Tír Chonaill turnaround: How the mood music changed in Donegal
SWEET HOME: Donegal sharpshooter Paddy McBrearty at MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
WHEN Kevin Cassidy heard the news that Paddy Carr had stepped down as Donegal manager in March after discussion with senior members of the team, he took out his iPhone, opened up WhatsApp and sent a text to his friend Paddy Bradley. That message was short and not so sweet - “get out now.”
The Derry legend had been part of Carr’s backroom team for just six months and at the time it was unclear whether he, and then head coach Aidan O’Rourke, would be vacating the premises too.
Cassidy felt he needed to nudge his ally. Bradley had coached him with Gaoth Dobhair in 2013 and they were still very close. He knew how this storyline was likely to play out, especially in Donegal where, he feels, negativity can take a particularly strong hold.
“I just said that I wasn’t going to tell him what to do, but if that was me I’d be getting out there. I told them ‘they’re coming for you next.’ That’s just the way we are here and it’s a real shame. We seem to just go after people instead of backing them. We’re not going to win any All-Ireland, let’s be completely honest, but at least look at the squad we have there and realise we’re trying to build.
“Next year you’re going to hopefully add in Ryan McHugh, you’re going to hopefully add in Paddy McBrearty from the start, you’ll hopefully get the two O’Donnells (Niall and Conor) from St Eunan’s, Peadar Mogan as well. That’s a good squad and I don’t see the point trying to take stripes off them any chance we get.”
That chance certainly hasn’t been there over the last week.
Bradley stayed on, O’Rourke moved into Carr’s position as manager and slowly the mood music is changing in the Tir Chonaill county. The lament may not be a jig just yet, but the tempo is rising as they prepare for Saturday’s big All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final clash with Tyrone. It’s been an admirable turnaround.
Relegation from Division One was pretty inevitable by the time of Carr’s exit, but an Ulster Championship loss to Down in Newry appeared to be another sign of Donegal’s falling stock.
The first half of their All-Ireland group opener against Clare reaffirmed such notions. Three points down at the break, and that was after needing a fine Shaun Patton save to prevent that deficit being doubled.
Donegal’s recovery started in the second half in Ennis. They took control of proceedings to win by five points and followed it up with a credible performance against Ulster champions Derry.
Then came last weekend’s impressive win over Monaghan to secure second spot in the group and, ultimately, a home clash with their Ulster rivals. After the Monaghan win, Cassidy’s trusty phone was put to use once again.
Just seven minutes had passed since Mayo whistler Liam Devenney blew his whistle to confirm Donegal’s win when he, tongue-in-cheek, tweeted: “We have no team..Sack the management…Sack the board… I’ll tell you what we have some experts in this county.”
It was a release for Cassidy who has passed the stage of caring what some people think of his opinions. After his very public falling out with Jim McGuinness in 2012, he felt that no matter what he said, abuse was going to follow from a portion of Donegal supporters so he may as well cut out the fluff.
His honest opinion of where Donegal stand is hard to argue with right now. Interestingly, he feels that the fact that they fell behind in pre-season while searching for a new boss may turn out to be a positive as they appear to be coming to the boil at the perfect time.
“I’ve been there before when we haven’t been going well and there’s people sitting there happy to pull you down.
“With all we’ve had going on off the pitch, players missing and the management stepping away, new management needing time to build, it was never going to happen for us straight away. You have to give these boys time to adjust and out their stamp on things.
“There was always a big performance in Donegal, 100 percent, and I still don’t think that big performance has arrived although they played well against Monaghan, definitely.
“If you were offered this game six months ago, Tyrone in Ballybofey to go into the All-Ireland quarter-finals, you’d have taken the hand off it.
“The week after Paddy Carr left, they were having a training camp down in Gaoth Dobhair and they were openly admitting that they were just getting down to hard work. That’s only a number of weeks ago. I know as a player that it does take four or five weeks to find your feet, so hopefully they’re starting to come at the right time.
“Once you get a win, that helps too. The win in Clare, alright it wasn’t the best performance, but it would have given them an impetus. You’d be bouncing in training then.”
Training could only have been a ball of energy this week too. Tyrone in Ballybofey. Red flag to a bull.
The McGuinness era is most remembered for that 2012 All-Ireland triumph over Mayo, but so much of their building blocks could be traced back to an Ulster semi-final win over the Red Hands the previous season.
Tyrone were going for three Anglo Celts in a row and led 0-6 to 0-1 after 26 minutes. The pretenders to the throne appeared to be out of their depth. From there though, Mickey Harte’s side would only manage three more points as goals from Colm McFadden and Dermot Molloy finally convinced the Donegal players that they belonged. They repeated the trick at the same stage and location in 2012 to reinforce that.
It’s Ballybofey though that carries the aura of invincibility for Donegal despite their first-ever championship game there being an 8-7 to 0-3 hammering at the hands of Tyrone in 1953.
Before that, Donegal championship games had been played in Bundoran, Ballyshannon, Letterkenny, Carndonagh, even Straleel and Magheragallon, but it’s that drive through Ballybofey town on match days that adds a bit of extra trepidation for opposing teams.
With good reason too. After Down won an extra-time epic there in 2010, a year that ended with the Mourne county losing the All-Ireland final by a point to Cork, Donegal would recover and go 19 games unbeaten at Páirc Seán Mac Cumhaill.
Of course, it had to be Tyrone that ended the run, winning a 2018 Super Eight clash with a late Harry Loughran goal killing the game, just as Colm McCullagh had done on their last win there in 2005. Tyrone lost on their next five visits from that point until that success five years ago.
As far as reputations go, Ballybofey has it – but Cassidy isn’t convinced on those particular merits as they welcome a side that remain in the competition thanks to Westmeath’s John Heslin having a free waved wide last weekend that some still argue was over.
“You know what, I’ve never been in a dressing room where it’s been said ‘we’re playing in Ballybofey, we’re really hard to be beat here.’ “I think it’s just more that the players enjoy playing there. It’s a really tight venue, the crowd can get involved, and I think what it’s more about.
“This game could honestly go either way. Tyrone aren’t flying bar the two Canavans, Darragh and Ruairi. I don’t think last week was our big performance though, I think there is one more in us but will it come out on Saturday? I just don’t know.”
And if Donegal win?
“Mark my words, if Donegal beat Tyrone on Saturday night all of these lads giving off about them all year will come out of the woodwork and we’ll be the greatest team in the country again.”
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