In 2002 Danny Ward was part of the Derrygonnelly side that secured the Division One title with victory over Newtownbutler after a replay.

On Sunday, Ward ended a 21-year wait for a second league title as the Harps eventually saw off Kinawley following a contest that required two periods of extra time to separate the sides.

The spell between those two successes saw Ward spend 12 years in Australia with the 38 year old returning back to Ireland just before Christmas. During his time down under Ward played with Michael Cusacks but he is now back in the Harps jersey for the first time since 2010 and is enjoying the experience.

"I played (for Derrygonnelly) in 2010 and we lost to Newtown in the championship and I flew out on New Year's Day 2011 to Australia.

"I played away over there with Michael Cusacks. When I went over there, Mark Murphy had gone the year before and he was playing with them so I got in through him," he said.

Ward kept an eye from afar as the Harps rattled off five Senior Championship titles in a row and he admits it was tough not to be involved.

"You'd always be looking out for them and it is hard watching them win all those championships. Obviously, you are happy but there is a wee bit of you that's jealous that you are not involved. We always said that the plan would be to go away for a year or two but it kept getting longer, it was tough but I'm glad now to be back playing a bit for a year or two or whatever it is," he added.

Danny now lives close to Clontibret in Monaghan and despite the travelling to and from training is delighted to be back with his home club.

"There is a good feel about the place and there is a lot of good young lads. The travelling takes a bit but the boys are fairly understanding in fairness. When you are playing with Cusacks in Australia it is good but your club is your club and it is good to be back playing."

Sunday's league title was the start of a hectic period for the Harps and Ward is hoping that it can reap even more success.

"It is good to just be playing but the silverware is a bonus and hopefully we can get another one on Saturday with the Junior Championship and then push on in the Seniors," he commented.

It was far from plain sailing though against Kinawley and Ward was simply happy to come out on the right side of the result.

"We expected that. I know we beat them in the league but they were missing a good few so Sunday was always going to be a tough test.

"We didn't match their intensity in the first half, they were sharper and had that bit more bite to them. I thought we got to grips with that in the second half and we probably had the winning of the game in normal time when we were four up with five left. But we sat back and Kinawley have that quality that if you sit back they are going to punish you which they did. Extra time could have gone either way but it was good to come out the right side. Five points probably flattered us a bit with the late goal but we were just happy to get the win," he said.

"You could do three or four trainings and you wouldn't get as much out of it as we did on Sunday. Halfway through extra time I would have been happy enough not to have been there but when you look back it is invaluable. Boys got an hour and a half football at a high intensity which is what you are going to get in the championship. When you look at the eight teams in the championship, there is nothing between any of the teams. You are going to get the same week in, week out.