Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne, Dublin, and Barry McCambridge, Armagh, in All-Ireland SFC action. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
All-Ireland senior football championship Group Four
Armagh 0-24 Dublin 0-19
By Paul Keane at Croke Park
All-Ireland SFC title holders Armagh wore the mark of champions well as they surged to victory at Croke Park, propelling them through to the quarter-finals with a game to spare.
Two-point scores proved mightily significant for Armagh who registered five of them in what was an eventual five-point win.
Returning to the venue where they lifted the Sam Maguire Cup last year, the Ulster finalists strode to back-to-back wins after taking care of Derry in Round 1.
Rian O'Neill, making just his second start of the season, kicked three of their two-pointers while Man of the Match Rory Grugan, who finished with 0-8, grabbed the other two.
Armagh had 10 different scorers and are now sure of topping the group regardless of what happens against Galway in Round 3 in a fortnight.
All is not lost for Dublin who are still second in the table ahead of their final round clash with Derry.
But Dessie Farrell and his management team will wonder just how they managed to rack up a whopping 17 wides over the 70 minutes or so.
They hit the woodwork twice and dropped several more point attempts short too while three separate breaches of the 4/3 rule in the second-half resulted in three easy points for Armagh.
Dublin were forced to rejig their attack without the injured Con O'Callaghan and drafted in both Niall Scully and Paddy Small.
It amounted to two changes to their lineout from the Galway game with Scully replacing King Con and Small coming in for Brian O'Leary.
All-Star Conor Turbitt returned to the Armagh attack for Oisin O'Neill in the holders' only change.
There was a second start of the season too for O'Neill who boomed over a terrific two-pointer in the 27th minute for Armagh, from all of 50 metres out.
It was one of three Armagh two-pointers in the first-half as they played with the aid of the stiff diagonal breeze into the Davin End.
Grugan slotted the other two two-pointers, one from play and the other from a long-range free, though it wasn't until the second quarter that Armagh really found their groove.
Dublin led by 0-6 to 0-3 after 11 minutes and started the brighter with Cormac Costello in terrific form.
He lined up on Armagh defender Paddy Burns and gave him a difficult time, sniping five first-half points, three from play and two from frees, one of which he won himself after a Burns foul.
Dublin didn't make enough of their early dominance, however, and seven first-half wides undermined their bid for a first Championship win at Croke Park since defeating Roscommon there in May of 2024.
Lorcan O'Dell, Colm Basquel and Killian McGinnis hit three in a row at one stage and the misses appeared to energise Armagh who responded with Grugan's first two-pointer.
That cut the gap to just a point, 0-6 to 0-5, and gave Armagh vital momentum to kick on and build up a 0-13 to 0-9 lead at half-time.
The Orchard enjoyed plenty of joy down the left wing where Jarly Og Burns, Oisin Conaty and Grugan all profited with scores.
Conaty's 30th minute point, when he burst through two Dublin defenders and split the posts with a cool left-footed finish, was a case in point.
Dublin continued to rack up the wides after the break and shot themselves in the foot with no less than three breaches of the 4/3 rule, resulting in three tap over frees for Grugan.
The third of those Grugan scores left Armagh 0-18 to 0-11 clear after 45 minutes without having needed to do much to stretch their advantage.
Dublin chased two-pointers to cut the deficit but blasted seven long-range score attempts wide in the second-half. Two more point attempts dropped short as their attacking radar malfunctioned badly.
Costello and Paddy Small did kick one two-pointer each but O'Neill did likewise for Armagh, striking his second and third long-range scores of the day.
Armagh kept Dublin at arm's length throughout the second-half and goalkeeper Ethan Rafferty burst forward for one eye-catching score, holding off Paddy Small before pointing.
Even Costello, who finished with eight points for Dublin, weighed in with three second-half wides.
O'Neill set the seal on Armagh's win with his third two-point score, from a free, in the 59th minute, opening up an eight-point lead at that stage.
Substitute Joe McElroy rounded off the scoring for the Orchard who surged to the head of the Group 4 table.
Scorers for Armagh: Rory Grugan 0-8 (1 tp, 1 tpf, 4f), Rian O'Neill 0-6 (2 tp, 1 tpf), Jarlath Og Burns 0-2, Oisin Conaty 0-2, C Turbitt 0-1, Ross McQuillan 0-1, Ethan Rafferty 0-1, Darragh McMullan 0-1, Stefan Campbell 0-1, Joe McElroy 0-1.
Scorers for Dublin: Cormac Costello 0-8 (1 tp, 0-3f), Paddy Small 0-4 (1 tp), Sean Bugler 0-3 (1 tp), Lee Gannon 0-2, Lorcan O'Dell 0-1, Brian Howard 0-1.
Armagh: Ethan Rafferty; Peter McGrane, Paddy Burns, Barry McCambridge; Ross McQuillan, Tiernan Kelly, Jarlath Og Burns; Jason Duffy, Ben Crealey; Darragh McMullan, Rian O'Neill, Oisin Conaty, Rory Grugan, Conor Turbitt, Andrew Murnin.
Subs: Stefan Campbell for Turbitt 52, Joe McElroy for Duffy 63, Tomas McCormack for Grugan 67, Niall Grimley for O'Neill 68.
Dublin: Stephen Cluxton; David Byrne, Theo Clancy, Alex Gavin; Sean MacMahon, Brian Howard, Sean Bugler; Peadar O Cofaigh Byrne, Ciaran Kilkenny; Killian McGinnis, Niall Scully, Colm Basquel; Paddy Small, Cormac Costello, Lorcan O'Dell.
Subs: Lee Gannon for Basquel 20, John Small for Gavin h/t, Tom Lahiff for McGinnis & Luke Breathnach for O'Dell 48, Eoghan O'Donnell for Scully 60.
Referee: Joe McQuillan (Cavan).
