Winning the 2008 All-Ireland junior title acted as a perfect launching pad for Darren Daly's senior intercounty career.

The Fingal Ravens clubman has since gone on to win two senior All-Irelands, three national league titles and five Leinsters. But it all began with that '08 breakthrough... "I always had it in the back of my head, try and get into the senior team," the Dublin defender reflects in The Irish Times.

"I knew there was a chance of a stepping stone of trying to get onto the senior team. If you performed at that level - it was a high enough level at the time - you knew you were being watched, so that's what gave a lot of us the opportunity in the senior team.

"When you go back and look at it, you had Denis [Bastick], you had Eoghan O'Gara, Mick Fitzsimons, myself, Jonny Cooper, probably one or two more. We were all in the junior set-up at the time and are in the seniors now.

"It was an exceptional year . . . just a good year where we got a lot of lads. We played two or three games in Croke Park and it was great experience to get that feel before getting into the senior team. We played it as a curtain raiser for the seniors and got a bit of a taste of it then. You knew you wanted to be there then."

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