It would be quite the moment, quite the sight; Jarlath Burns handing over the Sam Maguire to his county compatriot Aidan Forker, Jarly Óg Burns among the triumphant Armagh players standing on the steps of the Hogan Stand looking on, the stadium awash with orange.
Kieran McGeeney, the current Orchard manager, is the only Armagh man thus far to have experienced the thrill of receiving the Sam Maguire at Croke Park.
Forker would be lying if he said he hadn’t imagined following in McGeeney’s footsteps, because it isn’t just a recent dream, it’s an ambition he has held since childhood.
“I think we’ve all seen it in our head. Listen, everybody is human, how would you not daydream about that?
The top 25 women’s sporting moments of the year: 25-16 revealed with Vikki Wall, Lara Gillespie and Ireland Sevens featuring
Sarsfields captain Niamh McGrath on returning to the pitch after childbirth: ‘I’m not an inspiration to anyone’
Are Loughmore-Castleiney and Slaughtneil what all GAA clubs should strive to be?
“But you very quickly get yourself back to your KPIs and your process, as all the best sports psychologists will tell you – get back to your process, because the outcomes sort themselves.
“Of course you daydream about it, but I’ve been daydreaming about it from when I was eight years old. But that’s neither here nor there, we have to go and win a football match.”
The 32-year-old Maghery man was handed the Armagh captaincy this season, succeeding joint captains Rian O’Neill and Aidan Nugent in the role.
A talented soccer player who had trials with Liverpool and Tranmere when he was a teenager, Forker made his Armagh senior debut in 2012 and has shown his versatility over the years by fulfilling several different roles for the team – from defensive man-marker to offensive creator.
But the captaincy is not something which he has allowed to become a distraction.
“We’re very lucky in our group to have a lot of leaders, a lot of personalities, we’ve a great leadership group,” adds Forker. “I’ve said it on record before, I just go and take the toss, we have a lot of boys driving the standards, it’s not just me.
“I always pride myself on wanting the ball or demanding the ball but that’s in me, no matter what title you want to give it.
“I’ve always had a philosophy of trying to help the man on the ball or make the people beside you look a wee bit better. I’ll bring that no matter what role I’m playing. It’s all about us getting over the line.”
In the days before Armagh’s semi-final win over Kerry, Forker had started to reread Ronan O’Gara’s autobiography.
“He talked about the Munster teams building up to win stuff and that there was a lot of knocks, a lot of bangs, a lot of defeats,” says Forker.
“A lot of people were calling them nearly men and journeymen and these types of things and he said, ‘the reality is until we went and won that first Heineken Cup, they were right’.
“That stuck with me a wee bit, to be honest. All those wee things add to it all. I like that, I enjoy it. Do I take that and add it to my performance or game? Probably not. I just enjoy reading about it, I suppose.”
Forker has taken to the field with the number seven on his back for the most part this season but the digits on a jersey no longer fully explain the role of any player on a Gaelic football team.
“I am definitely that wee bit higher up the pitch, but whatever I am asked to do I will do it,” says Forker.
“Ciarán McKeever is a quality defensive coach. It’s probably not really down to my attributes or skill sets, I think some boys have really forged their way into the team and can’t really be left out.
“I think I got pushed out, not a case of bringing me higher up the pitch. I don’t see my role too differently as I had the last number of years, there’s no such thing as positions anymore, you go and bring your best wherever you are or whatever number is on your back.
“You line out there for the first 15 seconds of the game and then whatever happens after that happens, so I think you try bring the best of yourself to that role whether it be foot-passing or physicality or tackling.”
Or lifting trophies.
