As defending Allianz National Football League champions, Armagh have a right to feel they're the team to beat over the coming weeks - even go all the way again. Yet manager Joe Kernan is happy to admit he's not overly confident about getting back to Croke Park at the end of April, and instead is more concerned about sharpening up new players along the way.

Part of that comes down to the hand he's been dealt for the opening rounds, which start with Kildare's visit to Crossmaglen on Sunday.

Paul Hearty, Paul McGrane, Aidan O'Rourke, Aaron Kernan, Ronan Clarke, Oisín McConville and Malachy Mackin are all out of action for the next few weeks or so. Without them, Kernan can't afford to be too ambitious.

"With so many regular players missing it won't be easy to get off to a good start," he says. "And if you hit a bad patch we mightn't have the strength right now to bring some quality off the bench to help out, and that could leave us in trouble. I'm just hoping what we have right now will get us through the opening rounds and we can welcome boys back over the coming weeks."

Armagh still field a strong team, with new goalkeeper Ciarán McKinney, defenders Paul Duffy and JP Donnelly, and Stephen Kernan among the newcomers. The other main talking point is Kieran McGeeney holding down the midfield position.

"Starting new players like that suits me," adds Kernan, "because I was going to use new players anyway. The league is still the main preparation for the championship, and one of the things you want to get is some consistency, and that means winning matches.

"And that's really what happened last year. We got off to a bad start, and then progressed well after that. And that's something I'll be trying to do again. But it was important that we had these boys coming through."

It's no secret in Armagh that Kernan agreed to stay on for a fifth year solely to chase down that second All-Ireland. At this early stage losing is not an option, but for Kernan it's a long and winding road ahead.

"I think it is a steady rise towards the latter stages of the championship. No team wants to peak in the middle of the league, and I don't think they'd be able to. To me, peaking is about getting consistency in winning matches, and the further you go the better you get. The confidence then grows with winning matches, and that's really what peaking is about.

"But there's no way that winning the league last year hurt our championship. No way, quite the opposite. It helped our championship run. It gave the consistency and the confidence going into the championship, and that helps winning matches. It was great for morale, and I felt players did excel after winning the league just because of the confidence it gave them."

Kernan has simple answer to what he thinks could make the difference between winning and losing the ultimate prize this year: "Don't make the mistakes we made last year. Seriously, just cut down on the mistakes. That's basically it. The commitment from the players is never in doubt, in both training and in matches. It's just sometimes taking your eye off the ball and not finishing the job. That was our only problem last year.

"But having said that, I'm always open to introducing new things on the training field, and open-minded enough to try something different, whether it be from another game or another part of the world. I mean, the day we're happy with what we have is the day we start to go down hill."