An Alternative View: Delays, debuts and delight for Donegal

For a place that’s marketed as being that little bit different, the last six or seven months from the outside looking in at the Donegal senior set-up has been, well, a bit different.

Declan Bonner's last outing as Donegal manager saw a wheels-fell-off-the-wagon 3-17 to 0-16 loss to Armagh in the All-Ireland qualifiers in June and the appointment of Paddy Carr took 97 days. In that time frame Great Britain had three Prime Ministers and two monarchs and if you delve through history, back in 1872 Phileas Fogg managed to get around the world and back - and would've still have time to take a fortnight off to recharge the batteries and spend his winnings from the Reform Club.

It wasn’t until late October that Paddy Carr brisked through the doors in Convoy. While studying for the priesthood with the Columban Fathers in Dalgan Park, he spent three years in Peru, Bolivia and Chile. Originally from Fanad he was brought up in Dublin and was going to retire from his post of principal at Coláiste na Mí in Navan to focus on the job he spoke so enthusiastically about.

One thing that wasn’t Carr’s fault was the delay in his appointment and nor was it his fault the feeling of disillusionment that had built up in some Donegal supporters. The retirement of Michael Murphy in November merely deepened the woe; years - 16, appearances - 177, goals - 34, points - 615, impact - priceless. There was as much talk about who Donegal didn’t have as to who they did have.

Sunday was basically the start of the ‘post Michael Murphy era’ with St Eunan’s club chairman John Haran managing to resist the term for about eight words as he spoke to Emer Gallagher for TG4, while Christy Murray - the Donegal piper - told Aisling O’Reilly from ‘Off the Ball’ he didn’t really know what way it was going to go, either. With 23 years involvement with the senior set-up, his experience on the sidelines with the pipes could prove vital.

Haran said there was a bit of ‘gloom’ over the whole thing although he stressed today was the day to get things going again and Neil Gallagher nodded his head in agreement. Nobody really knew what to expect from Donegal and with 14 new faces having appeared in the Dr McKenna Cup losses to Down and then Monaghan, it wasn’t a time to be judgmental. The Allianz League schedule looked pretty unforgiving too, with last year’s Division 1 winners and All-Ireland champions Kerry first up and then a Tyrone side who won Sam in 2021 next.

With Jack O’Connor laying his cards on the table as early as Monday night as he stressed he would be making his way to the north-west without 10 of the 15 players who started the All-Ireland final win over Galway, Donegal’s team selection was more of a waiting game. A team did finally come through from Donegal GAA on Friday night, only it was Kerry’s.

Still, at Wednesday's press briefing, Carr did say he would wait until the eleventh hour before making a decision on goalkeeper Shaun Patton, who is so paramount to Donegal’s gameplan.

The warm-up was so intense, you knew he would be given every chance and so it proved, with Gavin Mulreany having to wait to make his league bow. Marty O’Reilly last played for Donegal in 2019 and was drafted in for Jamie Grant, who between Donegal, Termon U-21 and DCU played more football in January than Manchester United did the year they won the treble.

For anyone interested, the last time Donegal went with the programme team was in the 2021 Ulster SFC preliminary round in Newry against Down.

A minute’s silence was observed for former Four Masters player Corny Carr, while Caitríona Uí Dhochartaigh from Abbey Vocational School sang Amhrán na bhFiann and we were ready to go.

Caolan McColgan, Mark Curran and Johnny McGroddy were the first-time starters against the Kingdom who were without their King, his brother and plenty more. Dara Roche, the Glenflesk clubman, was making a debut at full-forward having also started for East Kerry in the Kerry championship, which, like the mechanics of temporal physics, the size of the universe and James Joyce’s Ulysses, all rank in the top 10 of things nobody can really understand.

Something folk at home tend not to understand too, was why TG4’s cameras were not being wiped. Donegal, the white blobs, were a little easier to make out than Kerry’s navy. Last year. TG4 presenter Micheál Ó Domhnaill took to social media to explain the complexities of the wet lens as Donegal and Mayo played out an opening day draw in the Gaza Strip at Markievicz Park, while MacHale Park was getting relaid.

On Saturday, the Castlebar ground hosted Galway in a frenetic opening fixture and one that Donegal fans at home might’ve been left slightly unnerved by, due to the highly credible level of performance put on by two teams so early in the season.

The highly creditable Roche was in impressive form early on as Kerry raced into a commanding 1-6 to 0-3 lead inside of just 25 minutes. The goal, from a Donegal perspective, was calamitous, when Brendan McCole was pickpocketed by Dara Moynihan, who tucked into an empty net.

The turnovers, which counted 7-0 in Kerry’s favour at one stage late in the first half, was killing Donegal and the manner of the goal concession was soundbite of smaller things happening out the park.

McColgan, Daire Ó Baoill and Conor O’Donnell had scored the early Donegal points and on an afternoon where there would be a marked improvement the longer it went on, those three players were the standouts. O’Donnell’s scoring of Donegal’s fourth point, McColgan then was credited with the fifth, which may have tailed wide and from a brilliant Donegal move of which he was an intricate part, McGroddy scored a top class point. Even better, it definitely went over.

At half-time Donegal, 1-6 to 0-6 down, knew that if they could continue their streak and stop coughing up cheap possession there was a chance. Kicking the first four scores of the second half tipped the balance and the roar could be heard vibrating off the stand. Luke McGlynn joined the action and scored, as did Jamie Brennan, with McColgan, Ó Baoill and O’Donnell continuing their consistency throughout.

Further back, McCole, Caolan Ward, Curran and those in front kept Kerry scoreless for 24 minutes, before Paul Murphy - an All-Ireland Club IFC winner with Rathmore, who did his holidaying in the form of a honeymoon before Christmas - levelled it up.
With the relative inexperience of both sides, it was tricky enough to know which way it would go, although Donegal had still only lost one league game in Ballybofey in 12 years.

Donal O’Sullivan brought Kerry on terms again and it looked like ending up, like Castlebar, in a draw. Whatever way it was to go, the fine second half shown by Donegal would at worst bring some tether of consolation.

However, Donegal’s new captain Patrick McBrearty, moved in from the periphery to kick an emphatic winner on the loop with the trusty left. O’Reilly, late on with an incredible block, made sure the points were staying in his hometown. Donegal had won, 0-13 to 1-9 and the wafer thin margins of the Allianz League were there for all to see.

As Liam Devenney blew for time, Carr turned to the crowd and - perhaps not something he would've done too much in his working days - gave a fist-pump that everyone enjoyed. It was perhaps a more important game for him and for Donegal than O’Connor and Kerry. Carr’s delight was evident, with the date circled on his calendar for some time and he spoke excellently and poignantly with a quavering voice about the people of Creeslough afterwards.

O’Connor wasn’t so happy at full-time, making a beeline for the referee through the crowd like you’d see a bouncer do when he hears a glass smash on the dancefloor. That mood wouldn’t have been lightened by the fact he was about to face a journey that Phileas Fogg would’ve found taxing. McColgan’s point was wide - he maintained - but with all that’s going on, there’s no need to offer a replay.

“There’s a good group of players, new management and come new year the games will start again,” Michael Murphy said when he called it a day. “There will always be a Donegal team.” And on Sunday the new faces showed that’s certainly the case.