Armagh have been crowned All-Ireland champions, and 10 years of hard work, graft and dedication from Kieran McGeeney has been fully vindicated and justified.
The Ulster side were crushed when Donegal beat them in the provincial final through penalties once again, and their season looked dead in the water.
In what is now a story of resilience and never giving up, Armagh did the impossible, they came back from the dead, and got the last laugh when the whistle blew for the final time this season.
With all this in mind, and the jubilation still sweeping the county at the moment, Clerkin makes a very big claim indeed, while writing in his column in the Irish Independent about Armagh's success in 2024.
READ HERE: Kieran Donaghy Recalls 'Fall Outs' In Armagh Camp En Route To All-Ireland Glory
Kieran McGeeney’s success with Armagh this year is the greatest managerial achievement in the history of the GAA. Never before has a team with, relatively, so little, achieved so much.
"Never before has a team with no provincial football medals on their collective CV gone on to win an All-Ireland. Not since ‘Heffo’s Army’ in 1974 has a team with no individual All-Stars in their ranks climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand.
"Operating in Division 2 or lower for the majority of the past decade, McGeeney has created this All-Ireland team in a way no team has journeyed before.
When you first read that Clerkin is calling this All-Ireland win the greatest managerial achievement in the history of the GAA, you quickly jump to the conclusion that he is wrong.
Jim Gavin's five-in-a-row, Mickey Harte's immediate success in guiding Tyrone to their first ever All-Ireland, Jim McGuinness's transformation of Donegal stand out amongst the hundreds of other achievements across GAA history.
However, the more you think about it, and consider how far this team have come, how little they have had to work with in terms of underage success, and the fact that they are the fourth smallest county in Ireland, the smallest in Northern Ireland, and throw in the painful defeats and heartache - it's actually hard to disagree with Clerkin here.
