'Players are suffering - if you abuse your product, then you won’t have a product'

Paul McGonigle admits he’s struggling to comprehend the decision of the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) to schedule Donegal’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Monaghan for 4pm on Saturday.

McGonigle, who played championship football for Donegal 18 times, having debuted in 2001. The Buncrana native was part of Jim McGuinness’ backroom team for the 2014 season, winning the Ulster SFC title and reaching the All-Ireland final before losing 2-9 to 0-12 against Kerry, and also worked under Declan Bonner.

Donegal defeated Louth 2-22 to 0-12 on Sunday at MacCumhaill Park and were the last of the quarter-finalists to book their place in the last eight, and they will now, alongside the Farney County, be the first of the competitors to line out this coming weekend.

“I can’t get my head around it and I’m struggling to work out a justification for it,” McGonigle, who is now working with Buncrana’s seniors in Division 1 of the Donegal All-County Football League, said.

“I don’t understand why one team, Donegal, have a six-day turnaround, while another, say Kerry, who also came through the preliminary quarter-finals, has eight.”

Aside from Kerry’s eight days, Dublin and Galway - the other preliminary quarter-finals winners - have seven days off, while Monaghan, Meath, Tyrone and Armagh had the weekend free as a reward for winning their respective groups. Monaghan and Tyrone's turnarounds are 14 days, and Meath and Armagh's are 15.

This is the third season of the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals and Donegal are the first county to have a six-day turnaround forced upon them.

“It seems to be about bums on seats in Croke Park, or numbers watching on television or paying for a paywall, and I feel the players and their welfare are not taken into consideration in any shape or form,” McGonigle added. “Donegal will presumably warm down from the Louth game, have a session on Tuesday night and there won’t be an awful lot they can do Thursday with a trip to Dublin then on Friday.

“Having Donegal and Galway playing on Sunday would’ve given the four qualifiers seven days each and that would be equitable and fair. The powers that be are shooting themselves in the foot for a few more euro.”

Donegal are playing a ninth championship match of the summer, after winning Ulster through the preliminary round and having lost to head-to-head to Tyrone in the round-robin stage and finishing second in Group 1, had to negotiate their way past Louth in the preliminary round. Donegal have won seven championship games to date this season, whilst nobody else has won six.

Monaghan, on the other hand, are preparing for a fifth with the benefits of the free weekend, having been the only county to win all three of the round-robin fixtures and topping a group that also included Louth, Clare and Down.

Saturday’s clash at Croke Park, which is the curtain-raiser for the meeting of Dublin and Tyrone, will be the seventh time Donegal have played Ulster opposition in this year’s championship and defeated Gabriel Bannigan’s team in the provincial quarter-final in Clones, 0-23 to 0-21.

McGuinness has been vocal in recent weeks about the distance Donegal supporters are expected to travel to games, with three trips to Clones already this season, one in Cavan and then Roscommon having been chosen as a neutral venue against Mayo.

The Saturday fixture, McGonigle feels, will be awkward for fans from north Donegal, whose journey - a 460km round trip from the county grounds at Ballybofey - meets Tyrone and Monaghan support through Omagh and Monaghan town before the M1.

“It’s not ideal for supporters, but I’m sure they would be willing to have another hour or two in the car should they know they’ll have the team in good shape on the pitch,” he added. “But what’s going on is making it almost impossible to prepare a team mentally and in terms of physiology.

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“Players are suffering - if you abuse your product, then you won’t have a product. I doubt their well-being was even part of the conversation when it came to arranging days and times. Winning Ulster has meant this has been a hard slog, but these decisions do not seem to be weighted at even 50-50 for Donegal.

“This year’s championship has been great and there are four potentially phenomenal quarter-finals to look forward to, yet Donegal and Jim, you feel, will now have to create some sort of siege mentality, and it shouldn’t have to be like this. Jim has had to become a voice on this for Donegal, when things like fair scheduling shouldn’t be something you have to debate.”