by Orla Bannon

Kieran McGeeney has questioned the merit in having the pre-season competitions when some top counties only field shadow teams.

The Armagh manager has confirmed he intends playing his strongest possible side he can during this month's McKenna Cup, starting withSunday's opener away to Derry.

However he's taken note of developments elsewhere, with Donegal opting to field their U21 side and All-Ireland champions Dublin and runners-up Mayo among those playing hugely weakened sides due to holidays abroad.

"Some teams have no interest in the McKenna Cup and really just want to start in the league," said McGeeney.

"You see some of the top teams aren't even putting teams into those competitions, because they don't have their whole team anyway, so they're picking high quality challenge games or in-house games.

"I suppose the other side of it is, why bother having those competitions if the top teams aren't going to partake in them?"

James Morgan and Ciaran McKeever won't be seen until the league having missed chunks of last season through injury.

Although McGeeney has left one 'AN Other' spot in his McKenna Cup squad still to be filled, it remains to be seen whether the returning Jamie Clarke plays before their Division Three campaign, while up to seven orchard players will be lining out for the universities in January.

"We would still be down quite a number of players because we have such a young team but we'll intend to put our best team out, which we probably didn't do last year.

"We will try to do that this year but it will depend on who we have available from the colleges.

"I understand the universities, and I think it's a great competition, but I don't know why it's called an inter-county competition - because it's not if you don't get to pick your players.

"The colleges feel they can't be competitive if they don't have their players so it's a 'catch 22'.

"The first round of the Sigerson is not until the end of January, start of February, so they can't really afford to qualify for the latter stages (of the pre-season competitions) anyway."

McGeeney is hoping for an injury-free 2017 after a run of unlucky injuries hurt them badly in last year's league and championship.

"Our biggest thing is getting our best players on the pitch at the one time, that's ultimately what we're looking for.

"I wouldn't call it bad luck because you tend to make your own, but there's things that maybe haven't bounced the way you'd like them.

"You'd hope for a wee bit more of a run for them this year.

"They seem to be in a good place but you have to be honest about where we are. There are some green shoots and hopefully things will turn."

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