Peadar Mogan: 'You can see how much he cares about the jersey and Donegal when he speaks'

Peadar Mogan believes the timing of Jim McGuinness' return to Donegal was right after a 'tough' year.

Fri, 28 Jun, 2024 - 06:23

Eoghan Cormican

The opportunity to work under Jim McGuinness is one thing. The opportunity to work under Jim McGuinness after a “tough” year where it wasn’t “pretty” to be a Donegal footballer is a whole other ball game.

Injury meant Peadar Mogan’s involvement in green and gold last year did not extend beyond the 11-point Round 6 beating at home to Mayo. Manager Paddy Carr’s involvement didn’t extend far beyond that fourth league defeat either. Three days later, the latter called time on his five-month spell in charge.

There followed league relegation, an Ulster quarter-final defeat to Down, and ultimate elimination to Tyrone at the last-12 stage. Not to mention a newspaper full of internal rumblings.

“Oh it was tough,” Mogan says of being a Donegal footballer in 2023.

“Now, I probably didn’t get the full force of it compared to some because I was away in Liverpool last year (studying), so I wasn’t around in terms of talking to a whole pile of people or being around that environment. I was obviously coming home for training and games, and then I ended up getting injured.

“But it wasn’t nice. Even some of the stuff you were reading, and me being away, I was feeling very sorry for the players with some of the stuff that was being said about them. It wasn’t a pretty time.”

Against that backdrop, the timing of Jim’s second coming couldn’t have been better orchestrated. “Brilliant timing,” as Mogan puts it. “It just gave everything and everyone a huge boost after last year.”

Mogan has a picture of himself and McGuiness when the latter visited Mountcharles following the 2012 All-Ireland win. His first impressions of meeting him as the county's returning manager last autumn centred on McGuinness’ delivery. His words cut through and cut deep.

“It was just the way he talked about Donegal as a county and the way he talked about football,” continued the 25-year-old in-form half-back.

“You also have to think he played for Donegal, he’s managed Donegal before, he grew up supporting Donegal, so it’s in who he is and no matter where he’s travelled in the world, he’s never forgotten about Donegal.

“How much he actually cared, and how much he actually cared about the supporters to try and give them something to cheer about, because I think that’s huge, was one of the main things, definitely, that rubbed off.”

Inside the four white lines, the first impression was no different. Coaching sophistication and tactical intelligence took second chair to his ability to make a point.

“The way he speaks about Donegal, he translates that onto the pitch, so it’s brilliant. It’s the way he delivers his message, the conviction and the passion he puts through it. You can see how much he cares about the jersey and Donegal when he speaks.”

To Sunday. Donegal have not been to the last four of the championship since the final year of Jim’s first coming in 2014. They’ve fallen at the last-eight fence in 2015, 16, 18, and 19. They haven’t won a championship game at Croker since the 2016 Round 4 qualifier victory over Cork.

“That’s why I think it’s mad that people are saying we are such big favourites for the weekend when you take that into account. It’s massive for us: we just want to go into Croke Park and come back with a win. We want to get to a semi-final, the same as Louth do.

“It would be big for us to try and get to the semi-final and give the Donegal supporters another day out because they’re itching to get there.”