An Alternative View: No turning back as Donegal overturn then overrun Monaghan

So, a week that could’ve gone in an entirely different direction ended as well as anyone could’ve hoped.

Following on from their 0-15 to 1-10 victory over Tyrone in the foggy dew in Omagh, Donegal had already assured themselves of a place in the semi-final stages of the Dr McKenna Cup and all in the world seemed well.

Fast-forward 24 hours, three degrees celsius and whatever tool you might use to measure fog, and it was all up in the air again. Jim McGuinness was handed a proposed eight-week ban for Donegal fielding an ineligible player.

After a few days of running the finger through the calendars to see how many fixtures this would entail - as many as five in the Allianz League - McGuinness contested and by Friday was cleared and allowed to go back about his business. The “person in charge” of whatever section and subsection of the GAA rulebook will probably need a redraft.

Finbarr Roarty, who made his Donegal debut on January’s third evening and a day before he turned 18, was the player in question and for a man of such youth was unfortunate to be “in the eye of the storm” as McGuinness put it. Not wishing to dwell on it, McGuinness said Roarty was very much part of his plans for 2024, although will now have to wait 12 months.

However, for a player who showed considerable talent, having not even so much as trained never mind played for Naomh Conaill’s seniors, there’s plenty to keep himself busy on the field this year, with the county U-20s, while his club chase a three-in-a-row in the Donegal SFC. He can look ahead with optimism with a bright future in store.

It’s the second interrogation McGuinness has gotten and Donegal have only played three competitive matches in his second spell. The first was about that thing going around the training pitch in Convoy, which somehow made national headlines. In the postmatch interview after the 3-16 to 1-6 opening round victory over Armagh, McGuinness noted: “There’s no wall in Convoy. There’s a fence that runs around the perimeter. That’s a story that was created probably to cause a wee bit of tension, probably from within.”

This followed on from his saying, following the 2-12 to 2-6 victory over Roscommon at Fr Tierney Park in December, that he’d read somewhere that there was an eight-metre wall - as opposed to an eight-foot fence - at the Donegal GAA Centre in Convoy.

Had the Donegal manager been forced to serve the proposed ban, it was allegedly to include all aspects of interaction with his panel. So the obvious question on people’s lips was: how is this ever going to be policed? Mind you, someone “from within” might’ve taken it upon themselves - again - to provide anyone who may or may not be interested with updates, providing they could scale an eight-foot fence, or even an eight-metre wall.

There are still plenty of pantos around now in places around the county and it seems that some involved in the silly season of last year seem intent on chasing an encore. Thankfully, the whole makeup of Donegal GAA seems more interested in improving matters on and off the field.

There was a crowd of 3,825 in Ballybofey against Armagh and from 90 minutes before throw-in in Monaghan there was a healthy sprinkling of support making their way in through the crisp January sunshine. The attendance would be 3,141.

Donegal had made the last four despite their 16-point victory over Armagh being scrubbed although the head-to-head over Tyrone still stood. Then, whilst watching on, results from the last set of matches had fallen their way on Wednesday night. Ahead of the draw, nobody was quite sure if Donegal meeting Armagh would’ve been considered a repeat pairing but, either way, it mattered not with Monaghan pulled as their opponents in Castleblayney.

One resident, living perhaps 100 yards from the ground belonging to Castleblayney Faughs - which we learned from the local hacks is pronounced ‘Fogs’ - must’ve been expecting a crowd and didn’t fancy getting his driveway blocked.

“No parking,” read a sign on the red-bricked pillar, which, on the face of things, was fair enough. “No turning,” seemed a little harsh as any self-respecting GAA supporter knows to “turn ‘er for home.” Just don’t turn here.

One man who seldom turns is Edmund Brennan, the Naomh Ultan clubman who would lead you to believe he hasn’t missed a Donegal match at any level since the continents shifted. January, for Edmund, usually consists of a new motor and getting back on the road to watch football. On Sunday, making his way in, he recalled a previous visit to St Mary’s Park in Castleblayney in 1985, when Donegal “got trounced” on a 1-14 to 0-7 scoreline in Ulster and Ray McCarron ran riot.

So with an air of positivity for those choosing their seat in the stands and intensity from the Donegal panel going through their rigorous warm-up on the far training pitch, the action soon got underway. Donegal McKenna Cup 2024 debutants Oisin Caulfield and Ciaran Moore contested referee Mark Loughran's tossing of the ball.

Everything about the McKenna Cup, of course, should probably carry an asterix, with the competing counties using the competition in various ways. Under the new management, Donegal have gone in strong, while Monaghan manager Vinny Corey’s starting XV was an inexperienced one.

With Rory Beggan, the Monaghan goalkeeper, to attend the NFL Combine in Indianapolis at the end of February, although available for the opening rounds of the Allianz League, the home side were in experimental mode, both in terms of team selection and tactics. Ray McCarron’s son Jack was among the substitutes.

Darren McDonnell from Clontibret would keep goal in Beggan’s stead and was enjoying a runaround from the start, pushing up towards halfway and providing an extra set of hands. 

Donegal were gobbling up possession, winning turnovers and lifting heads, looking to move the ball forward as fast as possible by fist or foot. Seven minutes in Odhrán Doherty was the one who delivered into space to Oisin Gallen, who was closer to the goal than McDonnell and strode away before shooting into an empty net for the first score of the afternoon.

It was a bit like when you watch the Premier League on television. Certain teams have an insistence on building from the back, while the risks seem strikingly obvious more than the rewards. There are more red numbers on the balance sheet than black.

But the McKenna Cup is a time for experimenting and with a chance to witness things first-hand, managers can decide what policies might - and might not - be worth continuing. Monaghan opted to stick with theirs for the first half anyway and it played into Donegal’s hands, as they won possession with an efficient consistency to provide a platform for their attack.

Doherty, who would later be named man-of-the-match, slammed home the second goal and a third came from Gallen from the penalty spot. Donegal, in truth, perhaps should’ve been in an even better position than the very healthy one they were in at the break, winning 3-9 to 0-3. As the tea queues lengthed the talk centred primarily on, well, how cold a day it was and how Donegal looked ‘in good shape’ for the time of the year it was.

The second half, with the raft of substitutions from both sides, slowed a little with Monaghan’s best avenues coming from Stephen O’Hanlon and the free-kicking of Stephen Mooney.

Donegal took their 2024 newbies to nine for the campaign, with Karl Joseph Molloy from Ardara - joining his brother John Ross in the action - and Letterkenny Gaels’ Ronan Frain adding to the list of debutants made up of Roarty, Kevin McGettigan, Caulfield, Moore, Seanan Carr, Daithi Roberts and Sean Martin.

The Roscommon outing was the only other game open to the public and Frain that day scored a spectacular goal, having led a breakaway late on and squeezing the ball home from an acute angle for one of those hold-your-breath types of goals in Ballyshannon.

That will probably fall through the cracks of history so on Sunday, with his first-ever touch as a senior, Frain got a slap on Luke McGlynn’s centre for a goal. With Molloy adding two late frees, the two young men left the field together with wide smiles, following Donegal’s 4-14 to 0-11 victory.

“You’re only one point behind Paddy McGrath now,” Frank Craig, Donegal Democrat sports editor, told his clubmate Molloy as he made his way to the dressing room.  McGrath, not there to defend himself, can take consolation in the All-Ireland crown and five Ulster medals he won as a player.

McGuinness appeared for his media duties and before he could get a chance to draw breath, he was answering questions about the proposed eight-week ban. When that was put to bed, it was onto Derry, Donegal’s opponents in the Dr McKenna Cup final this weekend.

In the early days of his first spell, McGuinness had focused on Mickey Harte's Tyrone, who at the time were the side he believed were Donegal's main obstacle to success. These days, he said he has no such targets, wanting instead to get things right with Donegal. This year’s Ulster SFC draw paired the two men together for the first time in 11 years, with Derry looking for a provincial three-in-a-row.

Before that though, there’s Saturday in Omagh. Whilst calling the shots there from 2003 until 2020, Harte won the Dr McKenna Cup 12 times. To put that in perspective, that’s one more time than Donegal have ever won the McKenna Cup.

But having put a lot into the McKenna Cup and gotten a lot out of it, Donegal, a bit like yer man with the sign on his red-bricked gable in Castleblayney, may as well believe there’s no point in turning here now.