By Shaun Casey

ALL eyes have already turned towards 2025 for the reigning All-Ireland champions Armagh, says midfielder Niall Grimley. The Orchard County will no doubt have a target on their back in the new season.

Kieran McGeeney’s side are back in Division One having earned promotion from the second-tier last season and they will hope to stay there having suffered relegation to Division Two during the 2023 campaign.

Already, a few new faces have been added into the panel as Armagh begin afresh. Grimley, who didn’t feature in the league or Ulster Championship during the 2024 season, is hoping for more gametime in the New Year.

“It’s a clean slate for everyone, there’s 30 or 35 boys that all want to be playing against Galway and play in next year’s championship and I’m one of them.” he said. “I didn’t play any league last year so I’ll be doing everything I can to get playing in this league campaign.

“It’s exciting and obviously some of the younger lads are coming through so that’ll give management a bit of a headache. Hopefully they keep pushing on and keep pushing us older boys on now as well. It’’ll be all about the next man up, that’s the way it is.”

There are no easy games in Division One and Armagh kick their season off with an away day trip to Galway in a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland final. Trips to Tralee and Ballybofey follow, while Armagh will also host Tyrone, Dublin, Mayo and Derry.

“We were in Division Two last year, and obviously Division One the year before that. There’s only two or three points in it and it’s going to be the exact same again,” Grimley added, looking ahead to next season.

“With the new rules, whoever adopts quickest will find themselves ahead of the pack. They might not have been the best team last year; they could excel next year.

“We’ve started back to training recently and its exciting. We have Galway now in the first round so we’re just getting stuck into it. We know each game is going to be a massive game.

“Everyone is going to be out to get the champions, so we’ll have to knuckle down and we’ll have to be ready for it, it’s going to come thick and fast.”