Want to know how much Kieran Donaghy has bought into the Armagh way since joining Kieran McGeeney's management team? Well, for one, a few years ago it would have seemed unlikely for the big 6'5" Kerry man to be throwing road bowls along the winding laneways of the Orchard County.
That was more of a Cork thing down in Munster, after all, but now 'Star’ has found a bit of a grá for the bullets.
It came about through circumstance and curiosity as he prepares for Sunday’s All-Ireland final against Galway.
On the first point, he’s stays in the heart of bowls country when he’s up training the panel, with the people of Keady au fait with the intricacies of the sport.
On point two, one of his players – Ethan Rafferty – just happens to be one of the very best road bowlers in Ireland.
The day after he was part of the Orchard squad that defeated Kerry to reach a first final in 21 years, Rafferty headed to Castletown-Kinneigh in Cork and picked up the All-Ireland Intermediate title.
As supporters rushed to lift him on their shoulders after the win, Rafferty bellowed "one down, one to go!"
"I stay with the Fegans in Tassagh up by Basil Sheils (restaurant) and there’s always bullets being thrown up there," Donaghy said.
"I’d walk the roads with the boys because it was something I’d never seen before and I was mad interested in it.
"I threw one or two one day just having the craic with the fellas. It is mad - the whole intensity took me by surprise. I was out there thinking this was going to be a jolly walk, but you’d fellas shouting ‘come on to f***’ - it reminded me of being inside a dressing room when you are five points down.
"It is class. I was onto Raff straight away when he won it. Even him willing to potentially miss that if the team were playing on the Sunday, I’m delighted for him.
"I played basketball and was training and playing football and was over and back between them my whole career.
"I’m delighted to see Raff doing that. He’d a very tough break this year with the horrific injury.
"In typical fashion, he’s put his head down and he has come back and pushed hard. After the full-time whistle the last day, he ran straight to Blaine Hughes. It kind of tells you where the group is on that side of things.
"Blaine has taken back the number one jersey and Raff runs straight to him. He knows how big those restarts were the last day.
"It was great for Raff yeah, so I’m into the bullets - it is very interesting to me."
🏆Ethan Rafferty, All-Ireland Road Bowls Champion 🟠⚪️👏👏
— Armagh_GAA (@Armagh_GAA) July 14, 2024
🗣️"One down, one to go" 💪
Congratulations Ethan 🤜🤛 pic.twitter.com/o68FmbY15q
To say that Donaghy has been a breath of fresh air in the Armagh camp since his arrival ahead of the 2021 season would be an understatement.
Loud and rambunctious, he oozes positivity and his presence has been warmly enjoyed by the players. Plus, you can never have too many Kierans/Ciarans in a management team with Donaghy joining McGeeney, Ciaran McKeever and Ciaran McKinney.
On the surface, the logistics shouldn’t have made the link-up possible, but Donaghy says the leadership of McGeeney and the determination of his group of players ensure that any inconvenience feels minimal.
"People ask me ‘how are you doing it?’ and in Kerry ask me how I am managing it - it is because of ‘Geezer’ and that group of players.
"If they weren’t a good group of lads or the set-up wasn’t top-class, there’s no way you could do it.
"When I leave a work appointment in Dublin on a Tuesday at 3.30pm and I’m heading to Armagh for training at 6pm, I’m every bit as excited now as I was the first year.
"That’s because of those lads. I was always interested in the culture side of things.
"When Kieran asked me to get involved, I knew the way he carried himself - he was in the international rules team with me. I hadn’t come across anybody like him before.
"I thought it would be a very interesting project. I watched him that year on Sky Sports when they nearly beat Mayo down in Castlebar. I knew there were a lot of good players there.
"It was an exciting thing for me to get involved in, but only because and I’m still here only because of these bunch of players and Kieran - he is so enjoyable to be around. They are just such a good bunch of lads.
"The culture he has created from ’14 until now, weeding out fellas that weren’t all-in and going with fellas who wouldn’t be the best picks by some people in the county, but you knew deep down would do the gym stuff and sacrifice their life to help Armagh move up the ranks, that’s the fellas he has went with.
"The core group of 30 or 40 players are unbelievable and they are so invested in just helping Armagh be successful and that’s what Kieran has created. It is so interesting to be a part of that."
There have been difficult moments, of course – four penalty shoot-out losses should be enough to make even the stoniest of characters shred rock – but nothing comes close to the emotional rollercoaster that Donaghy went through during the thrilling extra-time semi-final win over his native Kerry, the county that provided him with four All-Ireland wins, three All-Stars and a Footballer of the Year gong.
His smile was wide as he embraced the Armagh players on the Croke Park turf, but there was red in those eyes too.
"It wasn’t difficult beforehand in the weeks leading up. I have been driving up and down that road two or three times a week for four years. Getting home at half one in the morning and getting up the next day to bring the kids to school.
"I don’t stay up here, only after games. I get down the road and it gives me good time to maybe link-in with a few players or get my head settled around how a session went or what can we do better or that kind of stuff.
"It was very simple in my head about what I was doing and the job I was doing for the weekend. I was emotional after the game - I was so proud of the lads and the effort they put in and the way they dug it out against a great Kerry team.
"There was a huge range of emotions. I’d my own family who were in mixed colours in the stand. My uncles would be very passionate Kerry men. My wife, my mam and my kids were in the Armagh corner. Blood is thicker than water and all that. There was good craic in the family Whatsapp in the build-up, but there was a lot of emotion going on.
"I mentioned after the game that I’m working with Dylan Casey for the last number of years. He was my captain as a 21 year old, to be captain of your club team at 21 and to go on and win a county championship tells you how much of a special fella he is.
"I’ve been very close to him over the last number of years. I just happened to see him maybe 20 seconds after the All-Ireland semi-final and that was the first time my head flicked to that side of it.
"There was a lot going on and it wasn’t an easy day, but when you are focused on the job you have to do, that’s the way it goes."
Now Galway await, a county he has a lesser affiliation with but one all the same having linked up with then Tribe hurling boss Micheál Donoghue in 2019.
This will be the fifth competitive meeting between the counties in Donaghy’s time involved and there’s been a two-point Galway win in the league, a penalty shootout win for the Tribe, a one-point Armagh round-robin success in 2023 and finally this year’s drawn group stage game down in Sligo.
Everyone’s expecting a photo finish.
One aspect that gives Donaghy hope is the formula McGeeney has put together and its end results. For the Kerryman, the field is littered with mini versions of his manager, from Aaron McKay and Aidan Forker in defence up to Rory Grugan in attack.
"You have to have the general right, which is Kieran, but then he has his comrades, his lieutenants are the standard-bearers and they are versions of him and what he was as a player.
"He knew the guys he needed to drive it because if you’re always hammering from the top, it is going to get old quickly and it is going to break away. If you can get a few really good leaders around the group and have them push the standards instead of you, that’s when you are starting to get somewhere.
"That’s one of the things that’s been lovely to see over the last four years, how these experienced players are shaping the next group.
"They are trying to make sure they left the jersey in a better place than they found it, which they clearly have at this stage. You have to go and hopefully see it out and get a win to really rubber-stamp that side of it."
But like so much of the Armagh build-up to the final, it all comes back to one man – ‘Geezer’.
"I think, what I felt from him that time with the Irish team (v Australia) was that he was so Armagh in my eyes. Then I saw him with Ireland and the way he was able to get everyone to buy into the Ireland jersey and performing against the Aussies and the way he was able to bring the group together, which would have been fellas who were butting heads the whole year before that.
"The way he carried himself, how honest he was and how straight he was - there was no sugar-coating anything.
"I remember thinking he’d be brilliant to be around, if he was my captain, I’d love to play for him. I want to be pushed, I don’t want to be let off the hook, I want to be called out.
"His attention to detail, his focus is just solely on Armagh - never on himself - and how we can get Armagh to be better, that’s what he talks about non-stop. The jersey and the people of the county and what it means. He is one of a kind. When Sunday comes along, it is the fifth final they’ve been in and he has been involved in three of them - it is 140 years this GAA thing has been going.
"I remember thinking he'd be brilliant to be around, if he was my captain, I’d love to play for him. I want to be pushed, I don’t want to be let off the hook, I want to be called out."
"You saw the job he did with Kildare. They were really relevant and they were knocking on the door. Whatever happened there, he was gone and they’ve gone the other way since that.
"He came into Armagh, who were on the floor in 2014. There’s no magic button to switch things around. You need to really get all the pieces in place and I think that’s when Kieran really comes into his own, to do that and the way he is able to think outside the box.
"I’d have been an outside the box call. When I took the call on day one I was like really? But he was saying ‘you can do it - if you work in Dublin it isn’t that far.’
"I remember getting off the phone wondering if I could do it and the more I thought about it, I wanted to work with him. I knew by the way he was talking and driving the players that this was where they were going.
"He sent me a few videos and you could see the young talent coming through - the likes of Rian O’Neill.
"He said ‘I think we need something different and I think you could help’ and once I feel I can help someone - it is the reason I played with Kerry until I was 35, I was the reason I played with the Stars until I was 41.
"If I think I can help anybody, I’m all-in with that."
Bowls or football, Donaghy has always been all in. On Sunday, he’ll be hoping to collect the pot once again.
Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship final, Armagh v Galway, on Sunday from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
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