Armagh need to find a fresh spur

Ulster SFC First round; Clones, Sunday, 3.30:  Considering this is the opening first-round match from the handier side of the Bank of Ireland Ulster championship draw between one of the top counties of recent times and an eager collective, just getting over a slightly unlucky league relegation, there's great interest in this match.

On the broader front, Armagh are perceived as the one team in the top three that may be running low on batteries. A stuttering National League campaign wasn't helped by injuries and they were fortunate to survive in Division One. Joe Kernan's selection underlines the fact the team need to find fresh inspiration this year if they are to have a chance of adding to the All-Ireland of four years ago.

How the reconfigured Armagh get on will be a matter of interest to more than just the other teams in Ulster. Then when you take into account the tighter focus, the match is attracting attention because Monaghan are pretty upbeat about their chances.

The county was obviously disappointed to drop back to Division Two after only a year but in terms of performance they were competitive, their average margin of defeat in the matches they lost was three points, just a score. Considering each of those defeats were against sides that have been All-Ireland semi-finalists in the past two years it wasn't a bad record.

Three years ago they shocked - if that's not too watery an understatement - Armagh as All-Ireland champions so even by Ulster standards of irreverence, they'll be confident. Nor will all of these good vibes be mildly delusional.

Unlike during the league, Séamus McEnaney's team are at full strength. Raymond Ronaghan has returned after a falling-out with management on discipline-related issues, a context in which he'll presumably be fired up. A big, talented footballer, he shot 1-9 against Scotstown in a recent club match and has proven capable of translating that form on to the bigger stage.

He will be helped by the absence of Francie Bellew, one of the dwindling number of full backs who look on a big full forward as a treat rather than a problem.

Armagh have invested heavily in youth with a third of the team from the All-Ireland winning under-21s of two years ago. It gives pace to the defence but maybe a lack of the stifling physicality that characterised the backs in the past.

Kieran McGeeney is named at centrefield. Ironically, it was Kernan's abandonment of the idea of trying to make his team leader a third centrefielder in the Crossmaglen mould that triggered the drive for the All-Ireland in 2002.

If, as is likely, McGeeney drops back Malachy Mackin can take up the slack in the middle.

Monaghan also have a free-form half-back line with quality players and a sense of adventure but they are also strengthened in the full-back line by the eventual return from injury of Gary McQuaid.

This match should be every bit as intriguing as its advance publicity with Armagh fancied to give the tree another shake.

ARMAGH: C McKinney; A Mallon, A O'Rourke, E McNulty; A Kernan, K McKeever, P Duffy; K McGeeney, P McGrane; P McKeever, B Mallon, M Mackin; S McDonnell, R Clarke, O McConville.

MONAGHAN: S Duffy; G McQuaid, J Coyle, C Flanagan; D Freeman, V Corey, D McArdle; E Lennon, P Finlay; D Clerkin, S Gollogly, J McElroy; T Freeman, R Ronaghan, R Woods.