The Armagh Masters get their championship campaign underway when they host Louth, in Pearse Og Park, on Saturday.
It’s the first competitive outing for the newly formed Orchard side and the numbers have grown since the team was set up before Christmas.
Annaghmore’s Paul Cullen agreed to manage the team for the upcoming season. They’ll also face Tyrone, Antrim, Donegal, Leitrim and Down in the coming weeks.
“Austy McKenna, Paudi McKeever, Brian McGeary, Chris Rafferty, all those boys were chatting and thought it would be a good idea to try and get it going,” said Cullen “It’s happening all over the country, so we said why not.
“Once we got a couple of weeks in it soon got from 15 to 18 to 20 to 25. We’d 24 out there tonight and there’s six or seven away play reserve football. There’s a few men carrying knocks and maybe looking after themselves a bit for Saturday.
“It’s good and competitive, everybody goes at it. The main thing is everyone is enjoying and we’re looking forward to Saturday.
“We went down to play Dublin in a challenge match there and we had a great evening. We went back to Armagh, a few beers on the bus, a bit of banter acting the young fellas.”
Dublin wasn’t the only challenge game Armagh played. They also face Down, both away from home, a few weeks ago.
“We’ve had a couple of outings,” added Cullen. “The Dublin game, we got a bit of an eye opener at the start but once we got into the game, we had a good second half.
“The Down game was a good match. We’d plenty of players, we’d 29 that night so we just played two 15s and everybody got a good half hours football.
“It’s rolling subs. Then any inhouse matches we’ve been playing, we played in Pearse Og Park last Saturday.
“We had 13 vs 13 because a lot of boys had other commitments. It was 55 odd mins of good football, everybody enjoyed it.
“Between coaching from u-8s to senior and reserve football and family commitments, boys can’t always make it.
“There’s a couple of weeks break between each match so everybody’s looking forward to Saturday. It’s good to have the first match in Armagh, so hopefully we’ll get a good turnout.”
