Colm Parkinson on ‘carefree’ days in Tralee alongside McGuinness and Joyce

Colm Parkinson remembers it well, the late 90s, and perhaps the last real carefree time for Gaelic footballers.

Train hard, celebrate hard or drown your losses hard. Tralee IT was an obscure intersection for all of that fun but it’s one that grouped a young Parkinson, Jim McGuinness and Pádraic Joyce with many of the game’s real stars.

McGuinness and Joyce had already won a Sigerson Cup together in 1998 by the time the Laois ‘Rebel without a Care’ came on board, a year later, as a brilliant ‘three-in-row’ was completed.

McGuinness and Joyce now renew acquaintances on Sunday as Donegal and Galway collide in the All-Ireland SFC semi-final. Parkinson - who hosts the excellent ‘Smaller Fish’ podcast - says both men, back then, were two very different characters.

Jim McGuinness is interviewed by Colm Parkinson back in 2014

“McGuinness and Joyce were probably the best known at the time,” ‘ Parkinson told DonegalLive. “I remember myself and Joyce missed the ‘99 Sigerson final. He was suspended and I got injured.

“We went for a few pints the night before and some weren’t too impressed. But we’d nothing else to do!

“But in the main, Joyce kinda kept to himself. You know the respectable one in the group - the lad that sits at the bar and chats to the barman. He wasn’t running around like a lunatic like the rest of us”.

It’s not likely McGuinness, particularly with his trademark long hair and goatee at that time, found stealth or experienced any kind of anonymity in Tralee.

But with Kerry the serial winners they were, supporters and media probably didn’t care too much about what their players did off the pitch as long as they delivered on it.

Donegal has never been like that. And given the perennial disappointments McGuinness and his teammates suffered back then, there might at least have been some degree of comfort, at certain times, being that far away from home.

“It was gas what went on,” Parkinson explained. “Tralee was the first college that really actively recruited players. And that was Val Andrews, a terribly nice fella! I was a serial college dropper-outer back then!

“He got in contact with me. They didn’t make you rich, I got free accommodation and that was it. But it was all about the football for me. I did Advanced Tourism!

“It was a lovely time, carefree really. I loved the football and football was still fun back then. It was the late 90s.

“I’d played one year senior football with Laois and I was still an U-21. But at that time, you still brought your ‘going out’ clothes in the bag for after.

“I don’t want to sound like an aul lad reminiscing but I loved those days. And there was a lot to be said about that - what you got out of playing back then.

“We still trained like hell but there was a social element to it too. And listen, Jim was great fun, he was brilliant company. He loved the craic. But when it came to football he was a brilliant trainer and a brilliant captain.

“He’d be beeping outside my bloody apartment at 7am to go training. And no one was doing that at that time, training in the morning I mean”.

Infectious

As mad as the approach might have looked and even felt back then, Parkinson says McGuinness’ lead, as much as anything else, was infectious.

“I just found it impossible to say no to him. I’d set the heat for the room and by the time I’d trained, showered and got back home, I was straight back to bed.

“We were doing weights and that wasn’t common either back then. I really loved that balance of training like hell but enjoying the wins then after. That’s what playing football was all about for me.

“Armagh came along and changed all that in 2002 from a sports science perspective. They really ramped it up and with recovery sessions the norm on the Monday, pints on Sunday nights don’t really fit as much”.

Parkinson didn’t feel it and McGuinness certainly didn’t express it at the time, but he now understands that much of McGuinness’ motivation back then probably stemmed from the Donegal of that era’s own failures.

Parkinson is close with another Donegal star of that time, Brendan Devenney.

Both former Tír Chonaill players have candidly spoken over the years about the scars those many near misses have left.

“Jim was a great talker and he was that bit older than the rest of us - an established intercounty player so we really respected him.

“Donegal were probably very frustrated during that era, they just couldn’t get over the line. But I don’t remember any real tactical conversations with Jim in relation to how they should or could go about their business.

“But I know they felt that their players were just as good as the Tyrones and Armaghs. Eamon Redden was down here too back then. And you couldn’t question their commitment to their county.

“They’d drive up to Donegal on the Friday and back down to Tralee on the Sunday. That was probably at least eight hours one-way.

“The commitment to do that alone, people don’t remember that kinda thing if they see you out for an odd pint or letting your hair down.

“I know from chatting to Brendan there was a real frustration with that group - that they didn’t taste real success.

“DV told me one time Jim and him were down in Cork with Donegal for a league game. Now they were thick as thieves, really good mates.

“They must have been rooming together but Brendan says Jim, using dozens of beer mats, laid them out on the bed and explained just what they should be doing. At that time, there wasn’t much of that kind of thinking.

“So that probably was the start of it, Jim and DV with beer mats in some random Cork hotel!”

Edge

Football, as a product, has changed beyond all recognition since Joyce and McGuinness last shared a dressing room.

But does the Glenties man’s infamous appearance at a Galway training session ahead of the 2021 season have any bearing on the weekend? Does it give Galway at least some insight into McGuinenss’ methods?

Or, on the other hand, could Joyce’s summoning of McGuinness, on the Donegal side of the fence, be viewed as any type of a weakness on the Tribe icon’s part?

“I don’t think that has any relevance. The reality is Pádraic Joyce doesn’t bow to anyone. He’s in the top three or four forwards that ever played the game. I’d read absolutely nothing into Joyce reaching out to Jim for a training session.

“I think Galway will win the game. They have bigger men around the middle and more variety to their game. They won’t give Donegal the turnovers they thrive on.

“Without that oxygen, it’ll be interesting to see what Donegal look to do. Galway - when they play a team like Donegal - are unbelievably careful with the ball. They have a few special forwards as well.

“And while they aren’t the most structural in attack, they have players that can get you a score in the blink of an eye.

“Donegal are a little like Derry under Rory Gallagher. They’ll get so far at the weekend and then they’ll realise they need a few more strings to their bow at this stage of the season.

“To be fair to Donegal, they’ve got further than anyone would have expected in Jim’s first year back.

“But that defensive counter-attacking game, a running game without kicking, has its limits. To be fair, they don’t have Michael Murphy anymore which would have been a serious option to go direct and mix it up”.