‘The Donegal people love him’: McGuinness sees shades of Lacey in Roarty

From the Donegal team that fell at the penultimate hurdle last year, not too much has changed in terms of personnel, but at the same time, there have been a couple of huge additions.

The obvious one is the return of Michael Murphy, who has been Donegal’s top scorer in the run to the final, and his presence at the top end of the pitch has been huge on and off the ball.

But at the other end of the pitch, Finnbarr Roarty has been a revelation in the Donegal defence, epitomised by his Man of the Match performance in the semi-final against Meath.

It isn’t often that a corner back ends up winning that accolade when a team scores 3-26, but such was his performance that he ended up with the award from RTÉ.

After impressing at minor level, the Glenties native came straight into Jim McGuinness’ plans for 2024, but after playing in the McKenna Cup, it came out that he was too young to feature that year as he only turned 18 last January.

However, he was raring to go in 2025 and has been a mainstay in the starting 15 this year, to no surprise of McGuinness.

“He's a fella that was on my radar because he's from my own club,” McGuinness said on the 19-year-old.

“We knew growing up that he has a lot of very admirable characteristics. He's very, very honest.

“He punches above his weight in many respects. He doesn't fear anybody. There's an innocence to that but there's a lot of courageousness there as well. He's a brilliant tackler.

“He's so honest in the tackle and punches above his weight there. I can see him taking the ball off Aidan O'Shea in Roscommon that day. That's not an easy task. He's a really big, strong boy.

“When he gets you in that grip, a bit like Karl Lacey, he can get the hand in and the hand out. It's clean and it's crisp and it's strong. He's fair. He's been brilliant.

“The Donegal people love him. They absolutely love him. When he gets a turnover now, I think it's as big a cheer as you're going to get for a point because he is so honest.”

Roarty was one of a number of younger players introduced into the side over the winter, with many players who starred for the Under-20s this year also training with the seniors.

A side that narrowly lost in extra-time to U20 All-Ireland winners Tyrone, it was clearly a good learning curve for a number of those players, with Roarty, who is hotly tipped to win Young Player of the Year, especially standing out.

“I think it's a very, very important part of it. I think it's a hugely important part of it. My take on that would be the best minor in the county is going to be a county player.

“If you're the best player at minor level, we're talking under 18 now back in the day, but if you're the best minor in the country, then there's a very strong possibility that you're going to go and become a county player.

“I think those players need to be nurtured. Paddy played minor and senior in the one day. Ryan was just out of minor.

“Martin O’Reilly, all those other lads that we mentioned. I think they need to benefit from being in that group, in that circle. We had probably twelve under 20s in most of the winter with us here, with that in mind, because they're younger now.

“They're 19 years of age, most of them 18. You just can't beat that. You can't beat being in the environment and becoming comfortable with looking at Michael Murphy and looking at Paddy McBrearty. Obviously, the boys are brilliant as well.

“Finnbarr himself referenced that after the game. Brendan, Michael, all these fellas have been helping him along the way. I've seen that. I've seen the senior players that are playing full forward, talking him through what they like to do and don't fall for that, and movement patterns and stuff when he came in at the start.

“I think that's a testament to the group and the culture of the group as well, that those fellas are there to help a young lad on the way up.

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“I think those really talented young fellas should all be given an opportunity. There's a good 20s team in Donegal this year and there's a number of those players that we're tracking. 

"There's maybe four or five of those fellas that can play senior in my head.”