The previous two times the group stages have been used in the Armagh Championship, Crossmaglen emerged with the Gerry Fagan Cup.
That was in 2018 and 2019 and while they lost their title in the two years after, they regained their throne last season.
“I don’t really have much of an opinion,” said goalkeeper Tiarnan McConville on the new format. “But whenever we did it years ago, it was enjoyable to get more games under the belt.
“I know the inter-county setup had it and it was taken seriously. It’s important to win all your games and it gives more teams more games.
“It’s always nice to get the home support out. I know you have two away games, but the way Cross is, you’ll always get a good support out.
“Obviously I wasn’t there last year, I was watching from the stand, but it was good to see the boys doing well.
“They’d a couple of tough games but came out on top. I’m glad to be back in that team environment now so we’ll take each game as it comes and take it from there.”
League campaign
The Rangers finished in second place following the Division 1A league campaign and blooded through a few new players.
The likes of Orin McKeown, Harry Cumiskey and Pearse Blessing saw plenty of game time. While Oisin O’Neill also returned to action.
“The league was very tight,” added McConville. “We’d have to say we were very up and down in the league; we couldn’t string two games together.
“We were getting wins but we’d a lot of draws too. It was good to get a run in the league, there’s a lot of young boys there and it’s a learning curve.
“A lot of boys at the age of 19 or 20 there got game time in the league so it was good to bed them in.
“It’s exciting to see because he (Oisin O’Neill) had so long out of the game. He’s just taking it one game at a time and it’s good to have him back in the team.”
