By Shaun Casey

NO one inside the Armagh changing room has ever played Dublin in the championship but that will change this weekend for Tiernan Kelly and co as the Orchard County travel to Croke Park for a top of the table clash.

Both teams kickstarted their All-Ireland campaigns with opening round victories. Dublin saw off Galway at Salthill by the minimum of margins two weeks ago while last Saturday afternoon, Armagh earned a four-point triumph at home to Derry.

2010 was the last time these two teams crossed paths in the championship, also at Croke Park, and the Dubs emerged victorious with three points to spare. At that stage, Dublin weren’t the dominant force that they would become for the rest of the decade.

Kelly, who was one of the key men for Kieran McGeeney’s side in round one, didn’t feature throughout the league for Armagh has they retained their Division One status and missed their round five triumph over Dessie Farrell’s men.

“It’ll be my first time playing Dublin in the championship and in Croke Park, so it’ll be a good game and a great opportunity,” said the Clann Éireann clubman. “Both teams are going into it off the back of wins in their first group games.

“It’ll be a massive scrap trying to get that top position going into the last group game, so we’ll have to reset. We know what’s coming down the line with the quality that they have so we’ll have to put our heads down and work on the things that didn’t go well against Derry.”

It’s the third season on the trot that Armagh have entered the ‘Group of Death’ in the All-Ireland series and if the past two years are anything to go by, then the men in orange and white are exactly where they want to be.

McGeeney’s men have topped the group in the last two campaigns and went all the way to lift Sam Maguire in 2024. Kelly and his teammates are well aware of the quality they will face in the remaining two games against Dublin and Galway.

He added, “There’s real quality in every game we play, and this is the top 16 teams in Ireland and every team has their quality and every team has their strengths. If they can get on top of you and play to their strengths, that’s what the new rules allow.

“It’s just trying to identify those purple patches for the other team and trying to mitigate it, that’s probably what we’ll work on going into Dublin in Croke Park. If they get those purple patches in Croke Park, it could be a very different outcome.”

It’s also the third season in a row that Armagh have tasted defeat in the provincial decider, but like 2022 and 2023, they bounced back immediately with a win. “It was a tough game first of all, going to extra time,” Kelly said of the devastating Ulster final defeat to Donegal.

“The boys are trying to lift themselves again but the way the whole season is set up now and the structure, it’s three separate competitions. You knew that no matter what the result was in the Ulster final, it was going to be a complete reset.

“We got a bit of time after to get ourselves sorted and we got a good bit of training done over the two weeks then it was just right back into it with the All-Ireland series.”

On the Derry game itself, Kelly pointed out that Armagh have plenty to work on ahead of their journey to Jones’ Road having led by 13-points against Derry at one stage to only win by four in the end.

Kelly pointed to the Orchard netminder Ethan Rafferty as the hero. Rafferty pulled off four remarkable saves to keep the All-Ireland champions in front when the Oakleaf County were getting on top.

“We made tough work of it at the end, but I think we played well for probably 20 or 25 minutes of both halves, and we created that bit of a gap, but we had that really bad ten minutes at the end which let them back into it.

“Fair play to Derry, they put the pressure on and the way the rules are and the way the kickouts work now, if they win a couple of kickouts back-to-back it really puts you on the back foot.

“Raff (Ethan Rafferty) made a couple of good turnovers there at the end and we got a couple of good turnovers, and we were able to see it out so we’re happy enough.”

Check out this week’s Gaelic Lives podcast with Seanie Johnston and Kevin McKernan looking ahead to the weekend of All-Ireland SFC action.