Keeping veterans onside has been a masterstroke in Donoghue’s first term
BACK in March, Galway welcomed Tipperary to Pearse Stadium for a National League encounter. It was typical of the games that those counties have conjured up in the past few years. There were some sensational scores, plenty of thrills and spills and Joe Canning produced a moment of magic that drew gasps from the crowd in Salthill.
The game ended in stalemate, 2-19 to 1-22, and afterwards Micheál Donoghue insisted that he was still in a period of familiarising himself with a side that retained the outline of the team Anthony Cunningham had worked with for the previous four seasons. Andy Smith was a busy presence in midfield while Iarla Tannian started at centreback before drifting to centreforward in an effort to quell Ronan Maher.
‘For us, we are new into this job so we are still looking at different lads and different options, and maybe a few different game-plans as well,’ Donoghue said at the end of that thrilling encounter. ‘The players are adapting well to it. The attitude and application by the players has been very good. And we are getting positives out of each of the games we have played.’
Five months on, Donoghue is more comfortable in his surroundings. And the team has more of Donoghue and his back room’s stamp on it. Some of the decisions made during the AllIreland quarter-final win over Clare looked inspired, such as moving defender Johnny Coen to midfield to quell the influence of David Reidy.
Meanwhile the likes of Smith, Tannian, Fergal Moore and Cyril Donnellan, stalwarts as Cunningham’s side reached two All-Ireland finals in four years, have had to be content with bitpart roles as substitutes.
Smith, Donnellan and Moore came off the bench in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Clare, as they did in the Leinster decider. The combined age of the three veterans is just shy of 100.
That is the sort of experience and composure any new manager would love to fall back on – and it has certainly made Donoghue’s job a little easier that, despite becoming less significant presences on the field, they remain siginificant within the squad.
And perhaps that has been Donoghue’s greatest trick, to ensure that Galway have moved so smoothly through this summer with the more experienced soldiers having to be content with reduced roles.
‘I think it has been massive to have that experience on the bench,’ Donoghue suggested at last week’s press day at the Galway GAA centre of excellence in Loughgeorge. ‘Those three more experienced lads have been brilliant for us this year. They have been working really hard and have been great with the younger lads.
‘Even though they haven’t been starting, they know they have a role to play in the dressing room, driving the whole thing forward and that has been really important in how things have gone.’
Twelve months ago, Donoghue was on the opposing camp for the All-Ireland semi-final when he was a coach and statistics man in Éamon O’Shea’s backroom team. The Clarinbridge native was a close friend of the then-Tipp boss, and worked with him for two seasons. It was the final act in a managerial apprenticeship that lasted a decade.
Donoghue, who played with Galway in the mid-1990s as a stylish half-back before injury curtailed his county career, was asked by Vincent Mullins to join his back-room team with the Galway Under 21s. They would win two All-Ireland titles with Galway — in 2005 and 2007.
In 2010, he took over the senior side of his native club, Clarinbridge leading them to only their second county title that November when they beat a much-fancied Loughrea team. A few months later; he guided Clarinbridge, back-boned by the Keirns brothers, to the promised land when they won the All-Ireland club title, beating Kilkenny’s O’Loughlin Gaels. Having reached the very top, Donoghue instantly stepped down.
But his name was always associated with the top job in Galway and when the county needed someone to repair the fractures left by the process that saw Cunningham ousted, Donoghue was the man they turned to.
Back in March, when Tipperary came to Salthill for the usual entertaining joust between these two teams, there was a sense that Donoghue was still getting to know Cunningham’s team. He has taken ownership of the team now.
His stamp is definitely on it. If he can get to an All-Ireland final within a few months of settling into his new surroundings, Donoghue might have cause to thank four of the more experienced soldiers on his squad for helping him to make the transition.
‘THEY HAVE BEEN GREAT WITH THE YOUNGER PLAYERS’