Armagh veteran Ciaran McKeever believes he still has a lot to offer the Orchard county.

The team captain missed the League campaign after undergoing knee surgery in February, but is fit for selection ahead of Sunday’s GAA Ulster Championship clash with Cavan.

McKeever is 32 now, but he didn’t take too kindly to the suggestion that at this point in your career you become very aware that the window of opportunity is starting to close.

"Jesus, ye are all retiring me!,” he said. “ I've been retired this past two months! Look, I suppose I like to mind myself well. So I feel that I'm fresh and if I stay injury-free then these matches won't bother me. I'm in good shape at the minute, it's just a case of trying to stay injury-free. If I do I'll be here for another year or two anyway.

“When you get into your early thirties and you don't get starting there's other roles you can play. Whether that's coming off the bench, that's just the stage of life I'm at. And whatever role I'm asked to play on May 29 and the whole way through the Championship, I'm ready to go in whatever capacity I'm asked to do.”

McKeever wasn’t the only big-name Armagh player to either miss some or all of the League through injury or unavailability. Others like Jamie Clarke, Caolan Rafferty, Kevin Dyas, Andrew Murnin, and James Morgan were also marked absent.

That opened the door for younger players like Joe McElroy, Shea Heffron, Ethan Rafferty, and Miceal McKenna to show what they could do. The League ended on a disappointing note when Armagh were relegated to Division 3, but McKeever believes the younger players in the team learned a lot from the campaign.

“Through the whole National League boys got a lot of game-time and a lot of experience and they all learned a lot,” he said. “You could see that from the first half to the second half of the National League. You could see the way boys were coming on in leaps and bounds. Since our last game against Derry we've just kept that process going.

“Them boys are learning week in, week out and they're in good stead for the Championship. I think the squad is stronger now, the in-house matches are very competitive in training and that's all you can ask for. Every time we go out to play in training, 15 v 15, you've got to be competitive and pushing each other on. There are jerseys up for grabs on May 29th and they all know that.”

There’s been a big turnover of players in the Armagh panel for the last couple of years and McKeever is very much one of the older statesmen of the group now. But he doesn’t believe the lack of experience means there’s any deficit of leadership there.

“Yeah, look, there's a lot of change there. But a lot of them boys have been there two, three, four years now themselves. They've won Ulster minor titles, Ulster U-21 titles, so they've great leadership qualities themselves and are leading the charge as much as myself, Andy Mallon, and Brendan Donaghy are. I think as a group if we can pushing this thing on, then we'll not be far away this year in the Championship.”

Armagh have put a lot of time and money into their Academy and coaching structures in recent years and McKeever believes if the senior team can be successful in the coming years it will accelerate the process of bringing through talented young footballers.

“Yeah, there's a lot of hard work being done,” he said. “It's just a matter of processing it through. The senior team is always the shop window so we've got to get to a level and be competing again. And if we're competing again that will energise the development squads, minor teams, and U-21 teams. You just have to  look across the border in Monaghan. They've been competing in senior level these past number of years and are starting to be successful at U-21 and minor level as well now. It just feeds through the groups.”

Armagh go into Sunday’s Ulster quarter-final against Cavan as underdogs. That’s mainly because when the teams met in the League Cavan triumphed by 3-18 to 0-10. It looked like there was a wide gulf in quality between the two teams that day, but McKeever believes Armagh were undone by their own errors.

“I think we were to blame for our own downfall,” he said. “Carrying the ball into the tackle and our basic skills were sloppy that night. We were creators of our own downfall and we've addressed that. We'll go to Breffni Park with a plan on May 29 and we'll come out winners. It's a massive game. If we get across the line on May 29, then anything is possible after that. But we just have to focus on Breffni Park.”