McGonigle: Donegal representation improving but Inishowen still has work to do

Inishowen GAA could well have three representatives starting for Donegal in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final but Paul McGonigle says the region’s full potential is still relatively untapped.

The former county midfielder admits that clubs have to take charge of that responsibility and strive to become more formidable in both the senior and intermediate ranks.

Buncrana’s Caolan McGonagle, Naomh Padraig, Uisce Chaoin’s Caolan McColgan and Carndonagh’s Conor O’Donnell will all hope to be included from the off, for Jim McGuinness’ charges, as they lock horns with Galway on Jones Road.

It’s the kind of involvement that spikes interest in the region but McGonagle says that momentum needs to be harnessed. And he says everyone involved in Gaelic Games in the Peninsula can take ownership of that task.

“I remember a conversation I had with Damien Cassidy a good while ago and I asked what was going on in Derry,” said McGonigle, who was a selector under McGuinness back in 2014.

“He said the biggest issue at that time was they’d a city of 80,000 and not one player from it. Look at Derry now, they have maybe four Steelstown players involved - city-based lads.

“In Inishowen, the issue has probably been multi-fold. My own club Buncrana, for instance, only really got up and running back in the early 80s.

“There were versions of it stretching right back to the beginning of the last century. The old story of emigration has always been a real issue, to a large extent.

“Inishowen doesn’t have a team in the senior championship right now. And perhaps just two or three in the Intermediate. So the clubs haven’t been competing at the necessary levels on a consistent basis.

“There have been very few underage A titles won by Inishowen, I mean in the last 25 years. A quarter of the county’s population is based in Inishowen and we just don’t get the broad representation we maybe should be getting.

“It’s something the county needs to look to tap into. But there needs to be a want from both sides. The truth is, the standard of coaching still isn’t what it should be. There are the odd exceptions of course.

“And listen, I’m not trying to be disrespectful because I myself have been coaching for 25 years.

“So it’s still potential we’re talking about and what maybe it could be. Again, Inishowen has the same population as Leitrim (33,000), it’s the same size as Louth.

“But the three lads there now, that heightens interest and with Donegal also going well it can maybe nudge that potential we’re talking about”.

Early days

The likes of Phil Kelly (Naomh Padraig, Muff) and Johnny Fullerton (Buncrana) both played senior football for Donegal in the 70s. Des Newton, a Roscommon native, also put his head above the parapet in the 80s.

Paul Callaghan acted as backup to 1992 All-Ireland winning stopper Gary Walsh in the 90s while Eamon Reddin also pierced that same glass ceiling a little later on that same decade.

McGonigle came along at the turn of the millennium, playing 18 times in championship including 2003’s narrow All-Ireland semi-final loss to Armagh.

But it wasn’t until Jim McGuinness arrived in 2010 that someone took a real look at the individual talent in the region as Ryan Bradley, Declan Walsh and Darach O’Connor arrived on the scene.

“I remember the Donegal minor side from the early 90s, Ronan McLaughlin (Burt) was on that team and he was a cracking player. He’d have played senior county football had injuries not affected him.

“I’d have looked at Ronan and just thought ‘wow, now that’s a star’. I remember winning an Intermediate in 1995, we got promoted to Division 1 for a while and we competed at senior level for a number of years.

“You were more visible as a player because of that. It was always an ambition and aim, to play county. I was 26 at the time when Mickey Moran gave me a shout, that was 2000.

“I’d never worn a Donegal jersey at any level. So it came that little bit later for me”.

Inishowen teams might not have been achieving domestically when McGuinness first took the job but he didn’t look at the collective. He was prepared to go out and look at talent individually.

He often uses David Walsh, Naomh Brid, playing in Division 3 at the time, as the prime example of that scouting. And the same principle can be applied both then and indeed now in terms of how he recruits.

“That first time around under Jim, you’d Ryan, Darach and Declan Walsh from Malin was involved, Thomas McKinney too from Naomh Colmcille was there.

“Ryan and Darach were always top of their age groups and that was just too hard to ignore. One of the big things for Darach at the time was the amalgamated schools squad here in Inishowen.

“That was a platform and the level was really good. The coaching there, from 13 through to 18, I don’t think it was a coincidence that Inishowen had eight lads in the minor squad in 2014, five starting the match”.

McGonigle says he isn’t surprised at the pace McGuinness has been able to turn things around this term.

“I see the potential in Donegal, even when it wasn’t going so well so no, I’m not in the least surprised.

“That’s why I ran for the chairmanship. Jim and Mary Coughlan’s appointments were critical, as were the other ones that came at board level.

“I predicted the Ulster win and a semi-final place at the start of the season and that’s exactly where we’re at.

“A bit like what we talked about up here, if standards, behaviour and culture are in place then you’ll eventually get it right. We’re making real solid gains now on the field.

“Convention might have come a little too early for me but the real aim of that was to raise awareness and look to instigate change. That objective was achieved so I’ve no regrets in that sense.”