‘When it comes to football, if you want to talk about hunger, you couldn’t feed me’

And so begins another championship season for a man, who for almost two decades in Donegal football has never sat idle in his bid for success.

John McNulty has been fortunate in his career to never fully understand a manager’s equivalent to that difficult second album – that ‘sophomore slump’ from those who fail to live up to the relatively high standards of a previous year.

On the sideline for Aodh Ruadh’s championship quarter-final in Fintra against Gweedore last September however, he cut a distinctly changed figure to what we have so often seen from the Kilcar man in the past. A look of forlorn as his side fell to a one-point, 0-8 to 0-7, defeat - a chance that slipped away.

“We were so disappointed with our performance in the quarter-final last year, mainly because we created enough chances but just didn’t take them,” McNulty, who now begins his second championship campaign with Aodh Ruadh this weekend, said.

“I think we created 3-12 on the day and only scored 0-7 points, and when you end up losing by a point, we can only blame ourselves - we had no excuses that day against Gweedore.”

By the time January rolled around McNulty felt that the commitment given during his first season may not be replicated for a second due to work and family life. He felt for the time being, it was time to call it a day in Ballyshannon.

As much as he committed to Aodh Ruadh 2022, anyone who makes that journey from their home in Kilcar so often after a working day to be ready for evening training sessions has to be committed.

But no less than two weeks later, he made a full U-turn in his decision. There remained unfinished business.

“My idea of stepping down last January as manager wasn’t that simplistic,” he said. “I had other ventures outside football that I was working hard on, and I just felt I couldn’t give full commitment to coaching for the year.

“But after talking to people in the club, they were very supportive and they gave me time to think about the season, they wanted me to stay on and thankfully I did.”

The last decade has seen a club in south Donegal that once reigned as the Kingpins in the 20th century fall into a shadow of their former selves.

Their rise through the divisions, as well as winning the 2020 Intermediate Championship, however, has not gone unnoticed.

So, for McNulty, there was no point tearing up pages to what looked like a successful formula.

The Donegal Senior Football Championship club-by-club guide

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The 2023 year was more about learning from their mistakes as well as breaking down the big teams in the county in order to compete with them. He felt it was just about kicking into another gear.

“In terms of my second season with the club, our aim was to learn a bit more and develop as a team. So far this season we finished the league well, but the championship is real test to see where we’re at,” McNulty said.

“The league is great at building momentum, trying different tactics, and mostly bringing younger players into the team and giving them a chance of playing senior football. Hopefully, we timed our preparation right for championship season.”

The idea of coming from Division 2 and years absent from the senior championship, to go straight into the Dragons’ Den of top-level football is maybe seen as naïve to many coaches, but the former Kilcar and St Nauls manager sees it as the only way to develop as a team.

“I know there’s an element from teams that there can be a fear of going up to Division 1 because the competition is so tough and there’s a panic that if you go up you might go straight back down again. I think that’s the wrong way to look at it.

“If you’re a manager of a team, your job is to try and bring that side as far as you can and set that tone. I believe you try and get players to be the best they can be. If you do that, the results will work out for themselves.

“I know in Donegal people for a number of years have spoken about the ‘Top Four’ teams dominating the county for a number of years and that for many has been seen as an annoyance. I don’t think that was an annoyance, it was more of a fact.

“Those four teams pushed themselves on as far as they could and raised the standards of football. And I don’t think it’s changed an awful lot. The idea of the ‘Top Four’ won’t change until one of those teams are beaten in a quarter-final.

One of those ‘Top Four’ teams that the rest of the county is attempting to stop, is McNulty’s native Kilcar, who he last managed in 2021 and guided to the controversial Covid final in 2020.

The strength of his connection to the Kilcar jersey and even members of the team may consciously preclude him - as it could any manager - from taking over a new team as an outside boss.

But that once atypical idea no longer sits in club football, with McNulty going back as far as 2017 to when he first set off on greener pastures with St Nauls – guiding them in his first year to a Division 3 title and an All-Ireland Junior Gaeltacht trophy.

“When I manage a senior team, especially if I’m coming from the outside, I usually get an idea from talking to people in that club, they’ll give you an idea and an honest answer of how they see their own club,” said McNulty.

“But when you start working with the players, I try to give everything I have to that club, especially the team who deserve the best from me. They want to be successful, as do I. So, it’s a two-way street and you just hope everyone is working together and giving their all.”

And so, with that, the season begins for Aodh Ruadh this Sunday in Tír Conaill Park against the old foes Four Masters.

The conclusion from the Aodh Ruadh camp?

“When it comes to this time of year in football, if you want to talk about hunger, you just couldn’t feed me. I absolutely love this time of year in football,” said McNulty.

“I know for a fact that if you have a Four Masters’ team with Kevin Sinclair in charge, you know they’re going to be well drilled and fired up.

“They may also have a little inside scope in that my old friend from Kilcar Conor McShane has now joined the party there too. But we just have to be ready,” McNulty joked.

“Four Masters are a young team and no more than ourselves, they have pride in their club and they’ll be looking for a victory. Championship takes on a life of its own, so I’ll be expecting nothing easy.”

The return of championship football also leads to debates about format structure, the idea of formulaic systems, and the state in which footballing styles are carried out, but the Aodh Ruadh coach ceases to listen too much to outside voices for now and defends how play is conducted.

“People like to debate about football and how it might be gone too defensive – and there’s maybe an argument to that – but I get joy out of seeing these systems and planning to break them down.

“There’s a joy in working these things out and trying different systems.

“I would never blame a team for setting up defensively if they feel that’s the best way they think they will beat their opposition.

“I think we need to be careful when we talk about changing the game because football is always going to naturally evolve, and we must accept that. Coaches and players will always come up with new methods and ideas on how the game is played.

“I think nowadays teams know that there is no point in setting up man-on-man if that style is not going to win you the game. You have to manage a team the best way you see them winning and that may not always be the most entertaining for fans, but it can be the most effective way for you to win.

“The way I look at coaching is that some things might be good in theory, but do they work in practice? That’s the most important thing about managing a team.”

It may be a debate for another time, but for now, the manager for all seasons embarks on another adventure with a rising team of talent carrying the knowledge and wisdom of the past in with him every step of the way.