‘I genuinely thought I was done with football’ - Odhran McFadden Ferry

Odhran McFadden Ferry admits watching Donegal just come up short in their All-Ireland SFC semi-final loss to Galway last season registered in a way he didn’t expect.

The Gaoth Dobhair man’s involvement with Donegal had previously been stalled due to successive ACL injury set-backs.

But a stint travelling in Australia was now on the verge of becoming something much more permanent and, because of that, the two-time Ulster SFC medal winner believed his time in the green and gold of his county was done.

Prior to his showing off the bench in Ballyshannon two weeks ago in the NFL win over Derry, McFadden Ferry’s last game for Donegal came way back in June 2022’s All-Ireland series loss to Armagh - a 3-17 to 0-16 drubbing in Clones that dropped a number of heavy curtains.

Declan Bonner would eventually depart as manager while clubmate and Donegal legend Neil McGee announced his retirement soon after.

Then, in late November of that same year, Michael Murphy shocked everyone with that original retirement call.

Prior to that, late July and just ahead of the Donegal Club SFC season, McFadden Ferry ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament.

In an indirect sort of ‘sliding doors’ way, it was a setback that McFadden Ferry looked to turn into a positive.

Having always wanted to spread his wings football, as well as being based as a Private with the 28th Infantry Battalion at Finner Camp, left little or no scope for any of that.

But the injury prompted him to take a career break from the army and he soon found himself on a plane bound for Perth, Australia.

“The last time I would have played was that defeat to Armagh in Clones - the one where Michael and Neil both finished up,” he told DonegalLive.

“I did my cruciate soon after in August. It was one of those things where the injury probably opened up a window for me in terms of going travelling.

“It was something I always wanted to do. The circumstances in how that came about weren’t ideal but I decided to head off to Australia.

“I would have been based in Perth and was involved with the St Finnbarr’s club there who had a lot of other Donegal lads involved like Ethan O’Donnell.

“But I actually did the same knee again out there. That was in their championship final. Believe it or not it was exactly a year after the first one so I wasn’t that long back playing, two or three months at most.

“I just decided to fly home and get the surgery done as soon as possible. I went back out to Australia - I was working in Brisbane with a wind turbine company. I guess I was what you’d call a ‘wind turbine technician’ out there!

“But again, it was just a departure and a real change of scenery. I obviously didn’t play football the second time around.

“To be honest, I actually thought I was done with it, finished, never going to probably play football again. It wasn’t anything too dramatic, I wasn’t down or anything.

“I wouldn’t be one for that - feeling sorry for myself. That’s just the way I’ve always been. I’m pretty positive. It just felt like life had taken a different turn now and I was just sort of going with that flow”.

McFadden Ferry returned home last summer for a quick visit to family and friends but return flights were booked and employment was waiting.

He and his partner managed to secure tickets for Donegal’s All-Ireland semi-final tangle with Galway at Croke Park.

But as he sat there, high up in the Hogan Stand, something was gnawing at him. And as Jim McGuinness’ new-look side eventually just came up short, McFadden Ferry’s head was already turned.

“No one begged me that’s for sure,” was all that McFadden Ferry would say on coming back in from the cold.

“I was supposed to be flying back to Australia and I was just waiting for a course to become available in Brisbane through work.

“The Galway game - the All-Ireland semi-final - was on in Croke Park just before all of that. I went up with my girlfriend just to watch. All was good.

“But the more I sat, the more I saw and with the end result, it just hit home. The obvious thought was that I could be a part of that next season if I stuck around. So the plans changed”.

What had also changed when he’d been away was that Jim McGuinness had stepped back up to the plate after what had been a disastrous handing over of the reins from Bonner to Paddy Carr for 2023.

McFadden Ferry says coming back into the fold under McGuinness’ watch has been an eye-opener.

Odhran McFadden Ferry back at base in Finner Camp

“When you’re out of that bubble you just don’t walk right back in and pick up where you left off. I was a long time out of it even without taking the injuries into consideration.

“I’m 27-years-old now - three seasons further down the track. There are a lot of familiar faces there but lots of hungry new ones too. Time kicks on in the blink of an eye.

“There are the new rules too so there is that group of us still playing a little catch up. But it was lovely to get game-time in Ballyshannon the last day.

“Football has got quicker so you’re decision-making has to be quicker. It was nice to blow off some of the cobwebs.

“But that’s something that’s also happening at training night in, night out. You’re getting closer every single night. It’s hectic but I’m really enjoying it and the buzz around the whole set-up.

“I definitely feel recharged. I’ve put in the work with Anton McFadden and Shane McClean.

“Truth be told, that was probably the issue first time around when it went again. But I don’t even think about it now as I know I’m well down that track.

“The aim now is to get to a point in the next number of weeks where I feel I’m at a level to really challenge for a spot.

“Most of the lads already have a season’s block of this type of intensity under their belts. So that’s the challenge in front of a few of us”.

In terms of that Aussie odyssey and the break it afforded, from a mental point of view as much as anything else, McFadden Ferry says he never felt like what he’d on his plate previously was any type of juggle or strain. He just got on with it.

But in a similar way to what Ryan McHugh explained after his 2023 sabbatical, it’s only when you do step off that carousel that you realise the commitment it takes to keep all the plates spinning.

“It wasn’t a choice at the time for me but yeah, I can see that point of view. I definitely feel recharged. Like I said, when you’re on the outside looking in, you hear absolutely nothing.

“Of course I was in contact with so many of the same lads as they are friends but once you’re outside the bubble there isn’t much football talk.

“But again, I didn’t mind that and, in a way, that sort of made you more interested and more maybe determined to look to get back into that same circle.

“Mentally, like I said, I’ve never felt like it was pressure. But I’d probably been on the go with various county and club set-ups for quite a while. There was army football in between all of that as well.

“The club had some great runs like the Ulster one so it probably had been all go since 2017 or ‘18. So while I didn’t go looking for it, the year out was great in some ways.

“I seen a bit of the world, experienced new things. An itch was scratched I suppose”.

As far away as McFadden Ferry was at times, even in the most remotest of Aussie outposts, he explains there were constant reminders of Donegal and their fortunes.

“There were five or six Donegal lads working along with me. The likes of Joe McFadden from Gaoth Dobhair and Cathal Gillespie from Moville, we were always together.

“With work, we’d be in this small town called Toowoomba quite a bit, it’s where Margot Robbie is originally from.

“It’s the absolute middle of nowhere. But someone always had a firestick so we’d go down to the Irish bar and watch all the games.

“You’d always have the other Donegal lads coming up to you and saying ‘you should be home, you should be playing there’. So there was always that reminder.

“But I wouldn’t change any of it. Sure it’s all experience”

As well as stepping back in with Donegal, McFadden Ferry also returns to Finner Camp this week so it’s familiar territory on all fronts once more.

“I’m back with the army now this coming Tuesday. I was based out of Finner before I left and I’ll be back in there again.

“You’d have missed those lads there too as we were a really close bunch. I joined straight out of school at 17. So I know those lads so well.”

And as much as things have changed in regards to the Gaoth Dobhair crew travelling to and from Convoy, experience and rank of a different kind is still pulled by a certain someone when it comes to the important decisions along the way.

“There used to be a seven-seater for the Gaoth Dobhair lads but now it’s just me, Daire Ó Baoill and Domhnall Mac Giolla Bhride. Neil McGee travels with us the odd time when it suits.

“He still takes over the radio those nights and still puts on the 80s love tunes!”

The more things change and all of that.