The Last Eight: Kerry have the All-Ireland quarter-final they need - even if it's mined with trouble

Monday's quarter-final draw has delivered the sort of lop-sided draw that will have Galway, Armagh, Derry and Clare salivating at the very real chance of a road to the All-Ireland final. 

HANGING TOUGH: Armagh's Rian O'Neill during their Qualifier Rd 2 victory over Donegal at St Tiernach's Park in Clones.

THE inequitable phase of the Football Championship is nigh. Those handicapped by superiority in their own province take up the obligatory brace position for whatever hurtles out of the Qualifier tunnel toward them.

In the case of Connacht champions Galway, the sight of Kieran McGeeney’s Armagh coming down the tracks may resemble more an oncoming train than something light and bendable. It might be twenty years since they upended Kerry in an All-Ireland final for a maiden Sam Maguire, but McGeeney’s squad have a critical pre-requisite heading to the big smoke in a fortnight – battle-hardened momentum.