Colm McFadden excited about Sligo hook up

Colm McFadden says Sligo was the right opportunity at the right time as the Donegal legend takes his first steps towards being part of a senior inter-county management set-up. 

The 2012 All-Ireland winner will work as a forwards coach under Tony McEntee, who also has McFadden’s ex Tír Chonaill teammate, Paul Durcan, back on board as goalkeeping coach.  

“It’s exciting,” McFadden told DonegalLiveSport. “Tony got in touch and asked me if I’d like to come down and get involved. It’s a good opportunity for myself. The timing of it is good as well. ‘Papa’ (Durcan) is there too so there will be a familiar face. Joe Keane is also involved. I’m looking forward now to actually getting down there and meeting everyone. 

“It’s something different - a forwards coach. Nothing beats playing but there is a ‘hands on’ sort of element to the role. That appealed to me. You can’t play forever so, in a coaching sense, this is kinda the next best thing.

“You hope that you’ve learned and picked up some things in your own career that you can now pass now onto others.” 

McFadden says he spoke with his former goalkeeper, Durcan, initially and it was the Four Masters man’s enthusiasm about Sligo’s aims in 2023 that really sold him on the idea of making the jump.  

“When you finish up, you don’t get that same chance to see lads like you once did. I’d know Paul very well but I probably haven’t had the chance to actually sit down with him properly for a few years.  

“But you pick up exactly where you left off. And talking to him about going down there, he was very enthusiastic about Sligo and what they want to do.”

Having finished third in Division 4 last term, Sligo then suffered a 12-point defeat to Roscommon in this year’s Connacht semi-final. Wins over London and Leitrim did propel the Yeats County into the last four of the Tailteann Cup, but they came up short against Cavan.

Meanwhile, McFadden admits he was taken aback when the news initially broke that Michael Murphy had decided to hang up his inter-county boots at 33-years-of-age. 

“Here, when it was first said to me I couldn’t believe it. You just kinda felt like Michael would just go on forever. Initially, it caught me by real surprise. 

“But when you actually look at it, the length of time he’s been there and what he’s given Donegal; it probably isn’t as big a shock. The demands of football now at that level, everyone knows what it takes out of you physically.

“But mentally as well, it can be draining in a different way. I read he’s been there 16 years. I know when I finished up, I felt I was more mentally drained than anything else. 

“I look at Michael and still view him as one of the young lads from that time. But you realise time moves on for everyone. 

“I spoke to Karl (Lacey) this week and we were both saying that it’s hard to believe he’s retiring. It just makes the likes of us feel even older! But it also leaves a huge void around the dressing room as well. 

“We all see what Michael brings to matters on the field but he was such an integral part of things behind closed doors as well. It’ll be different going to a championship game next year and he’s not leading them out. 

“But Donegal still has some fantastic talent there. And if the buy-in is what it needs to be, they can still have a big say in things. The standards set by the likes of Michael, it’s important that baton is carried on now.”