Aidan Forker hoping for lucky 13 as Orchard captain chases Sam Maguire

After a dozen seasons of grinding, Armagh captain Aidan Forker is hoping that it's a case of lucky 13 as he leads the Orchard County out on All-Ireland final day against Galway on Sunday.

Only three Armagh people have had that honour before, current manager Kieran McGeeney in 2002 and ’03, Seán Quinn in 1953 and Jimmy Smyth in 1977, so he knows he’s in a privileged position.

School teacher Forker also knows that a lot of people will say he deserves a fitting finale from a 13-year career that has produced just two Division 3 crowns and a pre-season O’Fiaich Cup.

But the deep-thinking wing-back also is aware that 'deserve’ doesn’t come into the reckoning and while the scenes at Croke Park after the semi-final win over Kerry were extraordinary, they will mean little if the job isn’t finished against the Tribesmen.

"I think it only becomes special if you go and win it, to be honest. Otherwise you're just one of those teams that got to a final and didn't win.

"Yeah, it's nice for the county to be in another final which are quite rare. With your own performance head on and getting the best out of each other, you're going there to win and you're going there to get the best out of yourself and perform.

"There's plenty of time for chat about buzz and memories and all of that craic afterwards."

They're words you can almost imagine coming out of McGeeney’s mouth in the lead up to their own date with destiny in September 2002. Forker embodies a lot of the same leadership qualities that ‘Geezer’ demonstrated.

Literature, psychology and a regimental training routine are all shared passions. In many ways, it seems unusual that it’s taken Forker this long to be named captain given he appeared the obvious fit.

"Sometimes the captain doesn’t