By Patrick Morrison

PRIDE, excitement, envy, regret, expectancy, anticipation, fearful, confidence, rumination, connection, nostalgic, positive, motivated, gratitude, satisfaction, joy, sadness, hurt, sense of achievement, pain and luck.

For the past few weeks I have been in Craigavon Hospital undergoing routine tests for my Crohn’s Disease. I was asked by a fellow patient about how I felt with Armagh reaching the All-Ireland final. When I had time to stop and think about it, the above list is some of the multitude of emotions that I was feeling.

These emotions have now been encased into a massive county-wide firework and the fuse has been lit and slowly burning down towards this Sunday’s much-anticipated final.

Last weekend we had an enthralling All-Ireland hurling final, one that was packed full of excitement and gripping drama right to the final agonising missed puck. This weekend we reach the final events of the men’s GAA intercounty football calendar with the All-Ireland football final between Galway and my native county, Armagh.

It is certainly a final for the neutrals as it is the first final in 14 years since one or both of Dublin, Kerry and Mayo were not involved. The last final without any of these three was the 2010 final between Cork and Down.

This has had a real bearing on the yearly scramble for tickets, especially in the two counties in the final. But, unfortunately that is how every All-Ireland final ticket scramble goes.

It is just unfortunate that Armagh have not been in the final more regularly to experience this. It would be easy to sell two hundred thousand tickets for the final but unfortunately Croke Park does not have that capacity. I myself have not been successful enough to secure tickets (yet) but in all honesty I will be happy either way and feel blessed to be living through the time of this period of Armagh’s success.

In essence the most important thing is that I can be somewhere with my family and friends to enjoy the occasion. I would implore those who are unable to get tickets to plan ahead for their All-Ireland experience now so that you can make it the best possible day for all involved. Now it is time to get behind the team and support them in whatever way you can.

This has certainly been evident this past few weeks in Armagh. The buzz within the county has been amazing and during a recent stay in Craigavon Hospital I spoke with many people of a Protestant denomination that wanted to see Armagh lift the cup.

I met a man from Annaghhugh called Robbie Dunn who has been following Armagh for a good number of years and wishing nothing more than an Armagh win on Sunday simply for the lift their success has given the county already.

I dedicated four years of my life to Armagh’s All-Ireland cause playing alongside many of the current crop of players while also performing the role of team sheriff for three of them. A role that involved ensuring that the team’s culture, discipline and professionalism were always held to the highest standards. I was also involved with coaching some of the younger players on the team whenever they were in their minor age group under Ciaran McKeever.

My father coached Kieran McGeeney and Geezer coached me. I played with Ciaran McKeever from u-15 development squads right up to senior level and coached alongside him with Armagh minors in 2017. My father also coached Conleith Gilligan with Derry in 2006 and I coached alongside him in 2021 when Kilcoo won their All-Ireland Club title and I was also coached by Ciaran McKinney for two seasons with Armagh in 2017 and 2018.

When I was playing I had no goal of winning a Celtic cross. That surprises people when I tell them to which they ask why I even bothered playing then. Simply put, I was there to help the others reach their dream of winning an All-Ireland.

Geezer would often tell us about how the Spartans were told “come back with your shield or on it” because a Spartan’s shield was the most important piece of equipment they had.

It was their shield that protected the man to their left in battle, you protect the man beside you because you know the man on the other side is protecting you. Essentially you were giving yourself up for the men beside you and this is exactly what I did for Armagh. It was more about helping them reach their goals and their dreams. That is what my goals were.

Now those men have reached the battlefield to fulfil those hopes and dreams. This is something that now six years on allows me to tick that final box on my list of goals. The one that I must honestly say I might never have been able to tick off. The team reaching the final affords me the contentment to look back at my time with Armagh and say “It was worth every sacrifice”, I did my job and now it is over to them.

This Sunday those men are 70 minutes away from fulfilling their goals and dreams.

It is their shot at immortality, they should and will not have anything to fear. They are ready and the whole county is behind them. Our only advice would be “go and take it”,

The massive emotional firework grows this week at exponential rates. Its fuse has been lit and is sizzling nicely to Sunday’s throw in.

The game itself will see fireworks ascend skywards and the whole country, and indeed parts the world over, will wait in passion and excitement to see whether its deflagration will light the sky with an ‘orange burst’ or a ‘maroon explosion.’

I wish both teams the very best of luck and no matter the result we are proud of you all.

Email: pmgoalkeeping@hotmail.com
Facebook: @MSoG11
Twitter: @MorSchGk