Effective communication: Kieran McGeeney glad for the chance to spar with old pal Pádraic Joyce

Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney was still coming down from the high of his team topping their All-Ireland round-robin group when his phone vibrated and a text came through from Galway boss Pádraic Joyce.

Earlier that day, the sides had met in Sligo and the Orchard County had nabbed a fairly undeserved draw that ensured they topped the group with Galway instead heading to the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals.

In the aftermath, Joyce decided to set the terms.

"After the game in Sligo he said he'd see us in the final, we’ll our win our games, you win yours and we’ll blow this championship open," McGeeney revealed of the conversation.

"I haven’t asked him yet who he said was going to win it!

We need your consent to load this YouTube content We use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preferences

"Pádraic is a good fella, we get on pretty well. We were on All-Star trips, Aussie Rules together, different things.

"That era of football, Joyce, (Trevor) Giles, (Seamus) Moynihan, was a good era to play football in, not so much to run after those types of boys. Joyce himself was a great player. We go back a long way."

'We’ll win our games, you win yours’ – Joyce and McGeeney kept up their end of the bargain and it all comes to a head at Croke Park on Sunday.

Between them, from that day in Markievicz Park, Dublin, Kerry, Donegal, Monaghan and Roscommon have been dumped from the Championship at their hands meaning for the first time since Cork’s win over Down in 2010, Dublin, Kerry or Mayo aren’t main characters in the season finale.

McGeeney, the sole Armagh captain to ever lift the Sam Maguire,