Ahead of this weekend's All-Ireland semi-finals, it's difficult to remember a time when it felt as though the four remaining teams were as well balanced as they are this year.
Dublin had long been considered the favourites to lift the Sam Maguire this summer, although their defeat to Galway in the quarter-finals would put an end to that notion. The Tribesmen now look to be in a fantastic position heading into the semis, although the same could also be said of Donegal, Kerry, and Armagh.
All four counties enter this weekend's fixtures with a sense of momentum behind them, and judging by their performances in recent times, it is difficult to separate any of them.
However, one thing could end up tilting the balance in Armagh's favour.
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Canavan Makes Big Claim On Armagh Standing Among All-Ireland Contenders
Armagh will enter tomorrow's semi-final against Kerry as slight underdogs, largely down to their lack of recent pedigree at this stage of the championship. In saying that, there is no doubt that they have the resources to overcome The Kingdom at Croke Park.
Speaking on the RTÉ GAA Podcast, Peter Canavan shared his belief that Armagh might well have the strongest panel of the four teams left in the All-Ireland hunt.
From the four teams that are left, the team with the strongest panel, in my opinion, is Armagh.
The most difficult part of managing an inter-county team at the minute is holding on to your fringe players.
It’s okay when you’re in the first 18, you’re guaranteed to get games throughout the National League, but to carry a big panel, for players to put in that amount of effort and commitment and see very little action – well the easy way out is always to go back to the club and get playing football because that’s what everyone wants to do, is to get playing on the park.
Those players have remained very loyal to McGeeney, there’s a great backroom team there, so there are a lot of things going right in Armagh behind the scenes that very few people know about.
Depth will certainly be an important factor in deciding the winner of this year's All-Ireland, an area that Armagh excel in.
It will be interesting to see if that comes to the fore over the next couple of weeks, starting with that clash against Kerry tomorrow.
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