Rory Grugan has hailed Armagh’s resilience ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland SFC final.

The long-serving forward admits it would have been easy for players to walk away after many near-misses and heartbreaking defeats in recent years, but that ‘a total belief in what they were doing’ now has them on the cusp of a first Sam Maguire in 21 years.

"There's no point saying that at different times you wouldn't have doubted that," the Ballymacnab clubman told RTÉ.

"I think that's normal when you've been through difficult days and particularly in the last couple of seasons when we've been at a better level and we've lost really tight games and those penalty scenarios. It would be hard not to have that doubt.

"I suppose if we didn't have total belief in what we were doing the squad wouldn't have stuck together and we wouldn't have had that consistency in our approach. We wouldn't have believed in ‘Geezer’ (Kieran McGeeney) the way that we do.

"We knew what we were doing in terms of physical preparation and tactical preparation. I had total belief in what we were doing and we know how fine the margins are.

"That's what kind of kept us going, that belief that your time would come. And it doesn't guarantee you anything. Getting to a final is all well and good, but you want to go and win it now.”

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