MCDONNELL: ONE TITLE WAS A POOR RETURN FOR THAT SQUAD

FAILING to win a second All- Ireland certainly doesn’t overshadow Steven Mcdonnell’s Armagh career, but it does mean that it’s not quite as complete as it might have been. Or perhaps should have been.

“Thankfully, I played for Armagh during the most successful period that they’ve ever had,” he says, “but it’s those defeats that, even to this day, you look back with regret

“One All- Ireland probably is a poor return for the amount of provincial titles that we won.”

You could argue that Limerick have been a stronger side all- round in the two years since they won their

All- Ireland, but that brings no guarantees of further success, as Mcdonnell ( right) explains.

“I have always said that the 2005 Armagh team was, in my opinion, the best Armagh team ever. I think we had a great balance.

“We went on a 16- game unbeaten run that year. We got beaten in the first round of the National League to

Wexford and we went from that game to the All- Ireland semi- final against Tyrone unbeaten until Peter Canavan kicked the ball over the bar.”

Tyrone also beat them narrowly in the 2003 All- Ireland final. They picked up three All- Irelands in that era, leaving no doubt as to their greatness. And yet, a couple of breaks in Armagh’s favour and their respective records s might have been flipped.

Mcdonnell was famously blocked by

Conor Gormley in the dying moments of the

2003 final, but he’s made peace with that now now.

“I tip my hat to Conor Gormley, it was a fantastic block. If one of my teammates made a block like that, Enda Mcnulty or Francie Bellew, you’d be applauding them and the same has to be said for your opponent as well. That was an opportunity missed.”