Review Committee to meet Academy coaches on Wednesday night

The regional coaches assigned to Karl Lacey’s Donegal GAA Academy have all been asked to be present in Convoy on Wednesday night. 

The current independent review into Donegal GAA is expected to be completed by the end of the month. And well as the Academy fallout, it will also examine areas such as governance and finance. 

Back at the beginning of April, GAA Director General Tom Ryan addressed Donegal clubs at an in-camera county board meeting with Shane Flanagan, the GAA’s Director of Coaching Games Development; Jack Cooney, National Player Development Lead and Ulster Council president Ciaran McLaughlin also all in attendance.

And it’s Cooney, who has close ties to Donegal with his wife Elaine being a native of Kilcar, that will talk to the regional coaches. The Westmeath native also part of Rory Gallagher’s backroom team when he previously managed the senior football side. 

Lacey, who was over the coaching of players from U-14 level up to U-20, resigned from his position back in February and was subsequently followed by over 35 coaches from the Academy in a show of solidarity. 

The regional coaches appointed by Lacey to head up that team of 35 will now sit down with Cooney in an attempt to gauge just what went wrong. 

It’s been an unprecedented period of turbulence for Donegal. A protracted and calamitous effort to find Declan Bonner’s successor eventually culminated in Paddy Carr getting the nod.

But he stepped down after only five months in charge as the side plummeted to Division 2. Aiden O’Rourke stayed on to fill that breach but Donegal suffered Ulster SFC elimination at the hands of Down.