Liam Grimley: For those of us who grew up on stories of ‘02, this completes the cycle of a football fan

ARMAGH and Sam Maguire were two phrases that I never thought I would hear uttered together in my lifetime, save for the reminiscent yearnings for the glory days of the early Noughties, when Geezer was less grey and Sunday’s Man of the Match, Oisín Conaty, was not born.

Despite my hometown being primarily hurling territory, pictures of the Sam Maguire being passed around everyone in the county adorned most family homes.

Most people got their mits on that famous cup or a photograph for the family album and soon enough, the Sam Maguire will soon make that same tour around the towns and villages and breed a new generation of fanatics and hopefuls.

The next generation of Armagh fans was raised with photos of parents, grandparents and community elders covered in orange and white and furiously waving flags either in Dublin or in various pubs and streets across the county and further afield.

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My dad told me about how, in 2002, he sat in Red Neds, which was full of orange and watched Geezer hoist Sam on the steps of the Hogan stand with Armagh fans cheering and shouting beside him.

It is now the next generation’s time to create memories that will last a lifetime, and now they will be able to add an extra dimension of reality to those memories for their children, and their children’s children in the form of videos.

I am in no way saying videos of those glory days of 2002 don’t exist, however, most of them are either from the RTÉ/GAA archives and have been shown 1000 times over, or grainy home videos that, compared to the technology of today, belong in a museum.

Leading up to the final, the county of Armagh wished the boys well in a million ways, some familiar, namely the sponsored posters on telephone poles, assorted painted farm animals and custom cars, and some new with various TikTok montages, YouTube songs and social media posts.

All of these scenes will live a long time in the minds of the fans who experienced them and set a new standard for fans of other counties who are lucky enough to see their side in an All-Ireland final.

Sunday’s final recreated that famous scene of ‘02 with the orange and white invasion of the Hill and the vibrant pre and post-match scenes making Dublin nearly visible from space.

Although I was not in Dublin, nor at home in my Orchard county, I felt every bit as proud to be a Boy from the County Armagh in the Irish News HQ.

I couldn’t help but think about the size of the occasion and the lengths that people had gone to for a chance to experience this piece of history.

One fan sold a five-night holiday in Portugal so they could be in the Hogan Stand for the big day and members of the Orchard diaspora took plane, train and automobile back home from as far as Australia to see Aidan Forker stand where his manager stood 22 years previously.

That’s what it means to us.

For us, it’s our chance to say to our kids and grandkids that I was there when Armagh brought Sam home, and it was one of the greatest days of our lives.

Even the town afterwards was a scene that would bring a tear to the eye of anyone from Lurgan to Crossmaglen and everywhere in between.

The convoy of cars, the flags, the shop fronts, the floods of people blocking roads and cheering with the drivers they’re holding up, it was the stuff of dreams.

If you could bottle it and sell it, the world would be happy and broke.

The homecoming was of a similar mood, with 18,000 people squeezing into the Athletic Grounds in Armagh City so they could watch the heroes come home and show off the silverware that has desperately eluded them these last few years.

The number of cars with flags seen around the town outnumbered those without and you’d nearly think it was a matchday with the amount of jerseys about.

But that shows how the passion for football has passed from generation to generation and those who wouldn’t have known the scenes of 2002 can carry the torch.

Scenes from Lurgan, Armagh, Ballmacnab, more controversially Camlough, and further afield of the celebrations that will likely continue through the week, but Armagh fans have earned it having endured third-division football and early summer exits of the mid-2010s.

Now, those fans can look forward to strolling into the Athletic Grounds next January as the dominant force in Gaelic football and back in the first division.

They will not be satisfied with this though, such is the competitive nature of these supporters, much like their demi-god of a coach, who most have backed time and again through thick and thin.

Players and fans alike, after they’ve well-and-truly celebrated the hell out of winning Sam, will want to get that elusive Anglo-Celt and keep Sam around for another 12 months.

On the GAA Social’s post-match debrief, Thomas Niblock revealed that former Dublin great Philly McMahon didn’t think Armagh would retain it, something this team and these supporters will not soon forget.

I think we could be in for a Kieran Donaghy moment from Rían O’Neill, Barry McCambridge or Paddy Burns, which would be fitting given the Kerryman’s involvement with the set-up.

Either way, for now, those Armagh fans who weren’t able to enjoy the Orchard reckoning the first time around in 2002 will be making the most of it for the next wee while.

There wasn’t a cow milked, sheep painted, apple picked or, indeed, pint spared in county Armaghin the wake of the final as a new generation of fans soaked in the Championship-winning feeling.