KEVIN CASSIDY: Refusing to fold

AT this stage I’d like to hold my hands up for my wide of the mark predictions since the semi-final stages.

Not one came through but then again that’s the sort of championship we had this year.

Before we get stuck into any sort of analysis or breakdown of the game, I want to offer hearty congratulations to Kieran McGeeney and every single one of his players.

They have been written off on so many occasions but they just refused to fold and they got their just rewards last Sunday evening.

I remember, way back at the start of the championship, sitting down to watch the game with Down. I remember thinking to myself how it was a great win and they did tremendously well to manage the game at the end to get the winning score.

I also just thought that they didn’t have the necessary tools to go the distance. Fast forward to the Ulster final where I actually thought they were the better team, but they just failed to see the game out.

If I’m being completely honest, I think that’s the best thing that happened to them because people then took their eye off Armagh after that defeat.

If Armagh had managed to win that game in normal time or in extra-time, I think they would have been hyped up so much that they would have struggled to deal with it.

So, the fact the focus was off them, it allowed them to really batten down the hatches and go for the biggest prize of all.

Nobody on this island can argue that they do not deserve to be All-Ireland champions after the performances that they have turned in over the last number of weeks.

Fair play to every single one of them and I hope the county really enjoys this because it’s a special time for them.

On the other side of the scale, you have to also feel really sorry for Galway because this one will hurt big time as they were very, very close.

A few wrong decisions and a couple of poor efforts in the closing stages probably cost them an All-Ireland.

Again, if we are being completely honest, the thing that cost them the most was the injuries to a number of their key players which curtailed the season from the off.

I said here last week that there was nothing between both of these teams and what I thought would actually decide it would be the form of Galway’s three key men – Damien Comer, Shane Walsh and Seán Kelly – and as it turned out that’s exactly what swung the game in Armagh’s favour.

A fully fit and confident Shane Walsh kicks those scores all day long but that bit of luck is what Armagh didn’t get in the past so you take it when you get it.

I am sure the celebrations are still on going there at the minute and why wouldn’t they be.

Ulster has had a phenomenal year when you look at where all the major trophies have gone, so it’s clear that Jarlath Burns has been a good omen and long may it continue.

While Armagh head to the high stool for the rest of the year, the rest of us will turn out focus to the club championships which will get underway here next weekend in Donegal, so the wheel will keep turning.