On Saturday, the Armagh Ladies side will welcome their arch-rivals Tyrone to Crossmaglen in the semi-final of the Ulster Championship.
As fate would have it, Armagh also meet their neighbours in the All-Ireland series, that game taking place in two weeks’ time.
For now, all the attention will be on Saturday’s clash as the Orchard County look to make it back to the Ulster Final.
They’ve have reached the decider in the previous two years, but heavy defeats to Donegal denied their chances of gaining silverware.
Still, they will aim to make it back to the showpiece and it doesn’t get much tougher than having to overcome Tyrone.
In an already difficult year, Armagh will meet Tyrone twice in two weeks and for the third time this season.
The sides clashed in round two of the league, way back in early February, and played out an extremely close affair.
Armagh just didn’t have enough on the day to get a result and were on the wrong side of a 1-14 to 1-12 score line.
That was the first time Tyrone had beaten their rivals in twenty-four years in the league, safe to say Armagh will be on the hunt for revenge.
Emma Brennan is the main attacking threat in the red and white and Armagh will look to curtail her influence this weekend.
Niamh Hughes, Cailtin Kelly and Niamh O’Neill are others in the Tyrone forward line that may cause Armagh trouble.
Of course, Armagh hold their own quality in the attacking half of the field and will look to move the ball forward as quickly as possible.
Captain Kelly Mallon is the playmaker at centre half forward as well as being her sides top scorer, with 2-17 in the league.
Catherine Marley, Blaithin Mackin and Caroline O’Hanlon are also dangerous going forward and can rack up serious scores.
Armagh will hope that another option this weekend will be the return of Shane O’Neill’s sharpshooter Aimee Mackin.
Mackin bounced back from an ACL injury and caught headlines during the summer, hitting eight goals in one half during the club championship.
In defence, Armagh are backboned by the Marley sisters, Sarah and Niamh as well as full back Clodagh McCambridge.
Led by the management team of Ronan Murphy and Tommy Stevenson, the Ladies will hope they can do enough to get over the line this weekend.
Like all sporting activity, this game will be played behind closed doors, but Armagh will hope to make good use of this window of opportunity.
A win would see them through to a third Ulster final in a row, while also setting them up well for a charge at the All-Ireland series at the end of the month.
It’s well within their grasp and they will now that if they can produce their best on the day, it should be enough to earn the win.
