Quiet man Buckley spreading the gospel
Kerry icon O’Sullivan firmly believes that the return of coaching guru was ‘the first piece of the jigsaw’ in the Kingdom’s journey towards taking on all-conquering Dublin
THERE’S a story which Kerry great Mickey Ned O’Sullivan tells of Donie Buckley that reveals all you need to know about his love of everything related to coaching.
Since retiring, O’Sullivan offers a hand in Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine. It’s the secondary school in his home of Kenmare which has helped to produce the likes of Seán O’Shea, and he rang Buckley one day to see if he might take a session.
Having worked together with Limerick, the pair share a great friendship but little did O’Sullivan realise that he would be there the next day, laying out cones and putting one of the school sides through their paces in his own inimitable way.
Buckley “wouldn’t take a penny” despite making the 360km round-trip from his Ennis base, and hit the road again having left a group of Kerry youngsters mesmerised by his unique methods.
After scoring a last-minute goal from full-forward to help Castleisland Desmonds secure their sole All-Ireland club football title in 1985 with a 2-2 to 0-7 defeat of Dublin powerhouse St Vincent’s, Buckley’s place in local legend was secure.
He may not have represented Kerry’s seniors, but on the training ground he would have no equal as he carved out a niche as a coach when guiding Milltown Malbay (1990) and Ennis amalgamation outfit Faughs (1994) to Clare SFC titles.
Followed
There are very few places along the western coast where he hasn’t left a lasting effect, and a stint as joint-manager with Clare in 2006 alongside Michael Brennan was followed by a season as a forwards coach under Peter Ford in Galway.
All-Ireland intermediate club honours were secured with Moycullen in 2008 and it was around this time that his path crossed with Treaty boss O’Sullivan and he was drafted into the fold.
He earned rave reviews as Limerick fell narrowly in Munster finals to Cork (2009) and Kerry (2010), with O’Sullivan giving the coaching genius the room he needed to manoeuvre during three years together.
“When you take on a coach, you empower him. Once it went onto the coaching field, I’d stand back and leave Donie do it and he liked that freedom. I trusted him totally. Donie likes space and I gave him plenty of it,” O’Sullivan says.
“We’d discuss what he should do and he would do it incredibly well. We both knew where we stood and we both respected each other’s roles and he did an exceptionally good job. The players loved him.
“We never did physical training. Everyone was into strength and conditioning but we didn’t do any of that because we felt the games were so intense that it prepared them physically for the match situations. Everything was done with a ball and players had to make decisions.”
Buckley was the county civil engineer in Clare for years and O’Sullivan believes he looks at football through a different lens.
“Donie looks at football in a different way. He brought a different dimension to it, he brought a mathematical side to it. He used logic to analyse opposition and play to your own strengths,” he says.
“He was a big man for devising smallsided games where players got the opportunity to make decisions for themselves. It’s common now but it wasn’t then.”
A coach who is ahead of the curve, the now-retired Buckley heads to Florida every winter with his wife Áine, where he plays plenty of golf and maximises his 90-day visitor visa by gleaning everything he can from coaches in basketball, American football, soccer and other sports.
Former Kildare boss Cian O’Neill likens Buckley’s sojourns to the US as someone “interning” to gain more experience. He marvels at his thirst for knowledge having regularly met him at various coaching events and become “good friends” through their sporting passion.
“There’s a great humility about Donie, anyone who’s willing to go to a workshop even though you might already be coaching at an elite level, that shows a great hunger for learning and that it doesn’t matter who sees you there or what they think. He is there to learn,” O’Neill says.
When planning sports conferences through his work with CIT and drawing internationally-renowned coaches like Nick Winkelman and Wayne Goldsmith to Leeside, O’Neill knows a text or call from Buckley is near to confirm his attendance.
O’Sullivan adds of Buckley’s continuous development: “Donie never stands still, he is pushing back his own concepts of the game the whole time. The game is always evolving so Donie will always evolve and find new ways, new approaches, new creativity. He never repeats anything.”
Ears were pricked in Kerry by 2011 as one of their own was making waves elsewhere. Buckley was recruited to work under Jack O’Connor, where they just missed out on All-Ireland honours as the Dublin juggernaut began to gather pace.
His was a more minor role as time moved on, however, and after undergoing knee surgery early the following year, they parted ways before the championship as the Kingdom were ransacked by Donegal in the All-Ireland quarter-final.
A call came from Mayo boss James Horan to get involved and six years would be spent in green and red, with the esteem Buckley was held in highlighted by the fact that he was a mainstay of the coaching staff despite three different managements taking charge in that time.
Mayo defender Keith Higgins is effusive in his praise of Buckley when recalling his infectious enthusiasm for the game and the ability to keep everyone on their toes, with no training session the same.
Tackling was often his topic of choice as he turned them into a mean defensive unit capable of going toe-to-toe with Dublin. Higgins describes a man that always gets the best from a squad.
“No matter who you talk to, everyone would have good time for him. Whether it was a big game in Croke Park or his first session back in January, the enthusiasm was always there and that feeds into the players,” says Higgins.
Buckley is the common denominator in every speed bump which the Dubs have hit in their drive for five, having helped the westerners push them to championship draws (2015 All-Ireland semi-final and ’16 decider) as well as a pair of onepoint defeats (’16 final replay and ’17 final).
Calls came for Buckley, now in his late 50s, to come home, and he returned to Kerry when Peter Keane replaced Eamonn Fitzmaurice. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Kingdom pushed Jim Gavin’s Dubs to within an inch of their lives two weeks ago.
When it’s put to O’Sullivan that Buckley is the final piece of the jigsaw, the former All-Ireland-winning Kerry captain is adamant that “he was the first part of the jigsaw, the management was subsequent” and that “everything revolves around Donie when it comes to coaching”.
While he doesn’t court the limelight, O’Sullivan can see Buckley’s fingerprints “in every aspect of the Kerry team” while O’Neill likens his coaching style to Tipperary hurling guru Eamon O’Shea.
“Some people might see his coaching style as different or unorthodox, but if you ask any player that’s worked under him, they’ll tell you how good it is. You won’t read it in a textbook,” O’Neill says.
If anyone is qualified to stop the Dubs, it’s the quiet man from Castleisland.