Division 3A champions Clonmore are guaranteed access to the knockout stages of the championship, having been drawn into the group of three.
They’ll take on both Killeavy IIs and St Michael’s in the group stages and will progress to at least the playoffs.
But Clonmore will be outright favourites to top the group and go straight through to the last eight of the competition.
“Just ourselves with a small squad probably the two games and having the week off won’t do us any harm,” Clonmore captain Caolan Donaghy told Armagh TV.
“There are still two tough teams in there. We know Killeavy IIs from a couple of years ago in the Junior. They beat us once and we beat them once (in the league) so that was pretty tight.
“St Michael’s, we had two very tough battles with them this year. The second one at home, we scraped by them by a point.
“We’re guaranteed entry (to the knockout stages) but we’re under no illusions of how tough both those games will be.”
League winners
A good start was essential for Clonmore at the beginning of the league and give them a platform to push for promotion.
Clonmore earned ten wins from 12 encounters and had the league title wrapped up with a number of games left.
While they bounced straight back up to Division 2B after last years relegation, Donaghy insists they still have a lot to improve.
“It’s funny, we started the league pretty strong and then started to slow up a wee bit maybe at it went on,” added Donaghy.
“It’s probably a good position that we’re in as well that we won the league and came out on top.
“But we weren’t overly happy with some of our performances throughout the year. We’re going in as league champions, but we know we still have plenty to work on.”
