Murphy urges Academy re-establishment:‘Things were beginning to be done right’

Donegal’s 2012 All-Ireland winning captain Michael Murphy has stressed the importance of getting the county’s GAA Academy back on track.

Four-time All-Star Karl Lacey was Head of Donegal's Academy for two years following its establishment in 2021, before resigning in February, citing a “lack of support.”

Lacey, who has an MSc in Sports Performance from the University of Limerick and is a lecturer in Sport Coaching and Performance at ATU Donegal, was over the coaching of players from U-14 level up in the county.

In a show of solidarity for Lacey, his departure was followed a week later by a mass resignation of coaches and support staff in the county - believed to be numbered approximately 40, who said they “had lost confidence in the governance of Donegal GAA.”

“It’s regrettable,” Murphy told Newstalk's Off the Ball of the departure of Lacey. “This would’ve been year three of the Academy. The two years prior to that, the work that was beginning to be done. [In terms of] long-standing difficulties in Donegal geographically, we were trying to match schools together with academies - it was something we always struggled with in the county.

“The Academy teams were beginning to flourish, we were getting more and more coaches involved, they were getting more education and following teams up the ladder. Things were just really beginning to be done right. We would’ve been training as a senior team up in the Centre of Excellence and we would’ve been seeing how the thing was run, seeing different teams from underage training. You felt in year three it was going to really take off. The building blocks were there for it.”

Following a special meeting of the Donegal County Committee in March, moves have been made to get the Donegal GAA Academy back. A GAA review into the talent academy, finance and governance structures of Donegal GAA was announced that same night, which in turn recommended last month that there will need to be significant changes into how Gaelic games are run in the county. The review revealed 14 “high-risk” findings, so Donegal GAA are now working towards addressing those.

“It’s absolutely regrettable for it not being able to continue on,” Murphy added. “Here’s hoping, the report has been drawn up and there’s actions within the report. Those actions can be looked at because the report shows there was a hell of a lot of good work being done. Hopefully, we can encapsulate that. There’s one year lost but it’s only one year if we can take the learnings from it and put it right as a county.”