Galway resilience impressing Paul Clancy in 2024

Two-time All-Ireland winner Paul Clancy suggests that comparing the spectacle of football and hurling is a fruitless endeavour as they're very different games, but he's hoping Galway and Armagh serve up a rip-roaring contest on Sunday afternoon.

Last weekend's All-Ireland hurling decider proved to be a modern classic as Clare landed just their fifth ever title against a Cork side who were looking to bring 19 years of hurt to an end.

After a period of different winners every year between 2010 and 2014, football settled in a period of relative repetition for the next near decade with Dublin (7), Kerry and Tyrone lifting the Sam Maguire since.

The 1990s saw Donegal and Derry win their first All-Irelands, while Cork, Dublin, Meath, Down and Kerry also got in on the act before Clancy's iconic Galway team arrived under the late John O'Mahony towards the end of the decade.

Two All-Irelands in four seasons were followed by Armagh claiming their first - and to date only - All-Ireland but since then both counties have fallen back into the pack. As such, it's a rare chance to be crowned champions of Ireland for both counties.

For the neutral however, there's the hope that the big ball can stand up for itself against the splendour of what the Banner and the Rebels served up.

"Comparing football and hurling is unfair, they're completely different types of games," Clancy points out at the launch of the AIB Volunteer VIP competition.

"Sometimes they get put in the same [conversation]. The entertainment value on the hurling final was just off the charts. The slower build up of the defence in football can get a bad rap but I think on its own merits the football championship has been very entertaining.

"It has thrown up some really good games and