Steven McDonnell feels the county team must look to the country's top club. GAVIN CUMMISKEYreports

ARMAGH’S SURPRISE removal from the football championship at the hands of Roscommon last weekend initiated a two-pronged debate.

One, how is a county with the most dominant club side of all time, Crossmaglen Rangers, unable to transfer that success on to the championship scene?

Two, who is the best man to take on this task in the wake of manager Paddy O’Rourke’s resignation?

Of course, the current Armagh crop continue to live in the shadow of their greatest ever gathering of men. Even if the previous generation only captured a single All-Ireland title, in 2002, history cannot deny the magnitude of winning seven Ulster titles between 1999 and 2008.

Stephen McDonnell was the last of that soon-to-be-legendary crop to retire, which leaves the three-time All Star well placed to comment on what is going wrong and who should lead Armagh back into the light.

“I don’t believe that it was the best Armagh team on the pitch [against Roscommon],” said McDonnell yesterday.

“I do believe there are still capable Armagh players that are not even in the squad.

“But you have to look at Crossmaglen’s record over the last two years.

“They’ve won two All-Irelands in a row and you don’t win two All-Irelands in a row having bad players in your set-up.

“Certainly, I would like to have seen a few more Crossmaglen players starting, more so because they have a winning mentality.

“ I’m not saying that they are better players than the players who started for Armagh last week but they have a mentality to go there and they believe in themselves, that they’re going to win every match they play in.”

It is a little more complicated than just flooding the side with Crossmaglen footballers, as McDonnell explained.

“If we’re going to be honest, I don’t think the players that are there are at the same level as the players were 10 years ago.

“I’m putting my hands up and saying we had some driven men – Kieran McGeeney, Paul McGrane, the McEntee twins, the McNultys, Oisín McConville.

“You could name every player in that set-up and they were all seriously driven men.

“The current group of players in Armagh certainly have a lot of ability – there’s no doubt about that – and there are some fantastic players coming through. But maybe it’s their attitude and application as much as anything that isn’t getting them across the line.”

When moving McDonnell to offer up a solution, the 32-year-old doesn’t miss a beat.

“It’s probably time that Armagh go back to where we were in 1997 and clear out all the dead wood and really look at the structures, have a look at how we can get back on top of the table again.

“We did that in ’97 and it took us five years to win an All-Ireland final and there’s no saying why we can’t do that again.

“Listen, it should be an advantage to Armagh football that Crossmaglen are doing so well. Everybody in the country is in awe of Crossmaglen, so why are they not in awe of Armagh football?

“And that’s the reality. We should be taking those players in and putting arms around them, and trying to play to the system that they play and that works for them.

“A lot of that has to do with Tony McEntee and Gareth O’Neill as well, and how they set themselves up.”

That led us neatly into O’Rourke’s successor. McDonnell sees only two candidates, yet both men may well be out of reach.

“Tony McEntee is the obvious one, I know he’s come out and ruled himself out and he’s ruled himself out for good reason, he wants to be part of a Crossmaglen team that wins a three in a row, and that’s a perfectly good reason.

“The other outstanding candidate, of course, is Kieran McGeeney.

“We all know what he was like as a player and a leader, and he’s done a fantastic job with Kildare as well. But I think it’s unfair to even talk about Kieran McGeeney at the minute when he’s involved with Kildare too because his circumstances could be different at the end of the year. Kildare are tipped to win an All-Ireland and they’re one of the favourites to win an All-Ireland.

“If they do that there’s no chance of us getting Kieran McGeeney, and that’s the reality of it.

“So outside of that there, are there people capable of doing the job? I’m sure there is, you have other ex-players like Justin McNulty, who is with Laois, you’ve Aidan O’Rourke involved with Down, Paul Grimley is another man who was involved in the backroom team this year.”

Others from the 2002 panel now involved in club management are also mentioned, like Barry O’Hagan, Oisín McConville, Diarmuid Marsden and John Toal.

This merely indicates the wealth of leadership and strength of character that was at Joe Kernan’s fingertips back then.

“In 2002 we set the standard of professionalism within the GAA,” McDonnell adds.

“We took it to new levels and a lot of clubs would obviously be interested in why we did that and how we came about.

“We had a mentality that was instilled in that team that each and every player was just mentally so strong, and along with the talent they had as a footballer, that made us a great force and we weren’t willing to accept anything less than the best.

“It’s probably one of the main reasons why a lot of the boys have gone into management. Obviously they have a keen interest in it. A lot of teams would have had a keen interest in finding out the points that made Armagh such a good team back then.”