IT was somewhere around the middle of spring 2008 I met Aidan O’Rourke in the heart of Newry for an interview.
The 2002 All-Ireland winner had just opened up a picture framing shop and was still punching his weight in Armagh’s half-back line.
The Orchard men were raging against the dying light, still hoping to land a second All-Ireland that they should really have won in 2003 or ’04.
After an unforgettable trilogy in ‘05, they finally succumbed to Tyrone.
With each passing year it seemed the window of opportunity was narrowing.
In the second half of their 2006 All-Ireland quarter-final, Kerry kicked, pushed, bumped and shoulder-charged them out of it.
The following year felt like the genuine end of Armagh’s All-Ireland aspirations.
Donegal beat them in Ballybofey - where a young Brendan Donaghy announced his arrival and suggested the future may not be so bad - and Derry edged them out in Clones.
Joe Kernan's men certainly weren't used to short summers.
The McEntees had already bowed out before then and Kieran McGeeney would follow at the end of the ’07 season. Diarmaid Marsden came back but Armagh’s old magic had gone.
It was Kerry and Tyrone’s time to shine.
And yet, during that interview with Aidan O’Rourke in '08 he explained in typically matter-of-fact terms that the reason he was still playing for Armagh was to win another All-Ireland. And he wholeheartedly believed it too.
Some of the old crew were still around and had the muscle memory that you need on the big days: Paul McGrane, O’Rourke, Stevie McDonnell, Oisin McConville, Ronan Clarke and Francie Bellew.
And the confident way in which they dismissed Down in the semi-finals suggested that there still might be enough in Peter McDonnell’s ranks to reach an All-Ireland final.
They needed two goes to beat Malachy O’Rourke’s Fermanagh in the decider and between that victory and their meeting with All-Ireland gate-crashers Wexford, optimism grew inside and outside the Armagh camp.
Ask any of ’08 squad and their inability to cope with Jason Ryan’s sweeper system at Croke Park still niggles them.
But were they really good enough to beat Tyrone or Kerry that season? Probably not.
Nevertheless, the summer of ’08 was the last time Armagh would experience Ulster Championship success.
It was startling to watch Armagh bow out of the '09 Ulster Championship to arch rivals Tyrone in Clones without so much as a whimper.
Since their last Ulster title, has there been a more tortured soul in Ulster than the Orchard County?
As the summers clicked by there was a deeper appreciation of the high amount of leaders Armagh had in the one team. To a man, they were all irreplaceable.
Despite knowing this, expectations on the Armagh teams that followed remained ridiculously high, as power shifted to Donegal and Monaghan before Tyrone would come again.
In the last decade they had good players but not enough of them and, as Championship results showed, they didn't possess enough leaders.
In his last season in charge before handing the reins over to Kieran McGeeney, Paul Grimley was desperately unlucky not to overcome Donegal in the 2014 All-Ireland quarter-finals.
When 'Geezer' took charge, expectations were off the scale - largely because it was 'Geezer' in charge, the spiritual leader of '02.
His presence alone would be enough.
What summed up the hype was that some observers actually fancied Armagh to topple a seasoned and supremely drilled team like Donegal in 2015.
It was Division One versus Division Three; All-Ireland contenders versus a work-in-progress, and an erratic one at that.
After his Donegal side sauntered to victory, Rory Gallagher acknowledged that the gap between the two counties made it virtually impossible for Armagh to win.
McGeeney's time in charge can be characterised as the house of pain.
Just when you thought the team was making progress they'd fall spectacularly and be the talk of the place for the next fortnight.
In 2016, they were all over the place against Cavan. In 2017, the big drum roll ended with another Ulster Championship defeat to Down.
Undoubtedly the worst day of the lot was their desperate show against Fermanagh in 2018.
When things have gone wrong for Armagh, they seem to go horribly wrong. Their shortcomings have nearly always been in attack where their decision-making and inability to transition and create smooth overloads let them down.
And yet, before their summers would end they nearly always redeemed themselves with gutsy Qualifier runs that suggested they weren’t as bad as those dreadful Ulster Championship days.
Even in recording their first provincial win under ‘Geezer’ – an epic extra-time encounter with Down in 2019 – Armagh did their best to lose the game three or four times over.
They didn’t have the luxury of a back-door run in 2020, due to the pandemic, bowing out meekly to a Donegal side that looked like All-Ireland champions at Breffni Park.
So why should 2021 be any different for Armagh as they prepare for tomorrow’s semi-final against Monaghan?
There is a feeling that it’s now or never for the Orchard men. They have endured enough harsh lessons over the past six years to push on and make the provincial breakthrough.
They have been finally exposed, albeit in a truncated format, to the rigours of Division One.
They have the best group of players they’ve had under McGeeney since he took charge in terms of accumulated Championship experience and attacking threat.
Aidan Forker, Rory Grugan and Stefan ‘Soupy’ Campbell have been around enough corners now, while Jarlath Og Burns, Oisin O’Neill and Rian O’Neill have all shown the kind of conviction top teams need in front of the opposition’s posts.
Kieran Donaghy and Ciaran McKeever, by all accounts, have also kept things fresh in the background.
No-one from within the camp appears to be shying away from the fact either that the time is now for Armagh to deliver.
They've had enough torturous summers to last any player a life-time.
