Moyna does it the hard way
They never expected to make another decider this year but then, with such an array of inter-county talent attending the university, the chances were more possible than probable.
That they have done it without Donegal’s Michael Murphy or Martin McElhinney is an indication of their strength in depth.
Even if Professor Niall Moyna didn’t gather his full panel together until late December, the material is there to impress not just in the Sigerson Cup but in pre-season competitions when counties are more often than not experimenting with their line-ups.
But the McElhinney story has dominated the headlines. No surprise, really, when Moyna suggested Donegal manager Jim McGuinness was guilty of bullying.
The truth is Moyna had reached the end of his tether with Donegal and was going to call it as he saw it: McElhinney was pulled out of exam preparations by McGuinness and threatened he’d be dropped if he didn’t play in the challenge against Monaghan. There he injured himself and was made unavailable to DCU.
McGuinness’ reaction days later was measured with a hint of refutation. Meath and DCU’s game had been brought forward. He needed to see McElhinney in action before the start of the league. He cares for the player’s welfare.
The war of words has simmered somewhat but the story has far from died.
This past week, Donegal players took turns on Twitter to poke fun at McElhinney, the McGee brothers, Neil and Eamon, guilty of the good-natured ribbing.
On Wednesday, Neil tweeted: “I seen ya went down t Dublin crying bout your injury, did moyna rub your back tell ya everything goin t be ok.”
McElhinney took the jibe in good nature: “Ha that’s it alright he comforted me in my time of need.”
The older McGee sibling struck again on Thursday night when he put up: “Poor marty sure ring moyna he,ll sort it out for ya.”
McElhinney again responded well to the dig but the episode remains a serious matter. Indeed, McElhinney, according to Moyna, was in tears about the ordeal while the player’s father is understood to have been talked out of going public about the matter.
As much as Moyna wants to park the matter, he is still irked by what happened. As much as an official report into third level GAA recommends colleges and counties come to understandings about player availability in pre-season competitions, he believes the issue still has to be addressed.
McGuinness’ nuclear threat to pull his team out of next season’s McKenna Cup appears to run against the idea of finding a happy medium. “The tail is wagging the dog in relation to the college-county scene at present,” he noted
Whether the Donegal manager sees Moyna as solely a member of the Dublin backroom team is unclear, but the communication lines between them have been severed.
“No matter what manager I contacted over the years once you mention examinations they leave the players to their own devices,” said Moyna.
“Maybe it was a miscommunication issue, I don’t know what it was, but I was upset from that perspective, that he was a final year student.”
In between the two units, it’s the players who are suffering. Murphy’s groin injury was also the subject of conflict between DCU and Donegal.
McGuinness wanted his captain to undergo an operation. DCU were informed by a well-known surgeon the tear didn’t warrant it.
McGuinness got his way.
There are also questions over whether Murphy was told in December to publicly back the Donegal management’s stance against Kevin Cassidy, something Cassidy alluded to when he tweeted: “In life the opinions you express should be you’re [sic] own and you shouldn’t be influenced by others”.
The fact is, inter-county managers are yielding enormous influence on their players, as colleges are discovering, whether it be Mickey Harte or Liam Bradley insisting students pledge their allegiance to Tyrone and Antrim over their universities in the McKenna Cup.
Ironically, DCU’s opponents tomorrow are no stranger to run-ins with colleges. Last year, Kildare manager Kieran McGeeney was criticised for putting too much pressure on his college players at NUI Maynooth.
McGeeney is outspoken against the, as he sees it, power of third level Gaelic football. “It really shouldn’t take precedence over inter-county,” he said last year when claiming colleges are blackmailing players.
Frowned on by the traditionalists and opposed by a growing number of inter-county managers, DCU’s presence in tomorrow’s final is a testimony to their ability to overcome growing adversity.
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