'Armagh have momentum. They are a serious team'

Armagh's Rian O'Neill will form a big part of Kerry boss Jack O'Connor's analysis in the build-up to the All-Ireland semi-final in two weeks' time

Having finally snapped their All-Ireland quarter-final curse with victory over Roscommon, Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney was quick to point out that his side won't be favourites in the last four.

When he faced the media, of course, McGeeney did not yet know Armagh's reward for securing a first All-Ireland semi-final appearance since 2005 was a showdown with Kerry.

With Dublin out, Kerry may well be frontrunners for many - although Galway may have something to say about that - but the Munster champions were far from their best in seeing off Derry in a dour quarter-final on Sunday.

McGeeney may have been buoyed by Kerry's performance, and while his opposite number Jack O'Connor has a bit of homework to do on Armagh, he has clearly seen enough to know they will pose a serious threat in a fortnight's time.

"I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t been watching them overly closely," O'Connor told reporters after Kerry beat Derry 0-15 to 0-10 in an anticlimactic quarter-final.

"I obviously watched their game with Derry and that’s enough for me to know that they are a serious team. They went to Derry and dismantled Derry’s defence.

"And we found it tough enough to break their defence today. So they are a team on the crest of a wave with huge support and momentum behind them. That’s always a dangerous combination."

The semi-final will mark Armagh and Kerry's first championship meeting since the Kingdom ran out comfortable winners in the 2006 quarter-finals en route to claiming Sam during the first of O'Connor's three spells in charge.

Before that, of course, Armagh - with McGeeney as captain - beat Kerry in the 2002 decider to claim the county's only title to date.

O'Connor's side of 2006 was powered by the attacking ingenuity of Colm Cooper and physical might of Kieran Donaghy, the latter of whom is part of the Orchard backroom team.

Eighteen years on, O'Connor's talisman is two-time Footballer of the Year David Clifford, whose tetchy battle with Derry defender Chrissy McKaigue resulted in yellow cards for both players on Sunday.

But while O'Connor was at a loss as to how Clifford was booked by referee David Coldrick, he had few complaints about Derry's attempts to unnerve the five-time All-Star.

"I'm loathe to comment on stuff like that," O'Connor told BBC Sport NI.

"He possibly was but David's a big enough boy to look after himself. David doesn't look for cheap frees or for sympathy.

"I wasn't too sure why he [Clifford] got booked, but look, sometimes the referee doesn't get a good look of those incidents.

"We've no big issue with that. As I said, he can look after himself."