Donegal plea for jobs for the boys

THE RECESSION is clearly beginning to bite, with Donegal senior football manager John Joe Doherty pleading with local employers to give his players jobs.

Doherty says Donegal may lose five of their top footballers, who will all be unemployed by the beginning of next month: Barry Dunnion, Christy Toye, Ciaran Bonnar and Kevin McMenamin are all out of work at the moment, while midfielder Brendan Boyle’s contract as an engineer with Donegal County Council won’t be renewed next month.

Doherty also worries that students on his panel may go abroad to seek summer employment:

“I know the country is going through difficult times and we are in the middle of a recession,” he said.

“Jobs are scarce and things are not easy at the moment, but I think as a county we should look after our players and that is why I am calling on everyone to rally around.

“These lads are among our top sportspeople and I feel it is important that we look after them when it comes to jobs. That is why I am appealing to employers that may have jobs to consider those lads and I am also calling on people of influence to do their best.

“Otherwise we will lose them and that is the last thing we want to do. If we want to be successful we must be able to keep all our top players at home.

“I accept that it is the same all over and there may not be the same opportunities to go abroad as in the past but regardless of that I still think we should not sit back and do nothing. These lads are very important to us and our progress as a county if we are to be successful.

“Indeed, I would go so far as to say it is a culture we should develop even in good times where we look after our players and make sure that any lift in life we can give them is available.”

Doherty said that for Donegal to improve, players would have to receive the same kind of material support that is evident in the game’s leading counties: “They do it in other counties and I don’t see why we should not do it in Donegal.

“Indeed, one of our supporters was telling me on the day we were playing Kerry in Tralee, Marc Ó Sé was being photographed in the car park receiving the keys to a new Laguna, which was being provided to him for the year from a sponsor.

“Now, I accept that we are not at the same level as Kerry at present and no way am I saying that our players should get cars or anything of the like but if we aspire to be where Kerry are that is how we should be thinking.”