The race for the Sam Maguire is wide open and former Armagh All-Ireland winner Benny Tierney says the Orchard County are more than capable of mounting a serious challenge this summer.
Kieran McGeeney’s side opened their Division One campaign with a shock defeat of Dublin in Croke Park before following it up with a six-point victory over All-Ireland champions Tyrone in the Athletic Grounds.
Their momentum has been checked slightly by a battling draw at home to Monaghan and a narrow loss to Mayo in Dr Hyde Park last time out.
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Yet, they’ve only Kerry and Mayo ahead of them in the Division One standings with the league-leaders set to clash in Tralee on Saturday night.
A win over Kildare at the Athletic Grounds earlier that evening would put Armagh right in the hunt for a place in the Division One final and Tierney feels this current squad are lively outsiders for major silverware later in the campaign.
“I think we’ve all been caught on the hop this year. We went down to Dublin to show we weren’t going to be the whipping boys in Division One,” said Tierney.
“We beat them and we were comfortable and we were comfortable for long parts of the game against Tyrone as well.
“You are talking about last year’s All-Ireland champions and the team who dominated for six years before that. Where does that leave us?
“I wouldn’t be booking any hotels in Dublin for the All-Ireland final weekend just yet.
"I think there are about five or six teams who will have a say in this year’s All-Ireland and we couldn’t have said that in recent years.
“I think five or six teams will feel they could win Sam Maguire this year - Tyrone being one. You’ve also Donegal, Armagh, Dublin, Kerry, Mayo. . . you’ve maybe even a couple more.
“It makes for a very interesting Championship and Armagh are not without a chance when you consider the quality we are seeing from them at the minute.”
The outlook hasn’t always been as bright for Armagh and they’ve endured some turbulent times before and during McGeeney’s reign, which began when he took over from Paul Grimley in 2015.
They dropped into Division Three in 2016 and missed out on promotion in 2017, but have climbed the ranks ever since and defeated Roscommon in a play-off to preserve their Division One status last season.
Armagh’s poor recent record in the Ulster Championship is something they’ll be keen to rectify this year.
Every other team in the province has made at least one appearance in the final since the Orchard Men last featured in the Ulster decider when they beat Fermanagh in a replay back in 2008.
Now that the Armagh bandwagon is starting to roll again, Tierney says they owe a great deal of gratitude to their manager and his backroom team which includes former Orchard defender Ciaran McKeever and former Kerry All-Ireland winner Kieran Donaghy.
In an era when there is great scrutiny placed on inter-county managers, Tierney remarked: “Everybody is crying to get rid of managers, but if you can’t put someone better in their place then what is the point?
“There is no point in making a substitute in a game if the man coming in isn’t every bit as good as the man he is replacing.
“Kieran McGeeney has put a lifetime of effort into Armagh, both as a player and a manager.
“I’m delighted it is all coming to fruition now and people are buying into ‘Geezer’ and into his mantra.
“It is great from a supporter’s perspective in that you are going to games now with a degree of excitement. There will be a great buzz leading into the Championship and these are great times.”
Having soldered alongside McGeeney for both club and county, the Mullaghbawn native said he always knew ‘Geezer’ would go on to coach at some level of sport.
“I don’t think I’d any doubt that he’d be a manager. I didn’t always know it would be Gaelic football,” added Tierney.
“The man is just driven so it wouldn’t have mattered - whatever ‘Geezer’ takes on, he’ll be giving it 100 per cent. That’s the way he played.
“The likes of Diarmuid Marsden and Paul McGrane were the same. They drove the whole thing on at training and helped get us over the line.
“I’d never a doubt that ‘Geezer’ would go on to coach, lead and manage in a major fashion.”
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