headline: Mixed feelings on a 'breakthrough' year - Armagh star Rian O'Neill on The GAA Social
text: Rian O'Neill won't soon forget his journey through the 2022 inter-county season with Armagh.
  As he geared up for his fourth year in the senior set-up, he received a pleasant surprise: being asked by boss Kieran McGeeney to co-captain the team alongside Aidan Nugent. 
  O'Neill was well aware of the significance, but any suspicions that the heightened responsibility would weigh heavily on his broad shoulders were emphatically dispelled by his virtuoso display in the Division One opener win over Dublin. 
  Gracing Croke Park's hallowed turf for the first time, O'Neill scored 1-4 from full-forward as Armagh marked their top-flight return after a 10-year absence with a verve and swagger that forced many onlookers to sit up and take notice.
  For O'Neill it set the tone for the next five months, and while he was ultimately forced to grapple with crushing disappointment, the Crossmaglen Rangers ace feels that 2022 was the year in which he really made his mark on the inter-county scene. 
  "It felt to an extent that it was," O'Neill told The GAA Social when asked by Thomas Niblock if he considers 2022 his breakout season.  
  "At the start of the year, Geezer came to me and Nugent and asked us to be captains of the team. When Geezer asks you to be captain of Armagh, it's something you really have to give your all to. 
  "He'd obviously seen something in me. I wouldn't be the biggest of talkers but I prefer to do my talking on the field and prefer to lead that way."
  Unfortunately for O'Neill, the momentum and confidence built from an eye-catching Division One campaign would be shattered in the Ulster Championship cauldron when he was held scoreless in Armagh's 1-16 to 0-12 defeat by Donegal in Ballybofey.
  "I felt fit all the way through the year - I was playing well but against Donegal I had an absolute nightmare, nothing went over for me," added O'Neill, who has returned from a summer in America to aid Crossmaglen's quest for a first Armagh SFC title since 2019.  
  "I couldn't get on the ball, couldn't do anything, but against Tyrone and Donegal [in the All-Ireland qualifiers] again I started to kick on. [The All-Ireland quarter-final against] Galway, I had a good first half but was poor after that. 
  "But it did feel like a bit of a breakthrough year for me. I was playing well in previous years, but this year I felt near on top of my game and that if I played well I'd be hard stopped."
  Being asked to lead his county, lighting up Croke Park, an All-Star nomination; O'Neill has a lot to savour when reflecting on 2022.
  However, he maintains that any post-mortem on the inter-county campaign is tinged with regret given the manner of Armagh's All-Ireland exit, losing to Galway in a penalty shootout at the end of one of the most riveting championship games in recent memory.
  In an incident-packed encounter that included the mass brawl which resulted in a six-month suspension for O'Neill's team-mate Tiernan Kelly for eye-gouging, O'Neill scored 0-4 and was the only Orchard player to score in the shootout.
  His most memorable contribution, though, came in the dying embers of regulation time, nailing a 50m free to force extra-time after Armagh had roared their way back from a six-point deficit with two injury-time goals. 
  In extra-time, Jemar Hall's score looked to have sealed a semi-final spot for Armagh before Cillian McDaid landed a beauty to set up the shootout. 
  "You look back at Galway with regrets coming from that game, the way we lost the penalty shootout," admits O'Neill.  
  "We didn't really perform in the second half. We had it won in extra-time, lost it again, got back into it. 
  "There are regrets but we feel we've progressed through the year. We let ourselves down in the first game against Donegal but we came back against Tyrone and Donegal (in the qualifiers) and made a bit of a statement. 
  "We were hoping to push on against Galway and get to that semi-final where we felt we'd have a chance coming up against Derry or Clare, it turned out to be Derry.
  "Then you see how close Galway ran Kerry in the final and it just enters your head 'what if' we did get over the Galway game and the circumstances we did lose, it's a bitter pill to swallow but we've got to put that to the back of the head and go again next year."