KIERAN McGeeney says Armagh will relish the opportunity to test themselves against the best after being “thrown to the lions” for their Division One opener against Dublin at Croke Park.
The Orchard county manager expects his former Na Fianna team-mate Dessie Farrell and his Dublin team to be determined to lay down an early marker after they lost their All-Ireland title and unbeatable mystique last season.
Armagh face All-Ireland champions Tyrone at the Athletic Grounds on December 17 in an exhibition game in support of the Time2Play charity. That meeting will be as cordial as Armagh-Tyrone tussles get but the serious business begins when the Orchardmen travel to Croke Park on January 29. Tyrone visit the Athletic Grounds the following weekend (February 6) for a derby clash that McGeeney predicted “mighn’t be just as friendly”.
“We have Dublin in the first game at Croke Park and Tyrone in our second but that’s why you pull on the county jersey, you want to test yourself against the top teams and that’s the pinnacle,” said McGeeney.
“Despite what people have been saying about Dublin (being a fading force) they will be seething and they’ll want to lay a marker down and we’ve been thrown to the lions first. We’ll see how we go.”
As well as going to Croke Park, Armagh will travel to Mayo and to Donegal but they do have Tyrone, Monaghan, Kildare and Kerry at the Athletic Grounds. However, McGeeney says home advantage doesn’t count for much at the highest level.
“As you go down the divisions, home advantage means a lot,” he said.
“The higher up you go, the less it means. It might be different for Dublin at Croke Park but outside of that the standard is so high that if you make mistakes you’re going to get punished and you have to be able to punish the other side if they make them. I don’t think where we play the games will make that big of a difference at this level – who’s playing will make a bigger difference. Getting the full team out is going to be the big thing for us this year.”
Crossmaglen Rangers forward Cian McConville is among the new faces playing for places in the Armagh panel for next season.
McConville, son of Jim, nephew of Oisin and cousin of Rian and Oisin O’Neill, has been a prolific and consistent scorer at club level and he joins Caolan Donaghy, Ciaran Higgins, Brian Fox, Joe Sheridan, Niall Smyth, Niall McConville, Tomas McCormack, Patrick McAleer, Ryan Garvey, Eoin Woods, Justin Kearns, Ciaran Doyle and Vinny Brady on McGeeney’s extended squad.
Meanwhile, Maghery midfielder Ben Crealey has returned to the fold while Blaine Hughes, Aidan Nugent, Jason Duffy, Niall Rowland, Paddy Burns and Ross McQuillan are all fully fit again after injury disrupted their involvement in the 2021 campaigns.
Conor Turbitt, Tiernan Kelly and full-back Barry McCambridge from county champions Clann Eireann are expected to join the panel after their club’s championship run comes to a conclusion and Conor McConville and Daniel Magee could also be in contention for places in the squad. Ballymacnab’s Ryan Kennedy and Crossmaglen’s Paul Hughes have opted out.
Cullyhanna clubman Nugent – fully fit after recovering from a serious knee injury - and Rian O’Neill are the joint captains of the side.
“There are a lot of good young players coming through at the moment and I think Armagh club football has really progressed over the last seven or eight years,” said McGeeney.
“Armagh has always had good players and we have a good bunch of lads at the minute. We’re really happy with our set-up and the players are too so we’re looking forward to testing ourselves.”
