An Alternative View: Donegal broke a rule but punishment just doesn't fit crime

I’d finished my first ‘Alternative View’ assignment of 2024 early Monday morning but, given the dramatic events of later that evening, I’ve had to quickly revisit it.

With Jim McGuinness back in tow, Donegal had just strung together back-to-back McKenna Cup victories after their 0-15 to 1-10 win over Tyrone in Omagh at the weekend.

Any win over the Red Hand is a good win - so DonegalLive/Donegal Democrat’s newest Thundercat Conor Breslin reckoned on his first day in the office at the beginning of the week.

But as far back as Friday, reports were already circulating that Donegal might have inadvertently broken a rule by fielding then 17-year-old Finbarr Roarty against Armagh the previous Wednesday night.

The GAA rulebook states on the matter that a player must have celebrated his 18th birthday prior to January 1 of that year to be eligible to play senior inter-county.

The talented Naomh Conaill teenager, a county minor for the last two seasons, actually turned 18 a matter of hours later, Thursday to be precise.

But none of that speculation seemed all that important when I departed for Omagh on Sunday morning.

With my new military-spec coffee flask for company, a Christmas gift from my daughter Bláithín, I drove as far as Lifford to meet up with colleagues Alan Foley and Chris McNulty for some breakfast.

From there, we trekked onto Omagh. It was a crisp and nippy morning to begin with leaving home but the closer we got to Healy Park the more difficult it became to actually see where we were going.

A thick blanket of fog had descended down upon Omagh but, no sooner had we made our way into the ground and it had lifted. Moses may have parted the Red Sea but Jimmy disperses fog.

We’d decided to take in the action the previous game, against the Orchard lads in Ballybofey, from the vantage of the press overflow area at the back of the MacCumhaill Park stand.

The atmosphere is just better outside. However, it was already that cold on Sunday that we quickly decided to progress across Healy Park to the much warmer sanctuary of the state-of-the-art press facility on the far side of the field.

The mood was a good one, optimistic and full of anticipation ahead of throw-in. Martin McHugh was there on commentary duty, as was Brendan Devenney. Paddy McGill was buzzing around too wearing a cracking pair of aviator sunglasses that were surely also a Christmas gift.

And it was he who commented, “some change in humour since the last time we were all here, lads”. Paddy, of course, was referencing our last visit to the same venue, back in June last year, when we were pitted against Monaghan in the All-Ireland series.

That week, in the lead-in, getting someone to put their hand up in DonegalLive Towers, to actually go to the game, was proving difficult. That’s how low interest and morale was at that time.

Peter Campbell volunteered right away but a sports marking like that, a senior intercounty championship fixture, it’s a two-man job. So Peter needed assistance - he needed a Debbie McGee.

In the end, I decided to step up to the plate. But my motivation in doing so wasn’t out of any misguided faith in us getting a result.

No, I just wanted to get the hell out of Letterkenny and avoid the Donegal International Rally. I’d sat in traffic for over an hour the evening previous, on the Friday, and it was soul-destroying. So, in the end, I was more than content to travel away from all of that racket.

The fact that Donegal surprised us all on the day by winning is incidental to my actual point.

My point is that in the last week, and it’s completely down to the fact that our mercurial ‘Messiah’ has returned, but Donegal supporters have fallen back in love with their county senior football team.

At the start of January, close to 4,000 spectators turned up to watch his first competitive return in Ballybofey.

To put that into perspective, it was reported at the time, last April, that little over 300 Donegal supporters made the trip to Pairc Esler to take in the team’s Ulster SFC loss to Down. That’s how low belief had sunk.

It was more of the same last Sunday in Omagh as far as interest along the perimeter was concerned. All the old but familiar faces were there.

And an excellent and energetic first-half saw Donegal completely dominate play. However, they failed to take a number of gilt-edged goal chances and only held a five-point lead at the midpoint.

The fog issue that threatened to be a problem prior to throw-in suddenly became a real concern as visibility was reduced to practically zero. The worry at the time was that the match officials might call proceedings off.

Donegal would eventually dig out a two-point victory after a whirlwind response by Tyrone resulted in them actually taking the lead at one stage when Ciaran Daly pawed home a goal to leave it 1-10 to 0-12.

Still, Donegal dug deep and with Oisin Gallen hitting the mark twice, either side of a Shane O’Donnell effort, Donegal grabbed another win 0-15 to 1-10.

Gallen, for his second-half contribution alone, was a deserving winner of the ‘player of the match’ award.

But it was also brilliant to see Peadar Mogan looking like he’s put his injury troubles behind him. His St Naul’s clubmate Brendan McCole, at full-back, also looked seriously conditioned at the weekend and his want to get forward and break lines was very encouraging.

Funnily enough, asked after whether or not he was worried about the game possibly being abandoned at the break, McGuinness admitted he was completely unaware that visibility had got so bad.

No one knocked on the Donegal dressing room door. The team progressed out initially and the second-half was already underway when McGuinness finally reappeared.

“It was bright blue skies on the way in and we weren’t even aware of the fog until we came back out the tunnel! The game had actually started and you’re right, it was very hazy”.

Regardless, it felt like ‘all was well that ended well’ or, so we thought. Pressed on the reports of possible sanctions in regards to the participation of Roarty against Armagh, McGuinness simply shrugged his shoulders and said Donegal would just have to wait and see.

Eventually, on Monday evening, word came through that McGuinness had not only been hit with a proposed eight-week ban but that his team would also be docked two points, although they will not be transferred to Armagh.

Donegal’s management committee met on Monday night so no doubt the appeals route is already being pursued.

If the recommended punishment does somehow stick, McGuinness would be absent for Donegal’s first five NFL games.

However, the hope is that Ulster’s hands were simply tied in terms of recommending the eight-week suspension part of the rule and that will, hopefully, be overturned or greatly reduced at national level if the Central Appeals Committee (CAC) are asked to step in and review the provincial body’s findings.

The other part to this, the most important element really, is that it’s brought unwarranted and undeserved attention on young Finbarr Roarty.

But just like his Donegal senior debut, the same lad will probably take all of this in his stride.

Common sense needs to prevail. Because a Jim McGuinness-less start to the first five rounds of Division 2 of the NFL would hurt more than just Donegal.

The last fortnight has proved that Jimmy is box office and he’ll command eyes on screens and bums on seats any time he’s involved.

Donegal’s first league outing is at home to Cork on Sunday, January 28. So it’ll be interesting to see how quickly the matter is put to bed, one way or the other.