“People talking about a Tyrone and Monaghan Ulster final didn’t sit well with us”

An ignored Down team is a dangerous Down team.

The Mourne men love nothing more than an ambush and now where's that perfect Ulster final that we'd been talking about since May? In the space of 12 months, Down overturned a 19-point loss to Monaghan and rocked the country with a performance of pace, intensity and pure flowing football that forced everyone to sit up and take notice. On June 5 last year, the Farney men walked over the top of Eamon Burns' side with a 2-22 to 0-9 victory. Now look at them. And Kevin McKernan, so instrumental to his county, admitted that him and his team mates didn't ignore the dismissal of them this year - but that they were determined to do something about it.

"I think the whole factor of people just talking about a Tyrone and Monaghan Ulster final didn't sit well with a few of us," the Down star told The GAA Hour in a brilliant interview. "Particularly after last year's defeat - there was a whole lot of hurt after our 19-point defeat in the Ulster championship. "It was probably a totally different team compared to what we had in Monaghan, in terms of personnel - five or six men. Then the confidence of getting a few wins - it spoke for itself on Saturday evening."

When Down have their tails up, they're a different animal entirely and even after being written off before their win over the Orchard county in the quarter-finals, they weren't looking to stop there.

"The big thing we took away from Armagh was how much we could improve further and Eamon was very pragmatic in terms of looking at it and saying that there's so much more in our team."

Listen to the full Kevin McKernan interview from 17:50 below.