The Armagh Senior and Junior championship kicks off tonight with a round robin structure in place this season.
Middletown will be the early favourites to continue their domination, but they have a bye in the opening week.
Craobh Rua have made the jump to senior level, leaving the Junior Championship wide open.
Senior Championship
Derrynoose v Keady
The big game in the opening week of action is the clash between neighbours Derrynoose and Keady.
Keady won the most recent league meeting between the sides, 1-15 to 0-13, but are away from home tonight.
Fionntan Donnelly will offer the main scoring threat up front for last years beaten finalists, assisted by captain Conor Corvan.
The Renaghan’s, Conor and Stephen provide a strong midfield duo while James King will marshal the centre of the defence.
Derrynoose, who crashed out at the semi-final stage last year, will look to the likes of Peter McKearney and Pauric McNaughton for scores at their end of the field.
Paddy Quinn is the main man in defence along with Stephen McKearney and they will need to be on top form.
Cuchulainns v Craobh Rua
Ulster Junior Champions Craobh Rua have made the step up to senior level. They face Cuchulainns this evening in the first round.
Tiarnan O’Hare has been the star man for Craobh Rua over the last few years. He picked up back-to-back Man of the Match awards in consecutive Junior finals.
Younger brother Oisin is the team captain this season and was also named as 2021 Junior Hurler of the Year.
John Toner’s Cuchulainns side will be backboned by the experienced Ciaran Clifford and captain Conor Devlin.
Junior Championship
St Malachy’s v Cuchulainns II
Cuchulainns IIs made it to the decider last season but were defeated by a much stronger Craobh Rua side in the end.
Joseph Burke was instrumental in leading them to the final and will once again be the one to watch for Cuchulainns.
They travel to Portadown this evening for a repeat of last season’s semi-final showdown, which they won by 15 in the end.
St Malachy’s will hope to close that gap this year and will look to the likes of captain Joseph McKeever to lead the way.
Keady II v Killeavy
Killeavy made the 2020 Junior final and lost out to Craobh Rua, and it was the same team that ended their run last year.
Killeavy made an excellent start to last season’s semi-final and led by the minimum of margins at the interval.
Craobh Rua were too strong after the turnaround however and comfortably won the game in the end.
Keady II will be going into the encounter as underdogs but will hope home advantage can give them an edge.
They’ll be looking to the experience of goalkeeper Joby Burke as well as captains Colm and Caolan Mone.
