifford’s mis-steps in particular, which weren’t that infrequent in the opening half, were greeted almost as raucously as scores.

Referee David Gough’s traditional calling card – the free from an off-the-ball jersey pull – reared its head twice in the first half, giving Turbitt a couple of easy opportunities.

Nonetheless, Kerry finished the first half strongly, with Diarmuid O’Connor hoisting over a point before a retreating McGrane barged crudely into Paul Geaney right on the edge of the 14m line.

O’Shea tapped over the free to leave it 10-6 at half-time.

It was shortly after half-time when Kerry had two glorious chances to build up a significant gap on the scoreboard. Their prolific corner-backs (only nominally his position) blew two major opportunities to sicken the Ulster side.

On 39 minutes, Diarmuid O’Connor tore through a hole in the Armagh defence, shifting a pass to O’Sullivan at the far post. He cut inside, then hesitated as the Armagh backs scrambled back to block. Re-assessing, he turned back and popped a pass back to David Clifford, who slipped over what would be his only point from play.

They didn’t even come away with that much on the next chance. Paudie Clifford executed a rousing block of Joe McElroy’s shot at goal, was fed the ball and then sprayed a long, quick ball for O’Shea.

The Kenmare star turned his marker Aaron McKay – possibly with the help of a Darby-esque nudge – and headed for goal. Again, it was O’Sullivan along for company at the far post. He was fed possession but with time to shoot this time, he booted it wide of the right post.

Meanwhile, Forker had chipped in with a couple of sweetly taken points to reduce the gap to two but then Kerry finally did find the net.

The game wound up vindicating the popular theory that there is no more reliable producer of goals than the miscued or underhit point attempt. David Clifford’s shot from a tight angle was drifting wide only for Diarmuid O’Connor to rescue it at the back post, enabling Paul Murphy to slap the ball home. The Kerry defender’s celebration was cut short by a fairly unceremonious dunt as he turned away.

Armagh reacted well, with O’Neill now in the groove and playing with his usual swagger, firing over a point from under the Hogan Stand sideline with 15 minutes left.

However, there was a sense they were being held at arm’s length until the pivotal score of the game. It was again redolent of the 2022 epic against Galway, where skied balls into the square had caused havoc at the death.

O’Neill hoisted a point attempt into the sky, clearly dropping short. Ryan raced out of his goal but fumbled the ball under pressure from Ben Crealey and McCambridge arrived to cleverly slap the ball into the far corner, the Kerry defenders unable to react to block it away.

This pitched the game into a different phase, with Kerry wobbling in the face of Armagh pressure and every turnover from the latter generating a huge wall of noise.

After the ageless Stefan Campbell reliably curled over his usual clutch of points, Armagh at last hit the front on 65 minutes, O’Neill unfurling one of his signature long-range efforts, the decibel levels rising euphorically as the crowd registered that the shot had the legs.

Kerry composed themselves in the face of this surge and methodically worked the equalising score, with substitute Dylan Geaney finding the space to swing over the equaliser on the stroke of full-time.

Armagh chose to nurse the possession for the subsequent couple of minutes, waiting for the optimal moment to pull the trigger but they were turned over before that. Having found the equaliser, Geaney, with time running down, fired a speculative attempt at the winner but pulled it wide of the near post.

And so, for the third year running at the business end, it was extra-time for Armagh. This time, they didn’t leave it down to spot kicks.

The Kerryman in Armagh’s camp, Kieran Donaghy, had his hands over his mouth in disbelief at full-time.

While McGeeney, so often the nearly-man, was draped in glory come the end.

Kerry: Shane Ryan; Paul Murphy (1-00), Jason Foley, Tom O’Sullivan; Brian Ó Beaglaioch, Tadhg Morley, Gavin White; Diarmuid O’Connor (0-01), Joe O’Connor; Tony Brosnan (0-01), Paudie Clifford (0-02), Dara Moynihan (0-01); David Clifford (0-04, 2f, 1m), Sean O’Shea (0-04, 1f, 1 ’45), Paul Geaney.

Subs: Cillian Burke (0-01) for Moynihan (47), Killian Spillane for Geaney (47), Dylan Geaney (0-01) for Brosnan (58), Graham O’Sullivan for Ó Beaglaioch (64), Barry Dan O’Sullivan for Joe O’Connor (73), Mike Breen for White (ET) Dylan Casey for Tom O’Sullivan (74, temp), Tom O’Sullivan for Foley (78), Stephen O’Brien for D O’Connor (80), Sean O’Brien for P Murphy (84).

Armagh: Blaine Hughes; Paddy Burns, Aaron McKay, Peter McGrane (0-01); Barry McCambridge (1-00), Tiernan Kelly, Aidan Forker (0-02); Niall Grimley (0-02), Ben Crealey; Oisin Conaty, Rian O’Neill (0-03), Joe McElroy; Rory Grugan (0-01, 1f), Andrew Murnin, Conor Turbitt (0-05, 3f).

Subs: Stefan Campbell (0-02) for McGrane (ht), Jason Duffy for Conaty (49), Aidan Nugent for Crealey (57), Ross McQuillan (0-01) for A Forker (60), Oisin O’Neill for Murnin (62), Jarly Óg Burns (0-01) for Turbitt (ET), Turbitt for Nugent (80), Conaty for Grugan (84).

Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship semi-final, Donegal v Galway, live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player this Sunday from 3.15pm. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1