Kieran McGeeney and Jim McGuinness using their box office attraction to accumulate finances
GREAT ACCUMULATORS: Jim McGuinness and Kieran McGeeney drive the fundraising required for their sides success.
In this second coming of Jim McGuinness, Kieran McGeeney has yet to prove his rival infallible. Four times they have faced off and the Donegal manager has yet to be licked.
The margins are gossamer, though. On two of those occasions, they were square after regulation time, once after extra-time. The cup that each currently has in his possession is what the other craves and McGeeney will have the first move on Saturday.
Suspicion has coloured their relationship since 2011 when McGeeney was in charge of Kildare and a syndicated piece before their championship clash was aimed at creating a narrative about Donegal’s forwards committing fouls. Something to which McGuinness took great exception.
The latest story goes that before their Division 1 meeting in Ballybofey in February, an Armagh selector was spotted watching Donegal warm up in the handball alley close to the away dressing rooms. By the time Derry arrived into town for the Ulster preliminary round, the windows were covered up to prevent any more voyeurism.
True or not (there is soke photography evidence, it should be said), it adds to the intrigue between two men who are more similar than they would probably like to admit or perhaps even realise. Both are disrupters, contrarians, magnets for attention.
They both speculate. Last year, both counties spent more than ever, their increases in expenditure from 2023 greater than the other 30. Understandably as champions, Armagh’s team outlay jumped but significantly, almost €700,000 to €1.982 million, while Donegal’s spend rose considerably from €1.262m to €1.861m, just shy of €600k.
However, and perhaps more importantly if not interestingly, they both accumulate too. Armagh’s commercial income, which has been healthy for most of the McGeeney era, moved from €572k in 2023 to €742k in ’24 and donations almost doubled to €479,000. In McGuinness’s first year back, Donegal raised €527,447, a monumental increase of almost €500,000 on the year before (€34,394).
Going back to his time in Kildare when he was a member of the fundraising arm, McGeeney has appreciated the pursuit of medals requires money. This week, he is promoting a “Win With Armagh” initiative in which a house in Newry is first prize.
He has been instrumental in bringing on board backers in his native county. In 2020, he would have been consulted at the very least about changing the jersey suppliers to McKeever. For last year’s All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry, Armagh wore their alternative black kit. McGeeney explained before the final that two of his players had colour-blindness but emphasised the commercial appeal of the change.
“You’ll have traditionalists but I still think part of the thing we have now in each county is that, whether we like it or not, there has to be a commercial value to it. We have to make money, they are businesses and stuff, and if there is a jersey out there that sells better than the other and it’s not going against everything, I still think counties should be able to do it.
“They are too hamstrung as it is, in term of raising money, so if there is something that can help them raise that kind of finance – the black jersey is a good seller for us, as was Ethan’s [Rafferty] jersey.”
Not all managers think like that but McGuinness does. In 2014, the last season of his initial four-year term, his fundraising covered their five training camps to Portugal, Inishowen, Mullingar, Johnstown and Enniskillen. Just as they did after his return 10 years on, the board reported a profit.
Last December’s training camp in Dubai will have cost a pretty penny but much like the fence he insisted on building around their main pitch in the centre of excellence in Convoy in late 2023, there will be money for it.
That €55,000 privacy barrier along with new gym equipment and the services of a nutritionist was paid for by Team Donegal London after McGuinness gave a presentation to them in October 2023. Last November, he returned to give thanks to the county’s diaspora while “calling on their support for 2025”.
In an interview at the event, he said: “When you’re away from home, what happens at home matters. It matters a lot. Sometimes you want to be there and you can’t be there and you’re always looking in from afar.
“These people really have Donegal in their blood and they want to show that so it’s great to come over and be amongst them in the off-season and hopefully look forward to next season.”
Harnessing their box office attraction, McGuinness and McGeeney have offset the moneymaking advantages tradition brings Dublin and Kerry. It’s been illustrated in the seasons between the McGuinness reigns that famine follows feast but for now they and Armagh eat.
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