Tackling the best of them, Donie always delivers

Where Donie Buckley goes, improvement follows. And when his native Kerry didn’t involve him in a new management team, Mayo’s James Horan was quick to step in and quick to reap rewards

Three years ago, Ballinacourty were looking for a coach so they rang former Waterford manager John “Jackson” Kiely for advice. “I asked them did they want an ordinary guy or the best coach in Ireland,” recalls Kiely. “They asked who was the best and I said Donie Buckley. They said ‘we’d hardly get him’. I said I know him well so I rang him.

“He had to juggle a few things, he had just started Kerry at the time, but we got on and he came down and took it from there.”