‘Espionage going on all the time’, claims Jim

Jim McGuinness has disassociated Donegal’s management team from the man caught observing Kerry’s training session last week but insists similar ‘espionage’ is widespread in the game.

Donegal man Patrick Roarty, a long-time friend of McGuinness, watched All-Ireland final opponents Kerry training from a tree close to Fitzgerald Stadium before fleeing when spotted.

Kerry based Roarty mingled for several hours among Donegal players and supporters at their City West Hotel base yesterday morning and socialised at the hotel on Sunday night.

McGuinness agreed it was a ‘bizarre’ episode which had nothing to do with the Donegal management or squad. But on the general issue of monitoring opposing teams’ training sessions, McGuinness claimed it goes on all the time and that one rival coach even checked into a hotel room close to Donegal’s training base where he could monitor them.

“It was a bizarre one,” said McGuinness of last week’s incident. “The bottom line with that is that, espionage is a very strong word to use, but it’s going on all the time. We put people out of our own training on Wednesday night and maybe three or four times in the lead in.

“It’s going on for the last three or four years. That’s the kind of craic that’s going on. He [Roarty] is not associated to our camp but there’s no doubt he’s probably watching training.

“And we have that, we train in MacCumhaill Park some days and we have people in the [nearby] hotel, looking down from the hotel.

“I’m not saying it was Kerry. I’m not saying that. Previous years as well. We were playing a team and we worked out that one of the coaches was staying in a local hotel. This is what goes on.

“It’s fine margins. Kerry, for years, had open sessions and people were just going in. I think Tyrone, years ago, were going in, making their notes on the thing. So it makes sense, for me, to have closed doors.

“It’s a good idea to have open days but it’s also a good idea to be able to close the doors and go through your own tactics.”

Asked if the incident last week was distracting, McGuinness laughed. “No, it wasn’t distracting,” he grinned.