By Shaun Casey

REIGNING Armagh SFC holders Clann Éireann have turned their focus towards defending their crown says Armagh star Tiernan Kelly, as the Division 1A league title is no longer in their grasp with one game remaining.

Killeavy captured the crown for the first time in their history last Saturday evening, leaving Clann Éireann’s round 14 clash with Crossmaglen a dead-rubber, but Kelly and his team see it as the perfect opportunity to prepare for the business end of the season.

Clann Éireann have won two of the last four county titles and will look to retain their throne this year.

“Every competitive game you can get is an opportunity to work on things and get up to championship speed because it is a different level,” said Kelly.

“Whether there’s something to play for or not, we’re using it as an opportunity to get minutes under our belts and work on things.

“Cross, there’s no better team to come up against with the quality that they have and no doubt they’ll be there at the tail end of the championship as well so it’s a great game.

“We knew that Killeavy would pick up one point in their last two games and in fairness they were probably the most consistent team all year, so you have to give them credit. We were just focusing on getting up and going again after the July break.

“We wanted to get boys back onto the pitch and get the legs moving again because we have a couple of weeks now to really get prepped for the middle of August when the championship starts and that’s our focus now.”

Kelly sniped over the final score in their most recent outing against Madden, earning his side a share of the spoils and claimed a tally of 0-3 on the night.

“I thought it was a game of two halves. We were probably disappointed with how we played in the first half but in fairness to Madden, they played well.

‘Big G’ (Niall Grimley) did well on the kickouts and they held the ball for long periods and sucked all the energy from us.

“We were probably a bit passive but in the second half we came out a bit more aggressive and it was a good game. It was a good, hard game with good scores taken, good turnovers, I think it was an entertaining game.”