Declan Bonner planning without star names

Donegal will not rush some of their more experienced campaigners back into action just yet as they bid to defend the Dr McKenna Cup that set them on their way to an Ulster title last year.

Declan Bonner’s team began their 2019 campaign in the northern curtain-raiser with a 0-21 to 0-11 win over Queen’s University in Ballybofey on Sunday.

They were minus the services of the likes of Michael Murphy, Frank McGlynn, Ryan McHugh, Mark McHugh, Paddy McGrath, Leo McLoone, as well as Eoghan Bán Gallagher, who is recovering from a groin complaint, and Patrick McBrearty, currently sidelined with a cruciate injury.

As well as that, with Gaoth Dobhair having won the Ulster Club SFC and preparing to take on Corofin of Galway in the All-Ireland Club SFC semi-final next month, players like Odhran MacNiallais, Neil McGee, Cian Mulligan, Daire O’Baoill and Michael Carroll have been excused.

It’s the same reason Stephen McMenamin is absent — his club Red Hugh’s will play their All-Ireland Club JFC semi-final against Easkey from Sligo in three weeks’ time.

Eoin McHugh spent last summer in Boston and returned for the win over Queen’s, while Jason McGee and Niall O’Donnell were also starters having played for the Under-20’s last year.

Donegal take on Down in Newry on Sunday in their next Dr McKenna Cup fixture before welcoming Sligo to the north-west on Wednesday week.

“No, definitely not,” Bonner, whose coach Stephen Rochford, the former Mayo manager, watched from the press box on Sunday, said when asked about some of the more experienced players coming in before the Allianz League Division 2 opener in Ennis against Clare.

They’re in the process of coming back and have their timelines from the medical team and the strength and conditioning guys planned out. It’s not a case that they can just come in.

Midfielder Hugh McFadden felt as though the new experimental rules, particularly the one outlawing four successive hand-passes, did little to improve the spectacle.

“The game went laterally a lot and there were kick passes for the sake of it,” he said. “It’ll take a while to adapt to it. I have sympathy for the referees in the forward mark and counting hand passes. You can’t blame the referee.

“A lot of goals were scored with a nice piece of intricate passing, maybe a flick across goal and a tap-in, like Ryan McHugh has done so many times. If you take out that extra fist pass you put pressure on the player on the ball to make a worse decision. I think it was a rushed decision and I don’t think they should go ahead for the League and Championship.”

Bonner was less diplomatic in his assessment. He said: “It’s such a waste of time.

It’s crazy. I don’t know how 10 men can sit around a table and decide the three hand passes rule. There were no goals in the game and I think that’s one of the reasons.

“Normally we’d have men coming off the shoulder to finish it off. Many a time, we’d have Ryan McHugh or someone coming off the shoulder and putting the ball to the back of the net.

“The new rule makes it very difficult. The boys are very wary and this is doing nothing for the game. They can’t have much to do, coming up with this.”