Thompson’s dual role reaps big dividend

ON Sunday he will battle to book Donegal’s berth in the All-Ireland senior football final and defender Anthony Thompson will be able to reflect proudly on his own role in shaping the development of some of the county’s young talents.

Last season as he mapped out the Ulster U21 football championship route for his Donegal side, Jimmy McGuinness realised that there were serious geographical hurdles to be overcome just to train his players.

Thus he devised a training regime where his squad would prepare at three different locations in midweek before gathering together as an entire group at weekends.

McGuinness himself supervised the Dublin-based students’ sessions at DCU, the members of the squad who were clustered around Donegal trained with the then senior boss John Joe Doherty and his panel, while Thompson, centre-back on that year’s GMIT Sigerson Cup team, was in charge of the preparations of the Galway-based students.

Thompson himself was involved with the Donegal senior squad at the time and the arrangement worked well as it allowed him to conduct and partake in quality and organised sessions. The numbers were small but Thompson was dealing with players of serious potential who, due to their studies in NUI Galway and GMIT, were restricted in midweek by their ability to travel home for training.

Of the Donegal players that were involved in last month’s gripping All-Ireland quarter-final win over Kildare, corner-back Paddy McGrath (Ardara), wing-forward Mark McHugh (Kilcar) and substitute Dermot Molloy (Naomh Conaill) all came under Thompson’s guidance. Leo McLoone would also have played had he not broken an eye socket before the Ulster final.

Molloy, McLoone and Thompson are all members of the Naomh Conaill club and featured on the side that won last year’s county senior title. McGuinness is also from the Glenties club, which was the origins for his links to Thompson, who he praised for his efforts in assisting the U21s.