Seamus McEnaney has revealed that he tried to bring Padraic Joyce and Ciaran McDonald to Monaghan in the late 2000s.

The legendary Galway and Mayo forwards were at the height of their powers when the then Monaghan manager made an audicious, but ultimately unsuccessful bid to recruit them.

"At the end of 2007, I remember I felt we needed a centre-forward. I went looking for Padraic Joyce, believe it or not, because he was married to a Monaghan woman," 'Banty' told The Farney Army Pod.

"You know what, and this is a secret out of school, he would have come to me but he wanted to play with his club so he couldn't come to Monaghan because he was a Galway man and not...he had to play club football in Monaghan. He wouldn't leave his own club, which you have to respect him for.

"The other man I tried for in 2008, I met him twice and he wouldn't come, was Ciaran McDonald. He was working in Navan.

"Those are two secrets that never came out. Again, he wouldn't shift. I felt if we had one man who could control the forward unit in '07, '08, '09 and '10, from centre-forward, that would have been the link in the chain."

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