As a player, he captained the Roscommon county team to the 2001 Connacht Senior Football Championship title.
In 2010 he once again led Roscommon to a Connacht Senior Football Championship, this time as manager of the team.
In October 2011 O'Donnell resigned as manager due to work commitments.
The highlight of his term was beating hot favourites Kildare to reach an All-Ireland semi-final[2] O'Donnell stepped down from his post after a narrow All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Ulster champions Donegal the following year [3] In October 2015, it was confirmed that O'Donnell would become joint manager of Roscommon senior team alongside his former Roscommon Gaels teammate Kevin McStay.
[4] He announced he was standing aside in September 2016, leaving McStay in sole charge of the team.