Inside Track: High-fielding Dara gives Louth a fourth All-Star

The St Patrick’s clubman was joined by Craig Lennon on the roll of honour two years ago, and 12 months after that, Sam Mulroy had his name added.

Now comes Dara McDonnell, a Naomh Mairtín clubmate of Mulroy’s and a pivotal figure in a year in which county team reached its greatest height since the All-Ireland year of 1957.

It’s an award that’s richly merited. Since taking over from the injured Peter Lynch at centre-half at the beginning of the year, McDonnell has been outstanding, not only in a defensive role, but in the other half of the field as well.

Who among Louth supporters at Inniskeen’s Grattan Park, and the many more thousands looking in on television, will forget the goal he scored in the memorable win over Armagh?

Or the two-pointer in the previous outing at Croke Park, victory ending Louth’s frustrating 53-year wait for a championship win over Dublin?

The 22-year-old added three points to his Grattan Park score, but it could be argued that his display that day was bettered by the one he turned in against Monaghan in the All-Ireland quarter-final.

Shorn of the services of Seán Callaghan after the Ardee player had been dismissed just 14 minutes into the game, Louth had all the odds against them.

But there were many in the side, McDonnell chief among them, who looked adversity in the eye, threw it aside, and then advanced to show what they were made of. The Farney challenge was met head on, and in the end was successful.

While it didn’t work out in the semi-final with Mayo, statistics – the gathering of which is nowadays so important in managers’ planning – show that McDonnell won seven kick-outs, almost singlehandedly giving his team a presence around midfield. In the Monaghan match he had won 11, and had 33 all told for the series.

While some might describe it as a ‘piggery’, more kick-outs are landing in the middle of the field since the introduction of the new rules two years ago.

The need, therefore, for teams to have someone in the area capable of winning ‘clean ball’ doesn’t really need underlining. This was one of McDonnell fortes since making the step-up from the county under-20 side.

Now with two All-Stars in their ranks, Naomh Mairtín can rightly glean huge satisfaction. The Monasterboice club, founded in the year Louth last won the All-Ireland, has come to the fore over the past decade, represented in seven senior finals and winning three of them.

The most recent of those was last year, when an Eoghan Callaghan-captained side beat Newtown Blues in the final. That win had Mairtín side among the leading fancies for honours this year.

But due to an extraordinary bad run with injuries, Mulroy among the casualties, they made no impression in the league.

Worse was their championship run, failure to make it out of their round robin. That put the blue-and-whites in relegation trouble – they were left with a game against Hunterstown Rovers to decide which would play in the intermediate championship next year.

There was a huge emphasis on Dara McDonnell in the play-off. As so often this year, he delivered, contributing five points in a man-of-the match performance, lining out at midfield.

A good end to the year on the football field, but there was more to come in Dublin last Friday night. The Mairtíns man was in the company of the other Louth All-Star nominees at the RDS, Ciarán Downey and Craig Lennon.

Here are two players who had contrasting fortunes in club football this season. Lennon wasn’t seen out in the St Mochta’s colours, having sustained an injury in the All-Ireland semi-final.

He could only look on as his team fell to an agonising late defeat by Newtown Blues, captained by Downey, in the county final.

If potential All-Stars were assessed for their performances in club football beyond the provincial and All-Ireland championships – and it’s not for sure Leinster form, and the like, comes into the reckoning – Downey would have been very close to joining McDonnell on the podium.

As a back-up to his season in the red jersey, the No 11 was more than a bit player in his club’s championship success, that two-pointer of his in the final replay a score for the ages.

Dara McDonnell is in exalted company as a 2026 All-Star, David Clifford, the best playing Gaelic football this year and for many years before that, included.

The team reads: Shane Murphy (Kerry), Sam Callinan (Mayo), Jason Foley (Kerry) Enda Hession (Mayo); Ronan Wallace (Westmeath), Dara McDonnell (Louth), Jarley Óg Burns (Armagh); Conn Fitzpatrick (Tyrone), Jack Carney (Mayo); Niall Scully (Dublin), Ryan O’Donaghue (Mayo), Stephen O’Hanlon (Monaghan); Darragh Beirne (Mayo), David Clifford (Kerry), Kobe McDonald (Mayo).