CASSIDY: COUNTY EXIT LED TO PROUDEST DAY
IN A roundabout way, Kevin Cassidy believes he wouldn’t have won an Ulster club title if it hadn’t been for Jim McGuinness. The swift and premature end to Cassidy’s inter-county career after a fallout with the former Donegal manager in 2011 is an old story now, but a new footnote can be added in the wake of Gaoth Dobhair’s first provincial success. Cassidy defied his 37-year-old body to deliver a masterful performance in Healy Park on Sunday, and he’s convinced it would not have happened if events had taken a different turn. ‘The man above must be looking after me because if I was to trojan on with Donegal for another three, four or five years at that level of training, I would be sitting in the stands right now,’ insisted Cassidy. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I would still be the proudest man in the place watching these boys put our club up there as kings of Ulster, but I would have missed this. ‘I’m a great believer in what’s for you won’t go past you. ‘If I had stayed with Donegal, I don’t think the body would have been able to play out there today, and there is nowhere else I’d rather be. Without a doubt it’s the best thing I’ve ever done on a football field.’ Reflecting on it all, Cassidy wondered too about a curious meeting with the Scotstown team seven weeks ago.
A week after celebrating their fourth Monaghan SFC title in a row, the Scotstown players were in Gweedore on a stag do and ended up in Cassidy’s pub, Teach Mhicí. ‘I was kind of quizzing them about Ulster and they had set their targets on it because they had been there before and had four Monaghan titles,’ Cassidy continued. ‘We hadn’t won Donegal at that stage and all we were thinking about was trying to win it again for the first time in 12 years. ‘In the back of your head, although you didn’t want to say it to them, you were thinking “it would be some craic if we met you in Ulster”. ‘In fairness to Darren Hughes he said “you won’t be far away yourselves”. ‘You hear different things from different counties and obviously they were keeping a wee eye on us as well, but it’s strange the way things turn out.’ Before taking the Séamus McFerran Cup home to winter in Donegal for the first time since 1975 and begin the celebrations, Cassidy had some delegating to do. ‘All my barmen are players so I don’t know who’s going to be working over the next couple of days, but sure we’ll sort it out. Somebody will just have to hop in behind the counter.’