Kieran McGeeney is happy to have talented forward Jamie Clarke back in the Armagh set-up for 2017, but believes it is down to the Crossmaglen star how successful his comeback will be.
Clarke was given a warm reception by the crowd at the Athletic Grounds when he was introduced in the 54th minute of the comfortable 16-point McKenna Cup win over Queens University, one of 11 scorers in orange in the 2-19 to 0-09 victory.
Clarke missed the 2016 championship after moving to the United States, but has returned home and decided to throw in his lot with Armagh again as they seek to get out of Division 3 and improve on last year’s dismal showing in the championship.
McGeeny told RTÉ Sport that it is now down to the fleet-footed forward to determine what impact he will have on 2017, and said there is strong competition for places with younger players shining in the early stages of the season.
“With Jamie, it’s how far he wants to go,” he said. “He’s a good player, but I suppose these past couple of years, he’s had itchy feet.
“He’s committed to us for the year, but we’ve a lot of young players coming through.
"Young Ben Crealy, Kieran Higgins, have been exceptional so far for us this year, and are both still Under-21s.”
While it was a comprehensive win, the 2002 All-Ireland winning captain said it took his team a while to get to grips with the students.
"We’ve got a lot of positives out of the win"
“The first 20 minutes it was hard to break them down,” he conceded.
“We probably weren’t as patient as we would like. We gave the ball away a lot, but they got themselves back into the game a bit better as the game wore on.
“We got more game time into Ethan [Rafferty] as he’s been gone for a while, same with Niall Grimley, Jamie as well. We’ve got a lot of positives out of the win.”
The Orchardmen host rivals Down on Wednesday night knowing that a home win would give them a very good chance of a place in the McKenna Cup semi-finals, either as section winners or as the best runners-up.
