Niall Grimley's winding road to glory after rollercoaster year

Niall Grimley sinking to his knees at full-time in the All-Ireland final stands as one of the defining images of the 2024 All-Ireland championship.

The Armagh midfielder had overcome injury and then a period of languishing on the bench in the first half of the year to emerge as one of the stars of the All-Ireland series.

Highlights included the viral - if unrewarded - Odell Beckham Jr. style piece of fielding in his first start against Roscommon, a towering display in the shock semi-final win over Kerry, and then the unforgettable decider, where he forced over Armagh's penultimate point on the counter, the ball clipping in off the far post to make it a two-point game in a match where every score was seismic.

In many respects, Grimley and Footballer of the Year nominee Barry McCambridge, neither of whom earned a start in the Ulster championship, are emblematic of Armagh's stunning burst from the peleton to take a most unexpected of All-Ireland titles in 2024.

The Armagh footballers had long been typecast as doomed nearly men under the direction of an unlucky general, a narrative which held as late this June this summer.

Less than three months after another agonising Ulster final loss - provincial glory being regarded as their most realistic shot at silverware - they claimed the biggest prize of all.

Grimley, who turns 30 this year and overcame a horrific broken neck injury in 2022, is one of those longstanding Armagh players who sampled life in Division 3 long before the county returned to the top table. Back then, did he ever envisage seasons like this?

"When I was 21 and 22, starting off your Armagh senior career, obviously we were up and down in Division 2, Division 3," Grimley said, on being named the Gaelic Writers'