Time to sit down and take stock of where we are at - Hugh McFadden

After a crushing defeat to Tyrone on Saturday evening, Donegal’s championship season ended and it wasn’t easy for any player to face the media.

But vice-captain, Hugh McFadden, as he has done after every game, gave an honest interview in the tunnel leading from MacCumhaill Park.

Donegal had just lost by eight points to Tyrone (1-18 to 0-13) and were never on terms after conceding an early goal.

Disappointed, yes, but McFadden was also thinking about the future and what the overall picture of Donegal GAA had gone through over the past year with the off field distractions and then the resignation of manager, Paddy Carr, towards the end of the league.

“Yeah, obviously disappointing is the overall feeling at the moment, frustration. It didn’t make for great viewing there. They kept us at arm’s length throughout the game. We played well in spells but we didn’t play well enough in 70+ minutes to warrant a win.

“We’ll have to look at that now over the winter,” said McFadden.

“Look, it is hard to put into words now. Things hurt, they are going to hurt for quite a while. But we will sit down in a few weeks and have an honest look at where we are at. There’s no point in jumping to conclusions today.

“We all have to come together. This year wasn’t good. Today wasn’t good. The reasons why? We are going to have to figure out and try to get Donegal footballing going in the right direction again.

“Personally, it was a frustrating season. There’s a group of boys in there (dressing room) who endeavour to fight and I’m very proud of the way they went about their business over the last year. We’re really going to have to figure out how to get the ship going in the right direction again.

“Without trying to sit on the fence, there’s a lot of things going through my head right now, more frustration with myself than anything else. We’ll let the dust settle and try to figure things out as the weeks go on and hopefully we can pinpoint how we can improve as a group of footballers and as a county.”

Asked about the off-field distractions during the year, McFadden said: “Look, without trying to play too safe on it, it’s very hard for me to say,” said McFadden, who said the panel did the best they could to focus on playing football.

“We have to sit down with the best people and the best heads to get the best for Donegal football and figure out where we are going.

MARKSMAN: How the Donegal players fared against Tyrone in Ballybofey

On a night when Tyrone were on top for most of the game, the marks for the Donegal players reflect that with their season coming to an end with the defeat

“We were completely focussed on the last few weeks on championship football and trying to get the best performances. If we are going to be intellectual and smart about this whole thing we are going to have to sit down and figure out. We just want the best people who want the best for Donegal football and the most competent people involved.

“I just think it is time to sit down and take stock of what we are at.”

SOME GOOD PARTS

“There were parts of the first half that were better and we scored some good points. We didn’t create many goal chances today. We had some possession at the start of the second half but we weren’t effective or efficient with it. That cost us in the end. Tyrone were good at keeping the ball and hard to get the ball off and they enjoyed attacking the space,” said the Killybegs man.

He agreed that turnovers played a big part in the defeat: “Turnovers inside their ‘45’, one or two myself early on. Disappointing. We didn’t show the same consistency in possession, the same composure. I don’t think they were doing anything fantastic but I thought we could have been a bit better on the ball.

“We know their sharpshooters. We just gave them too many opportunities today, the way we coughed up possession.”