Born leader not resting on his laurels

Colm Coyle’s Monaghan shocked champions Armagh last year. Can they do it again? Paul Keane reports

CORMAC SULLIVAN remembers the laughing and the joking and the craic, just before things got deadly serious. The bar in Lanzarote was thumping and the good times were rolling but the atmosphere quickly changed and the air almost turned blue.

All around the young goalkeeper were smiling Meath faces and the scent of All-Ireland success that emanated from a happy Royal County camp just months after their victory over Mayo in 1996.