Aidan Forker has welcomed the return of key players Jamie Clarke, Stefan Campbell and the O'Neill brothers, Oisin and Rian, to the Armagh football squad.

Classy attacker Clarke recently returned from New York where he won a county SFC medal with Longford and was also part of the Big Apple team that came within a whisker of beating Leitrim in last May's Connacht SFC encounter.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph ahead of the Orchard County's seasonal opener against St Mary's in the McKenna Cup next Sunday, joint-captain Forker enthused: "Jamie is back in and training away. He's doing a lot on his own as well, trying to get into shape.

"This time last year, the rhetoric around Armagh was that we were on a low ebb with players taking a step away for one reason or another. Questions were being asked of Kieran (McGeeney) and asking what was wrong with the place?

"It wasn't anything like that. Players had their own things they wanted to pursue, the stars aligned and we did well without them but we are definitely a stronger team with them, a strong squad, so it can only be a positive for us comparing ourselves to this time last year.

"We are delighted to have them, we didn't go looking for them. They came to us and asked if they could come back in. Thankfully, they left the set-up in an amicable way, the right way, so we would be glad to have them back."

Tweet

Most Read Stories