Stevie's Heart Set On Making Amends

Bainisteoir · 01-12-2010, 08:42 AM

Steven McDonnell in a warming article from the Irish News and what he wants from the season ahead.

It was the day Armagh and Stevie McDonnell's world was reduced to rubble. The match between Monaghan and
Armagh last July was a rancid affair. RTE viewers could have been forgiven for taking refuge behind armchairs and sofas long before the game reached extra-time, such was the pitiful standard of football. It was arguably the worst Championship encounter of 2009.

If Monaghan were bad, Armagh were unwatchable. Only a point separated them after 90 bleak minutes of football, but there was nothing remotely redeemable in Armagh's performance. The 2008 Ulster title would be the last rage against the dying light in the Orchard county. We remember Paul McGrane's angry grip of the Anglo-Celt Cup and ballistic roar from the Gerry Arthurs Stand.

The raucous celebrations in Clones seemed to signal the end of a glittering era. By the time 2009 came around the injury-plagued McGrane was gone. Francie had grabbed his rucksack and hit the road and so too did Paddy McKeever, another member of the 2002 All-Ireland winning side. Some big names still adorned Peter McDonnell's team-sheet, but the vibe wasn't right. In many ways, Stevie McDonnell's body language encapsulated the prevailing mood in the Orchard county last season. Still only 29, McDonnell's legs lacked their usual zip.

Rarely did he show a defender a clean pair of heels throughout a bleak League and Championship campaign. "I wasn't sharp last year," McDonnell admits. "Kieran McGeeney used to say to me that I was never the fastest player but that it was my turn that got me away from defenders. "I would always deny that with him, but he maintained that it was my turn. Over the last couple of years, my turn wasn't getting me away from defenders.

"In the past when things were going well I'd hit the ball over my shoulder, but when I got the ball last year I was often undecided about what I was going to do with it. I wasn't doing what usually came natural to me." The consummate predator throughout his career, McDonnell was deployed along the three-quarter line in Armagh's provincial opener against Tyrone, a long way away from the opposition's goalposts.

Mickey Harte must have been relieved to see McDonnell foraging and jousting in no-man's-land with Ryan McMenamin at Clones. "The reason why I was out the field was because teams had caught on to the style of Armagh - McDonnell and Clarke would be in the full-forward line," explains McDonnell.

"Peter McDonnell wanted to change that around. Obviously `Clarkey' is the best full-forward in the country and there was no point in taking him away from the goals, so that meant I came out. To be quite honest I was happy enough playing there."

After their three-point defeat to the reigning All-Ireland champions, Armagh headed for the Qualifiers, where the Killeavy attacker was restored to his rightful full-forward position. Things still weren't right, however. On the day, Monaghan's Dessie Mone stuck to McDonnell like velcro, nagging his illustrious opponent from start to finish. Television pictures showed McDonnell complaining to referee Derek Fahy on a number of occasions, but he got short shrift from the Longford whistler.

In the past, McDonnell would seek retribution by scoring points. Touch-tight or not, McDonnell could be sickeningly brilliant at breaking a defender's resolve. The more you teased and taunted him, the better McDonnell became. It was the player's trademark. But July 4 at Clones last summer was different. Instead of sticking the ball over the bar, McDonnell lashed out. While Mone's approach could hardly pass as angelic, McDonnell's reactions were brutally short-sighted.

Head bowed, McDonnell trundled off the field after Fahy had brandished the red card for him punching the Monaghan defender in an off-the-ball incident. For weeks after that defeat McDonnell was privately furious with Dessie Mone's approach and Derek Fahy's perceived ambivalence towards their fractious duel. But, as time passed, his temper mellowed. Pangs of guilt soon replaced his anger. In the cold light of day McDonnell knew Mone and Fahy were merely scapegoats for his indiscipline. He'd been riled before and never reacted. "The thing that annoys me about that is that I took the bait," recalls McDonnell.

"An opponent went out from the start to get me sent off and I did. He won out in the end. Looking back, that was all to do with my mindset at the time and how I was training and approaching things. I wasn't fully focused."
In a blaze of controversy, Peter McDonnell walked away from the management post a few weeks after Armagh's ignominious Championship exit, saying his position had been undermined by sources from within the camp. It was felt his namesake would follow him out the door for entirely different reasons.

After months of critical self-examination, the three-time Allstar felt that his best days were behind him. Maybe it was time to step aside. In one of his most revealing interviews, McDonnell admits he began to doubt his own abilities. That rampaging attacker of 2005, the one who almost single-handedly defeated Wexford in the NFL Division One final with 10 spell-binding points, was now a colourless imitation. "Over the last couple of years I had doubts about my own capabilities," he reflects.

"I don't know why. I asked myself was I capable of doing this? I thought about things over the last couple of months and my answer is that I got lazy, I didn't put in the effort I should have been putting in. "That naturally follows through to match days. Even while I was training with Armagh over the last couple of years my hunger just wasn't there, I wasn't giving everything that I had compared to previous years, and maybe the fight was gone from me. "But hopefully this year is going to be a different story because I realise

I don't have much time left. Whatever I'm asked to do I'm going to give it everything. I'll try and make myself a top player again." The winter months have prompted a rethink. He couldn't allow Dessie Mone or Derek Fahy to write the last chapter of his career. That's primarily why McDonnell is back for an 11th consecutive year with Armagh in 2010. It may or may not be his last year at inter-county level. Everything remains open-ended.

Another motivating factor in deciding to continue with Armagh was the county board's recruitment of physical trainer Mike McGurn. While McDonnell is clearly encouraged by the backroom team new boss Paddy O'Rourke has assembled, that includes former team-mate Justin McNulty and former Crossmaglen manager Donal Murtagh, it's the arrival of McGurn that has reinvigorated him. McDonnell and McGurn were never close friends, but they became acquainted during the International Rules tour to Australia in 2008. Sean Boylan recruited McGurn for the trip. McGurn's training sessions Down Under left an indelible mark on the Irish players. "I remember a few of the Kerry and Tyrone boys were sitting chatting with myself, Aaron Kernan and Ciaran McKeever and we all agreed that if Mike was ever to train a county side they'd be the fittest in the country.

"Everybody was really impressed with him. Everything was tailored for Compromise Rules. His sessions would have lasted between 45 and 60 minutes. It was top class." Fermanagh native McGurn has always been a glass-is-half-full evangelist. In just a few short weeks, he has converted McDonnell. The joke goes that the Carrickdale gym is thinking of charging McDonnell rent rather than a membership fee, such is the 30-year-old's enthusiastic attendance there
over the last number of weeks. "I would have always done enough gym work," says McDonnell, "just to build a bit of
strength, which would have carried me through the season. Being a corner-forward I didn't want to build myself up
too much.

"The programme that Mike has me on is all about power and gaining speed again. Obviously, I've lost a few yards of pace over the last couple of years, but Mike seems to think that I can discover those few yards again.
"He's got me on a programme that will help me achieve that. It's not all about heavy lifting and making yourself look big and macho, it's all about explosive power." He adds: "You only have to look at Mike's reputation; he wasn't with the All Blacks for no reason. Whatever Mike wants you to do, you go and do it.

"That's the way it's going to be. You have to acquit yourself with Armagh. There was a stage last year I wasn't doing that, but obviously I'm giving it another year and I'll just take each year as it comes. "The fact that I am there means I'm going to give it everything I have and whatever training Mike asks me to do, I'll be doing it." McDonnell regularly attends the gym before he goes to work in the mornings.

He says: "Gym sessions of the past would have lasted over an hour. Our gym sessions now are a half-hour. You are in and out. We're doing short, sharp bursts. You're busted afterwards but you know you're benefiting from it. Not only that, you're stronger in your own mind; you know that you're gaining strength as well.

"I think Mike is the best that I have ever worked under. If any man is going to get me back to being the best that I can be, it's going to be him." McDonnell's fighting weight flits between 13 and 13-and-a-half stone - but there is being sharp at 13-and-a-half and being sluggish at the same weight.

"I wouldn't be prone to putting on weight. I'd always be around the same weight, but you know when you're sharp and when you're not sharp. I wasn't sharp last year, but it's something that I'm working very hard on." The storm clouds appear to have lifted around the Orchard county too. Players and officials have drawn a line under the managerial hoopla that beset the county at the tail end of last season.

It's an open secret the majority of the squad wanted Paul Grimley as the next manager, but once the Pearse Og man insisted his next port of call was Monaghan, the players reluctantly moved on. It took some time to digest the county board's rubber-stamping of Paddy O'Rourke. But with each passing week, O'Rourke's appointment seems a more prudent
one. The fact that Down's 1991 All-Ireland-winning captain has surrounded himself with men with solid CVs reinforces the notion there is more to come from Armagh in 2010.

"The new management team has tasted success at a very high level. Paddy O'Rourke is a born winner and Justy and Donal are good appointments as well as Mike McGurn. "I don't know what plans Paddy O'Rourke has for me, but wherever he asks me to play I will play. "If I am playing in the full-forward line this year I'd like to think I will be scoring more than I did last year.

"I don't want to be going out on a bad note with the way I finished last year's Championship. That's another incentive for me. "I don't want to be remembered for being sent off in my last Championship match for Armagh. I want to come back and make amends. "I let Armagh down. I let myself down and I want to set the record straight." After a miserable 2009, Stevie McDonnell is determined to put the pieces back together again. The road is already mapped out.

MMcArdail · 02-23-2010, 01:08 PM

Stevie doesn't have to make amends for anything, he owes Armagh nothing , we owe him everything. There would have been no Sam in Armagh in 2002 if it wasn't for Stevie. He had a bad year in 2009, we all had, so get over it. Stevie will always be the king of county Ard Mhacha in our eyes, win or lose. Stevie, we still love you!

armaghlad · 02-26-2010, 06:50 PM

he has done what he has said he was going to do, lets hope he can keep it up.

01-12-2010, 08:42 AM	#1
Bainisteoir Administrator Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Portadown Age: 28 Posts: 814 Local Club: AN. Other	Stevie's Heart Set On Making Amends Steven McDonnell in a warming article from the Irish News and what he wants from the season ahead. It was the day Armagh and Stevie McDonnell's world was reduced to rubble. The match between Monaghan and Armagh last July was a rancid affair. RTE viewers could have been forgiven for taking refuge behind armchairs and sofas long before the game reached extra-time, such was the pitiful standard of football. It was arguably the worst Championship encounter of 2009. If Monaghan were bad, Armagh were unwatchable. Only a point separated them after 90 bleak minutes of football, but there was nothing remotely redeemable in Armagh's performance. The 2008 Ulster title would be the last rage against the dying light in the Orchard county. We remember Paul McGrane's angry grip of the Anglo-Celt Cup and ballistic roar from the Gerry Arthurs Stand. The raucous celebrations in Clones seemed to signal the end of a glittering era. By the time 2009 came around the injury-plagued McGrane was gone. Francie had grabbed his rucksack and hit the road and so too did Paddy McKeever, another member of the 2002 All-Ireland winning side. Some big names still adorned Peter McDonnell's team-sheet, but the vibe wasn't right. In many ways, Stevie McDonnell's body language encapsulated the prevailing mood in the Orchard county last season. Still only 29, McDonnell's legs lacked their usual zip. Rarely did he show a defender a clean pair of heels throughout a bleak League and Championship campaign. "I wasn't sharp last year," McDonnell admits. "Kieran McGeeney used to say to me that I was never the fastest player but that it was my turn that got me away from defenders. "I would always deny that with him, but he maintained that it was my turn. Over the last couple of years, my turn wasn't getting me away from defenders. "In the past when things were going well I'd hit the ball over my shoulder, but when I got the ball last year I was often undecided about what I was going to do with it. I wasn't doing what usually came natural to me." The consummate predator throughout his career, McDonnell was deployed along the three-quarter line in Armagh's provincial opener against Tyrone, a long way away from the opposition's goalposts. Mickey Harte must have been relieved to see McDonnell foraging and jousting in no-man's-land with Ryan McMenamin at Clones. "The reason why I was out the field was because teams had caught on to the style of Armagh - McDonnell and Clarke would be in the full-forward line," explains McDonnell. "Peter McDonnell wanted to change that around. Obviously `Clarkey' is the best full-forward in the country and there was no point in taking him away from the goals, so that meant I came out. To be quite honest I was happy enough playing there." After their three-point defeat to the reigning All-Ireland champions, Armagh headed for the Qualifiers, where the Killeavy attacker was restored to his rightful full-forward position. Things still weren't right, however. On the day, Monaghan's Dessie Mone stuck to McDonnell like velcro, nagging his illustrious opponent from start to finish. Television pictures showed McDonnell complaining to referee Derek Fahy on a number of occasions, but he got short shrift from the Longford whistler. In the past, McDonnell would seek retribution by scoring points. Touch-tight or not, McDonnell could be sickeningly brilliant at breaking a defender's resolve. The more you teased and taunted him, the better McDonnell became. It was the player's trademark. But July 4 at Clones last summer was different. Instead of sticking the ball over the bar, McDonnell lashed out. While Mone's approach could hardly pass as angelic, McDonnell's reactions were brutally short-sighted. Head bowed, McDonnell trundled off the field after Fahy had brandished the red card for him punching the Monaghan defender in an off-the-ball incident. For weeks after that defeat McDonnell was privately furious with Dessie Mone's approach and Derek Fahy's perceived ambivalence towards their fractious duel. But, as time passed, his temper mellowed. Pangs of guilt soon replaced his anger. In the cold light of day McDonnell knew Mone and Fahy were merely scapegoats for his indiscipline. He'd been riled before and never reacted. "The thing that annoys me about that is that I took the bait," recalls McDonnell. "An opponent went out from the start to get me sent off and I did. He won out in the end. Looking back, that was all to do with my mindset at the time and how I was training and approaching things. I wasn't fully focused." In a blaze of controversy, Peter McDonnell walked away from the management post a few weeks after Armagh's ignominious Championship exit, saying his position had been undermined by sources from within the camp. It was felt his namesake would follow him out the door for entirely different reasons. After months of critical self-examination, the three-time Allstar felt that his best days were behind him. Maybe it was time to step aside. In one of his most revealing interviews, McDonnell admits he began to doubt his own abilities. That rampaging attacker of 2005, the one who almost single-handedly defeated Wexford in the NFL Division One final with 10 spell-binding points, was now a colourless imitation. "Over the last couple of years I had doubts about my own capabilities," he reflects. "I don't know why. I asked myself was I capable of doing this? I thought about things over the last couple of months and my answer is that I got lazy, I didn't put in the effort I should have been putting in. "That naturally follows through to match days. Even while I was training with Armagh over the last couple of years my hunger just wasn't there, I wasn't giving everything that I had compared to previous years, and maybe the fight was gone from me. "But hopefully this year is going to be a different story because I realise I don't have much time left. Whatever I'm asked to do I'm going to give it everything. I'll try and make myself a top player again." The winter months have prompted a rethink. He couldn't allow Dessie Mone or Derek Fahy to write the last chapter of his career. That's primarily why McDonnell is back for an 11th consecutive year with Armagh in 2010. It may or may not be his last year at inter-county level. Everything remains open-ended. Another motivating factor in deciding to continue with Armagh was the county board's recruitment of physical trainer Mike McGurn. While McDonnell is clearly encouraged by the backroom team new boss Paddy O'Rourke has assembled, that includes former team-mate Justin McNulty and former Crossmaglen manager Donal Murtagh, it's the arrival of McGurn that has reinvigorated him. McDonnell and McGurn were never close friends, but they became acquainted during the International Rules tour to Australia in 2008. Sean Boylan recruited McGurn for the trip. McGurn's training sessions Down Under left an indelible mark on the Irish players. "I remember a few of the Kerry and Tyrone boys were sitting chatting with myself, Aaron Kernan and Ciaran McKeever and we all agreed that if Mike was ever to train a county side they'd be the fittest in the country. "Everybody was really impressed with him. Everything was tailored for Compromise Rules. His sessions would have lasted between 45 and 60 minutes. It was top class." Fermanagh native McGurn has always been a glass-is-half-full evangelist. In just a few short weeks, he has converted McDonnell. The joke goes that the Carrickdale gym is thinking of charging McDonnell rent rather than a membership fee, such is the 30-year-old's enthusiastic attendance there over the last number of weeks. "I would have always done enough gym work," says McDonnell, "just to build a bit of strength, which would have carried me through the season. Being a corner-forward I didn't want to build myself up too much. "The programme that Mike has me on is all about power and gaining speed again. Obviously, I've lost a few yards of pace over the last couple of years, but Mike seems to think that I can discover those few yards again. "He's got me on a programme that will help me achieve that. It's not all about heavy lifting and making yourself look big and macho, it's all about explosive power." He adds: "You only have to look at Mike's reputation; he wasn't with the All Blacks for no reason. Whatever Mike wants you to do, you go and do it. "That's the way it's going to be. You have to acquit yourself with Armagh. There was a stage last year I wasn't doing that, but obviously I'm giving it another year and I'll just take each year as it comes. "The fact that I am there means I'm going to give it everything I have and whatever training Mike asks me to do, I'll be doing it." McDonnell regularly attends the gym before he goes to work in the mornings. He says: "Gym sessions of the past would have lasted over an hour. Our gym sessions now are a half-hour. You are in and out. We're doing short, sharp bursts. You're busted afterwards but you know you're benefiting from it. Not only that, you're stronger in your own mind; you know that you're gaining strength as well. "I think Mike is the best that I have ever worked under. If any man is going to get me back to being the best that I can be, it's going to be him." McDonnell's fighting weight flits between 13 and 13-and-a-half stone - but there is being sharp at 13-and-a-half and being sluggish at the same weight. "I wouldn't be prone to putting on weight. I'd always be around the same weight, but you know when you're sharp and when you're not sharp. I wasn't sharp last year, but it's something that I'm working very hard on." The storm clouds appear to have lifted around the Orchard county too. Players and officials have drawn a line under the managerial hoopla that beset the county at the tail end of last season. It's an open secret the majority of the squad wanted Paul Grimley as the next manager, but once the Pearse Og man insisted his next port of call was Monaghan, the players reluctantly moved on. It took some time to digest the county board's rubber-stamping of Paddy O'Rourke. But with each passing week, O'Rourke's appointment seems a more prudent one. The fact that Down's 1991 All-Ireland-winning captain has surrounded himself with men with solid CVs reinforces the notion there is more to come from Armagh in 2010. "The new management team has tasted success at a very high level. Paddy O'Rourke is a born winner and Justy and Donal are good appointments as well as Mike McGurn. "I don't know what plans Paddy O'Rourke has for me, but wherever he asks me to play I will play. "If I am playing in the full-forward line this year I'd like to think I will be scoring more than I did last year. "I don't want to be going out on a bad note with the way I finished last year's Championship. That's another incentive for me. "I don't want to be remembered for being sent off in my last Championship match for Armagh. I want to come back and make amends. "I let Armagh down. I let myself down and I want to set the record straight." After a miserable 2009, Stevie McDonnell is determined to put the pieces back together again. The road is already mapped out. __________________ Armagh GAA on Facebook \| Armagh GAA Twitter

02-23-2010, 01:08 PM	#2
MMcArdail Senior Player Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 101 Local Club: CROSSMAGLEN	Stevie Stevie doesn't have to make amends for anything, he owes Armagh nothing , we owe him everything. There would have been no Sam in Armagh in 2002 if it wasn't for Stevie. He had a bad year in 2009, we all had, so get over it. Stevie will always be the king of county Ard Mhacha in our eyes, win or lose. Stevie, we still love you!

02-26-2010, 06:50 PM	#3
armaghlad Underage Player Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 20 Local Club: AN. Other	he has done what he has said he was going to do, lets hope he can keep it up.