By Niall Gartland

ARMAGH camogie manager PJ O’Mullan is confident that he’s strengthened his panel ahead of their first competitive game of the new season.

The Orchard camogs travel to Roscommon this Saturday for their Division 3A opener – and there’s no doubt that they will quietly fancy their chances given they’ve bossed all of their recent meetings with the Rossies.

Loughgiel native O’Mullan had a productive debut season at the helm, though he acknowledges that they could have no real complaints about their All-Ireland Premier Junior final defeat to Laois.

“We were in a tough league first and foremost and I think that stood to us. I didn’t know an awful lot about Armagh camogie before we went in – I think by the end of the year, I knew a lot more, and I went to a lot of club games afterwards.

“Last year wasn’t bad, and even in the All-Ireland final, we were there or thereabouts going down the stretch, we just didn’t really play well enough to win games. There’s a lot of learnings from that, and hopefully we can learn from those mistakes going forward. Laois are a good team and I think they’ll hold their own in Division Two and the Intermediate Championship.”

Armagh will be captained by experienced Granemore camog Rachael Trainor this year, assisted by Alannah McEntee (Crossmaglen) and Eimear Hayes (Tullysaran). O’Mullan also says that he’s recruited a fresh batch of talented younger players who spearheaded the county’s drive to last year’s All-Ireland Minor B Championship title.

“There’s definitely a few changes from last year. We’ve drafted in seven or eight minor players, which is good not just for this year, but for the future of camogie in Armagh. There were a few players who were away travelling and weren’t available for various reasons last year, who have come back into the squad.

“So it’s a somewhat different squad from last year, and they’re putting their shoulder to the wheel and training hard. We hope the new faces add something to things. We’ve strengthened the panel, so we’ll see where it takes us.”

Even though Armagh have won all of their matches against Roscommon in the last couple of years, O’Mullan is still wary about how things might go in their first serious outing of the new year.

“We’ve had a few challenge games. It’s been testing enough with the weather, getting pitches to train on. We played Antrim, Down, Westmeath, the universities, and we’re just looking forward to getting started now.

“I feel like we’re heading into the unknown a bit about Roscommon – last year they were on a bit of a rebuild and their club teams did well. Like ourselves, they’ll probably have a few new faces about the place. We can only prepare our own team as best as we can, and see where it takes us.”