Louth's Ollie McDonnell NAME: Ollie McDonnell DATE OF BIRTH: 17/1/75 HEIGHT: 5' 11" WEIGHT: 12st 3lbs CLUB: St. Josephs COUNTY: Louth HONOURS: No inter-county honours, nor any significant club ones either, beaten in the 1994 Senior County Final after a replay INTER COUNTY DEBUT: v Galway, National League 1993, in Tuam TOUGHEST OPPONENT: All are difficult FAVOURITE GROUNDS: Home ground in Dromiskin. Castlebellingham also OTHER SPORTING INTERESTS: Played a lot of soccer when younger. Reached FAI Youths Cup Final with local club Rangers FC. Also played for a period with Newry Town Reserves and more recently with Dundalk Reserves. Dabble in other sports but not at a competitive level FAVOURITE POSITION: None BOYHOOD HEROES: Jack O'Shea (and most of that Kerry team) FAVOURITE PLAYERS: Mickey Linden (Down), Anthony Tohill (Derry) BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON CAREER: My father Jimmy and brothers Jody and Jim THE HIGH POINT OF YOUR CAREER TO DATE: Coming on as a substitute against Dublin in Croke Park. Also reaching the County Senior Final against all expectations OTHER PLAYERS WITH A PROMISING FUTURE: In Louth- Mark 'Yogi' Gorham, Ciaran Nash. In the country - Trevor Giles (Meath), Diarmuid Marsden (Armagh), Ollie Murphy (Meath) HOPES FOR 1995: After a good League campaign, we hope to advance in the Championship. We have a tough draw but we hope we can lift our game and finally realise our potential. The last few years Louth have been knocking on the door of a Leinster success, and now hopefully we can do it IT MUST HAVE BEEN DISAPPOINTING TO GET SO CLOSE TO DIVISION ONE: It was very disappointing. We felt we had a great chance coming into our last match against Cork. Even with 10 minutes to go in Cork we looked as though we had promotion but like other years things have fallen apart just at the final post. However, a good championship run will put the memory of the League a long way away HAVE YOU FELT ANY PRESSURE FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF A FAMOUS FATHER, UNCLE AND COUSIN? I haven't really, to be honest. I see myself as another player with different skills and faults. The only expectations I am trying to live up to are my own. My father, nor anyone else have never put any pressure on me WHAT IS IT LIKE TO PLAY UNDER A TEAM MANAGER OF THE CALIBRE OF PAUL KENNY? That is a question which would be bettered answered by the more mature members of the panel, as I haven't played under too many different manages as yet. However, Paul has a great track record with underage Meath teams and if desire and commitment are anything to go by, he should get the same results with Louth Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 26th May 1995 Vol 5 No 21 Tweet

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