Armagh minds will have been drifting towards Dubs clash says former Orchard star
Aaron Kernan reckons that Armagh minds may have been drifting towards Dublin even before they played Derry last weekend.
Despite Armagh leading by 13 points at one stage on Saturday, a couple of Derry goals made for an uncomfortable finish at the Athletic Grounds, though the All-Ireland champions held out for a four-point win in the end.
The nature of the round robin stage is that upcoming games are already in the diary and Armagh's second round trip to Croke Park had an allure about it as soon as the groups were finalised.
It gets the juices flowing for all sorts of reasons, not least because it's a meeting of the last two All-Ireland winners but the rival managers, Kieran McGeeney and Dessie Farrell, have a shared history having played club football together in the capital for Na Fianna.
Kernan said: 'It's a difficult one because you're always preparing for Championship and you sort of just know your next game. Whereas Dublin, Croke Park, big crowds, it's very hard not to let your mind drift forward a week.'
The counties met in two high profile Championship games in 2002 and '03, both won by Armagh when McGeeney and Farrell were involved as players.
Indeed, Stephen Cluxton played in those games and was famously sent off in the 2003 qualifier. He is expected to start on Sunday, 22 years on.
Kernan's father Joe was Armagh manager at the time though he didn't come into the side until the following year and so just missed out on those clashes, with his only Championship meeting with Dublin being a relatively low key qualifier at Croke Park in 2010 which the home side won by three points.
At that stage, Armagh were very much a fading force while Dublin were finding their feet under Pat Gilroy in what was a rare trip through the back door for them.
'They were in an unusual place,' Kernan recalled. 'That was the year they shipped the five goals against Meath, so they were trying to find their feet between being defensively solid and not taking away from what their strengths were in an attacking sense.
'Looking back now, or even at the time, I'm not sure that we had the genuine confidence or belief within our group that we were capable of going and beating Dublin in Croke Park.
'I think maybe if it had been a home game at that stage in the Athletic Grounds, we might have been the sort of team that could have performed an ambush. But the genuine belief wasn't there within us.
'I know it certainly wasn't the same spectacle that there was in 2002, 2003 in that qualifier game or that All-Ireland semi-final where they played Dublin in packed Croke Parks and even League games at that stage.'
Indeed, the meeting of the counties in the 2003 League opener drew a whopping 54,000 to Croke Park, with Armagh winning well.
Kernan added: 'They were the good times in Armagh football and good times in Ireland as a whole in terms of crowds that were turning out.
'But you'd have to think, given the Armagh support and how well they travel in numbers, and particularly Dublin, what they've given their fans, you'd hope again that if you had 50,000-plus, it would still be a brilliant spectacle.
'I think the Leinster final with 60,000 there showed that when you have a good contest and you have a crowd there, Croke Park fairly comes alive. Ultimately that's what players want, that's what you thrive on and that's what all the sacrifice is being done for. It's big days like that."
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