Kieran Shannon: Taking the hard hits to keep moving forward key to Armagh's success

Armagh have taken many hits, but those hits have been key to building their resilience and ultimately their All-Ireland final success. 

KEPT MOVING FORWARD: Armagh's Ross McQuillan and Stefan Campbell celebrate winning

Even now we still don’t grasp how easy it would have been for them to have given up on him and how easy it would have been for him to have given up on them.

There are so many parallels between the Armagh footballers and the Clare hurlers – the agonising provincial final defeats, the series of losses in Croker, followed by the ultimate redemption and reward – that we can forget that their respective journeys under their iconic former-player-now manager didn’t start in 2022.