The Armagh vs Galway football match that took place on 26 June 2022 at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland, was the third quarter-final match of the 2022 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. Galway reached the stage with an undefeated record in the competition, having won the 2022 Connacht Senior Football Championship. Armagh reached this stage through the qualifiers. The game was administered by Meath officials led by Blackhall Gaels referee David Coldrick.

The game was noteworthy as the first knockout match in the All-Ireland SFC Series to be decided by penalties and the first game at Croke Park to be so decided. It also featured a brawl ahead of the extra-time period. Galway forward Damien Comer was filmed having his eyes gouged. Referee Coldrick controversially issued red cards to Seán Kelly and Aidan Nugent, even though replays suggested they were acting as peacemakers. Government members, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin, condemned the fighting. Charles Flanagan, the former Minister for Justice, asked for a Garda investigation to be conducted. Called as "chaotic and hair-raising" by RTÉ, it overshadowed and delayed the main game of the day, between "two A-listers from the 2010s", Kerry vs Mayo.

The game was televised nationally on RTÉ2 as part of The Sunday Game live programme, presented by Joanne Cantwell from the outdoor COVID-19 pandemic-proofed studio at Croke Park, with analysis from (positioned left to right onscreen) Colm Boyle, Oisín McConville and Pat Spillane. Match commentary was provided by Darragh Maloney, assisted by Éamonn Fitzmaurice. BBC Radio's coverage included Peter Canavan, Conleith Gilligan and Mark McHugh. Des Cahill presented the highlights programme on RTÉ2 that night, with analysis from Seán Cavanagh, Colm Cooper and Ciarán Whelan.

Pre-match Galway won the 2022 Connacht Senior Football Championship, defeating Roscommon in the final. Donegal knocked Armagh out of the 2022 Ulster Senior Football Championship but gained their revenge by winning against the same team in the 2022 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship qualifier.

Armagh and Galway played each other for the fourth time in the championship and the first since 2015. Apart from the second meeting in 2013 (which took place at Pearse Stadium), all other games occurred at Croke Park. Galway won each of the previous three games. Those were: a 2001 Round 2 Qualifier (which ended Galway 0–13 Armagh 0–12), a 2013 Qualifier (which ended Galway 1–11 Armagh 0–9) and a 2015 Qualifier (which ended Galway 1–12 Armagh 0–12).

Armagh's 2002 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final-winning goalkeeper Benny Tierney had Armagh as the "marginal" favourite ahead of the game.

Most of the supporters who travelled to Dublin for the game were following Armagh.

Match

First half

Jemar Hall was named to start the game for Armagh but Andrew Murnin actually started it and Hall appeared later as a substitute. Armagh played towards the Hill 16 end in the first half. Galway were given a free immediately from the throw-in.

On Armagh's first venture forward, Aidan Nugent sent the ball wide. Damien Comer scored the opening point of the game, for Galway, after four minutes of play. Rian O'Neill levelled the game for Armagh in the seventh minute. Then Stefan Campbell put Armagh into the lead. Rory Grugan scored Armagh's third point, followed by a fourth from Nugent.

Matthew Tierney then scored Galway's second point of the game. And Robert Finnerty their third. Jarly Óg Burns scored a fisted point for Armagh. Cillian McDaid scored Galway's fourth point of the game. Armagh then got a free, which Grugan converted, the game's first. Grugan followed it with a second free. Armagh player James Morgan pulled on the jersey of Galway forward Shane Walsh; Walsh converted the free to a score from his hands, leaving the game at Armagh 0–7 Galway 0–5. Then Walsh converted another free for Galway. Seán Kelly blocked an attempt on goal by Nugent. Tierney levelled the game by scoring for Galway after 34 minutes, the second time the two teams were even on the scoreboard. Armagh goalkeeper Ethan Rafferty ran out the field with the ball. Tierney attempted a point but it dropped short.

Second half Galway's Finnerty scored the second half's opening point to give his team the lead for a second time. Armagh's Conor O'Neill fisted the equalising point. A shot from Tierney struck the crossbar and fell to Tierney who handpassed it to Johnny Heaney. Heaney scored the first goal of the game, for Galway. Then Walsh scored a point. Then Nugent and Campbell, for Armagh. Then Finnerty, for Galway. Then Campbell, for Armagh. Finnian Ó Laoi, on as a blood replacement, scored a point for Galway shortly after taking to the field. Galway forward Walsh was knocked again.

Rian O'Neill scored a point from a free for Armagh. Then Grugan missed another free. Armagh substitute Conor Turbitt fisted the ball onto the crossbar and it went over to leave the score at Galway 1–12 Armagh 0–13 with twelve minutes of play left.

With Galway having a two-point lead, and in the 61st minute of the game, Armagh's Greg McCabe struck with his shoulder Galway player Matthew Tierney against Tierney's head. Referee David Coldrick showed McCabe a straight red card, meaning he had to exit the game. The panel on The Sunday Game highlights programme was unanimous in its support for the decision. Tierney's head was cut open.

Armagh were six points and one man down after Greg McCabe was shown a straight red card for colliding with Galway player Matthew Tierney. Eight minutes of stoppage time were added. Armagh scored two goals in injury time. The first resulted from a ball landing in front of Aidan Nugent. Galway forward Damien Comer then scored a point which seemed to send his team through to the semi-final. However, Armagh substitute Turbitt then sent the ball into the Galway net to leave his team one point behind. Armagh received a free at a difficult angle and at distance of fifty metres from the Galway posts. Rian O'Neill stepped up and sent the ball over the bar to tie the game at 2–14 to 1–17 and also the game to extra-time.

As the teams proceeded to the tunnel a brawl began. The violence occurred at the entrance to the Cusack Stand tunnel.

Extra-time Before extra-time got underway, referee Coldrick could be seen spending a great deal of time speaking with the other match officials.

Coldrick showed straight red cards to both captains (Armagh's Aidan Nugent and Seán Kelly of Galway), even though replays showed theirs were efforts to end the brawl. Suggestions that their roles as captains might have led to their dismissal were contradicated by the Irish Independent which said no rule exists for this — "But there may be acknowledgement that they were identified in error and that would lay out a strong case for any proposed suspension to be overturned. Both players would still have to seek a hearing but there is no video evidence to support any case for penalties against either player to stick." The Irish Times said that Coldrick "hadn't had his sharpest day at the office". However, the rulebook allowed both players to be replaced before the game resumed, meaning each team had a full complement of players for the remainder of the game.

Ahead of the 2022 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final (where Galway met Kerry), the Irish Independent returned to the game and noted how, ahead of extra-time: "The manager passes on a message to Seán Kelly, whose immediate response is one of shock and disbelief. After a quick talk in the huddle, and several consoling pats from his team-mates, the Galway captain puts his hands to his head." Kelly, asked what Coldrick had said, responded: "At the time he was just like we were an instigator to the melee ... he had to pick someone. I got the short straw, you could say." Kelly also said that his status (and that of Nugent) as captain had not been mentioned.

Penalties With the teams still level after extra-time the game went to penalties. It was the first time a knockout match in the All-Ireland SFC Series was decided by penalties and the first game at Croke Park to be so decided. Galway won the shootout 4–1.

Galway's Shane Walsh, Damien Comer, Robert Finnerty and Matthew Tierney each scored their penalties, with Tierney's the decisive kick after Armagh's Stefan Campbell sent his penalty wide, Rian O'Neill hit his into the net and Conor Turbitt hit his effort against the post. Galway advanced to a semi-final game against Derry, who had beaten Clare at Croke Park the previous day.

Galway manager Pádraic Joyce called it "disgraceful" that a championship match would be decided on penalties. RTÉ analyst Seán Cavanagh, speaking on The Sunday Game highlights programme, said he accepted penalties served a purpose to determine the winner of some games but that an All-Ireland quarter-final should not be decided in this way ("These aren't the skills that we typically coach our players"). Former President Liam O'Neill responded the next day: "I don't like it, but we legislated for that. People got into a room at some stage and voted for it. We have to accept that if it's in the rules, that's what happens. It's not our way of doing things. We were frogmarched into this split season — getting the championship over early — by the media and people saying we had to look after the clubs. It hasn't really worked. We were told this was the way it should be, and responded and thought it was good to go along with it. We've given away August and September to other sports. I thought we had a very good system and somehow we changed it and it hasn’t worked. We have to admit that now."

Details

1 Connor Gleeson 2 Liam Silke 3 Seán Kelly (c) 4 Jack Glynn 5 Dylan McHugh 6 John Daly 7 Kieran Molloy 8 Paul Conroy 9 Cillian McDaid 10 Patrick Kelly 11 Matthew Tierney 12 Johnny Heaney 13 Robert Finnerty 14 Damien Comer 15 Shane Walsh Substitutes:23 Finnian Ó Laoi for Seán Kelly (69 mins)20 Niall Daly for Rob Finnerty (70+4 mins)22 Owen Gallagher for Shane Walsh (70+9 mins)15 Shane Walsh for Owen Gallagher (start of extra-time)18 Billy Mannion (start of extra-time)13 Robert Finnerty for Niall Daly (start of extra-time)17 James Foley for Liam Silke (82 mins)19 Cathal Sweeney for Dylan McHugh (90 mins)Manager: Pádraic Joyce Man of the Match: Cillian McDaid (Galway)1 Ethan Rafferty 2 James Morgan 3 Aidan Forker 4 Conor O'Neill 5 Aaron McKay 6 Greg McCabe 7 Jarly Óg Burns 8 Stephen Sheridan 9 Ben Crealey 10 Rory Grugan 11 Stefan Campbell 12 Jemar Hall 13 Aidan Nugent (c) 14 Rian O'Neill (c) 15 Jason Duffy Substitutes:20 Connaire Mackin for Stephen Sheridan (43 mins)22 Ciarán Mackin for Aaron McKay (55 mins)23 Eoin Woods for Jason Duffy (68 mins)25 Justin Kieran for Jarly Og Burns (68 mins)18 Niall Rowland (start of extra-time)7 Jarly Óg Burns for Aidan Nugent (start of extra-time)17 Mark Shields for Aidan Forker (74 mins)12 Jemar Hall for Rory Grugan (83 mins)15 Jason Duffy for Ben Crealey (83 mins)Manager: Kieran McGeeney

Reactions Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney had a confrontation with a BBC journalist after the game.

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