By John Harrington

The presence of Armagh in a National Hurling Final would have once been seen as an oddity, but no longer. 

Hard-work at grass-roots level has paid off, and saturday's Nicky Rackard Cup Final against Mayo will be their fifth time to play for this particular piece of silverware in the last 10 years. 

They were here as recently as last year, and according to defender Ciarán Clifford will be driven by the desire to make amends for that heart-breaking one-point defeat when they were sickened by a last-gasp goal.

“It was the last puck of the game, a 21-yard free,” says Clifford. “Not good memories, no. It's not a nice place to be, getting beaten in any final but getting beaten the way we did.

“I think we led from the 7th or 8th minute right through to the 74th but we didn't do enough to win. It was more the fact of how they won. It was a free, the last puck, our goalie hadn't even time to take the puck out.

“My only memory is just being hunched over on the 21, just thinking of all the training that had gone in since November. Okay, it's a level three All-Ireland but you still put the same work into the Nicky Rackard as the Armagh footballers put into their Ulster championship campaign. To lose it the way we did was just very, very disappointing.”

Armagh have bounced back impressively this year by pulling off a shock in the Allianz Hurling League Division 2B Final where they beat Down. Clifford admits the nature of the victory is something they can draw on going into Saturday’s Final.

“The performance in the league final does give you confidence that if you show up and play well then you will win. It's about getting that performance. When it comes to a final, nerves kick in, people get excited about it. People don't play as well and others step up to the plate. But having the experience of playing in last year's final in Croke Park, and then the league final this year, it has to stand for something.

“It doesn't mean you're going to find it any easier to win, it doesn't guarantee anything, but it does make it a bit easier in terms of nerves and just getting the mind set right for a final. It is something different and every wee thing can help leading up to it.”

Promotion to Division 2A of the National League for the first time is another impressive step forward for a county that has made a lot of progress in the last decade despite a lack of playing numbers at club level. Were they to win on Saturday, it would be their third Rackard Cup in seven years.

“We only have seven clubs in Armagh,” says Clifford. “Three senior and the other four junior. The three senior teams, the last three years, there's been three different winners so it's very, very competitive currently and this all started about 10 years ago. They got to their first Nicky Rackard final and Roscommon beat them but that was the start of an upward curve.

“There's been Ulster minor appearances, U-21 finals, senior final, two or three Nicky Rackard finals and we've now gone up in the league as well so there's been a huge rise in Armagh hurling. How high it can go, I'm not too sure. If you had said to me whenever I started out 10 years ago that you'd be playing against Westmeath and Antrim in a league game you'd be sort of looking saying, 'I don't know about that'.

“But we're there now. It does come down to the clubs and the clubs are working hard. It's a small number but it's that competitiveness against each other that brings out the best in each other.”

Clifford is resigned to the fact that hurling will always be the poor relation in Armagh, but believes a win on Saturday would help sustain the growth of the game in the county.

“Armagh is a football county and it'll always be a football county,” he says. “But I wouldn't say you're playing second fiddle. You're just trying to get more organised at times, a wee bit more structure. The last few weeks, any of the boys involved in football, their games have been postponed until after the Nicky Rackard so it gives you a bit of a run, a chance.

“But it is hard and it is hard to draw boys towards hurling because there's a lot of pressure on them to play football. But once boys see a bit of progress with hurling there's a bit of a sway towards that. You might get four or five extra hurlers because we're in Division 2A next year and they might say, 'you know what, I fancy that'.

“Obviously winning Nicky Rackard again would be a big help. If you manage to get into the Christy Ring and are playing higher league and Championship standard then boys might slightly be more inclined to sway towards that which is only good for us at the end of the day.”

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