THE DONEGAL DILEMMA
They’re a genuine top-six team with the talent to go further – so why can’t they find a manager?
INSIDE the next two weeks, Donegal will find out the identity of their new football manager. That hardly qualifies as breaking news, it’s more like a hedged bet that time ultimately will deliver what a deeply confidential process has struggled to do in prompt fashion.
Right now, the secretive nature of the process to replace Declan Bonner has presented prospective candidates with silhouetted faces, while the identities of the three-person committee charged with finding the new boss are also classified.
What is understood is that the initial interview process has concluded, but that does not necessarily mean that all the talking is done.
It is believed they now have an identified candidate, a declaration of interest but considerable loose ends that need tying up, and it is a long way from being brought over the line.
As to the identity of that person? Well, no one can say for sure.
Up to a week ago, Malachy O’Rourke was deemed to be that man, until local journalist Frank Craig confirmed that the former Monaghan and Fermanagh manager was not interested.
That has since led to attention focusing once more on 1992 All-Ireland winning legend, Martin McHugh, whose name did not feature in what was reported to be a slow-moving nomination process that closed almost a month ago.
However, given his profile and status within the county, it is inevitable that the focus would fall on McHugh, who failed to get the job in 1994 before reminding his native county of his pedigree when leading Cavan to the Ulster title three years later.
There has also been a joining of dots that have been too seductive to resist; his son, 2012 All-Ireland winner Mark, worked with Maxi Curran at the Donegal ladies football team that had a relatively successful 2022.
With Curran’s credentials as part of that Jim McGuinness All-Ireland-winning set-up, suddenly the basis of an oven-ready management team has surfaced. Meanwhile, McHugh’s low profile over recent weeks in local media, where he is a popular pundit, has invited speculation that he is trying to avoid the question which everyone is asking.
And in the fashion of these times, a high-profile pundit of a mature age swapping media exposure for the sideline while assembling a high-end youthful management team – Karl Lacey could feature in any proposed management team no matter who gets to lead it – has become the new norm.
Yet all that neat aligning of the stars is somewhat skewed by the fact there has still been no confirmation of McHugh even being approached.
In fact, the only name that can be said for certain to have emerged from the initial nominations process is that of Shaun Paul Barrett, who led the
county minors to an
Ulster title success in 2016. And, perhaps, it has been the lack of appetite for the job – along with the length of time to fill it, given that it is two months since Donegal exited the Championship – that has offered almost a damning indictment of where the team is perceived to be.
After all, Donegal are hardly makeweights; semi-permanent members of the Allianz League’s top tier, they are the most consistent county in Ulster over the past decade with nine final appearances as well as five title triumphs in an 11-year period.
Without question, they are a genuine top-six team.
Perhaps that is the issue. They have been among the elite for an age but have not reached an All-Ireland semi-final since 2014.
Even so, the post should still engender interest from the brightest and best managers out there.
Instead, this process has dragged on and, as a result, the county board has felt the heat at times, not least from 1974 Ulster winner Pauric McShea, who has been critical of the failure to engage the services of Brian McEniff and Jim McGuinness – the county’s two All-Ireland winning managers – in the search for a new leader in his weekly and widely-read Donegal Democrat column.
But McShea concedes that the county’s difficulty in appointing a new manager extends beyond who is doing the looking.
‘Mayo had at least 16 people interested in being part of their managerial set-up,’ he said.
‘Once we were beaten in the Ulster final by Derry, I never saw such apathy. Donegal people voted with their feet and did not go to see us playing Armagh because they were so disappointed, not only with the defeat but with the
manner of the defeat and the poor quality of football we played,’ McShea added.
It could be argued that this Donegal team has never really recovered from the shock of losing the 2020 Ulster final to Cavan.
They went into that game as the most likely to stop Dublin’s march to six-in-a-row, having come off a commanding win over Armagh.
For the final two years of Bonner’s reign, they flagged but the low point came this summer when they could not convert a twopoint second-half lead into another Ulster title and ended up losing a game of ‘keep ball’ to Derry, and the fallout proved toxic.
The issue for any prospective manager is that weaning the team off a game plan that is heavily possession-focused may just be too big an ask.
It may have played a part in cooling the interest of some likely candidates, given that Bonner’s predecessor Rory Gallagher also departed in acrimonious circumstances.
There are few teams who have more natural ball-winners, with Caolan McGonagle, Jason McGee, Hugh McFadden, Ciarán Thompson, Michael Langan and Michael Murphy all strong in the air and powerful kickers, which should mean that a more direct approach would play to their strengths.
Of course, it’s never that simple – any game-plan that leans the other way to route-one football plays into the hands of massed defences such as Derry’s – but Donegal need to mix it up. Central to that is the role Murphy, their iconic captain and also the player central to their last two defeats in Ulster.
Sent off against Tyrone last year, he was taken for three points by Brendan Rogers while playing in a deep-lying role this summer.
The argument that the time has come for the 33-year-old to play as an orthodox full-forward received a timely boost last weekend on club duty with Glenswilly.
Trailing Ardara at half-time, he took four marks for points from five high balls and laid on an assist from the other, and flipped the contest on its head.
‘As far as I am concerned Michael Murphy is the greatest player that has ever put on a Donegal jersey,’ insists McShea.
‘Ultimately, the myth about the Derry defence exploded against Galway because Brendan Rogers had a very difficult time inside on Damien Comer.
‘We have nearly been cloned and it is depressing to look at. It is not entertaining but, apart from that, it will not get you results.
‘But I still would be optimistic for Donegal football because we have 11 or 12 players that are as good as anywhere in the country.’
But that brings Donegal right back to the here and now.
Who should they turn to?
‘I would ask Malachy O’Rourke again,’ insists McShea.
‘He is perceptive on the line, which is an area we have not been to over the last number of years.
‘In close matches when the need was there, we have not been able to make those tight calls.
‘You can get anyone to get a team fit but the biggest issue, when the heat is on and the right call has to be made, is the time you need the right guy to be in your corner and O’Rourke is that guy.’
He might be yet as this still has a way to run.
In close games, we have not been able to make those tight calls