Is Martin Regan the Lucky Charm for Naomh Conaill's continued success

In his most recent interviews Naomh Conaill manager, Martin Regan, keeps bringing up the small matter of luck when it comes to winning games.

On Sunday next he takes his side to a seventh Donegal senior championship final and you have to think that there is something more than luck involved.

The well-known golfer, Gary Player, is credited with the saying “the more I practice, the luckier I get.”

That analogy is especially true of the present Naomh Conaill side who have the experience to match any club side not alone in Donegal but in all of the country.

With  five players involved (Marty Boyle, Stephen McGrath, Anthony Thompson, Leo McLoone and Eoin Waide) who have played more than 100 championship games for the club, you can only imagine the amount of training sessions that they have put in.

Regan himself was part of the playing squad for the first two senior championships (2005 and 2010) in the great run by the club.

And while he might offload any hint of personal praise, his record of having lost one championship match since 2018 (the 2021 final against St Eunan’s) is a record to match any manager anywhere.

Yet he always seems to have a calm appearance, and when it comes to the press and things to be dealt with off the pitch, you would get the impression that he would rather leave that to others.

St Columba’s Comprehensive School squeeze out Loreto CS, Milford

In a brilliant tussle at the Donegal GAA Training Centre in Convoy, St Columba's Comprehensive School, Glenties had a little too much for Loreto Community School, Milford in the Lewis McIver Senior Secondary Schools final

But when a microphone or recorder is put in front of him, he is always courteous and his analysis of games is very sharp and to the point.

One of the big factors, he feels, for the success of the present squad is that the vast majority of them are living locally and they are able to go down to Davy Brennan Park for the training sessions.

“It is huge to have almost all the panel living locally. I remember in the past heading down the country to train, to Monaghan and Omagh and it took two days to recover. It was far from ideal. So we’re very lucky now.

“At the moment we have just three lads away from home. Jeaic Mac Ceallabhuí is in college in Dublin while Keelan McGill and Eunan Doherty are in Limerick; Keelan is at UL and himself and Eunan, who is working in Limerick, meet up to train during the week. They are three great lads and I have no worries about them; they put in the work,” said Regan.

“It is great to have so many training at home and we train with the Juniors so we have great numbers.”

Naomh Conaill are not really a team that put huge margins on teams, especially in close games. They are more often than not able to grind them out and this is where Regan again uses that word luck.

“Luck plays a major part in games, you have to have the break of the ball going for you. It doesn’t happen all the time. We’re lost tight games too, you only have to go back to Cargin (in the Ulster club championship) last year.

“Luck is one aspect; experience counts for a lot too. When you are going down the home straight and with 10 minutes to go and you’ve been in that situation so many times before. You know that the work is done and you can grind it out.

“It is important to have good subs and we have a strong bench,” said Regan.

“It is a combination of different things but it doesn’t guarantee that you will ever win a tight game.”

Managing a club team at present, especially one that is appearing in a final for the seventh year in-a-row, means a lot of time has to be spent on match days and preparation.

“Yeah, the manager puts in big hours but it is different. The manager puts hours into things like video analysis, watching other teams. But then players are down in the gym on the evenings they are not training. It is time consuming for both.

“If you didn’t enjoy doing it, you wouldn’t do it,” said Regan, who paid tribute to his backroom team who take a lot of the strain.

“I’m very lucky with the backroom team that I have. It is great to bounce ideas off each other. I have been  very lucky since I took over, to have been  able to work with a lot of good people, players and others.”

Among Regan’s backroom team are Shay Murrin, who has worked with him for a few years. Gary Boyle came in this year while Ciaran McMonagle “has been with me now for five or six years. He reads games really, really well and sees things that we would miss,” said Regan.

The other members of the Naomh Conaill backroom team include John Gerard Gallagher, Martin Gallagher (who is junior manager but stayed on after junior campaign finished); Tommy Devine (stats), Hugh Breslin, Cathal Ellis (physio) and Conal Duffy (strength and conditioning).

“They all contribute and the main thing is the players realise the work they put in,” said Regan.

Regan is dismissive of any talk about having the favourites’ tag for Sunday and says it just doesn’t come into any equation. Pointing out that they were lucky enough to overcome Gaoth Dobhair by two points in last year’s semi-final but as for being favourites, he says: “It’s easy to say that we pay no heed about odds but genuinely we don’t. I’ve said that in the past.

“We’ve been both (favourites and underdogs) but it doesn’t matter. Others might use it as motivation but what other teams do is no skin off our back.

“We know that we have a performance to put on to get a result, that’s all we’re thinking about.

“It is all about being hard working and with the style of football we play, it will always leave us in tight games. We feel we can always come out on the right side of these games.

“Favourites, it’s not going to affect our performance, being favourites or underdogs, it never does.

“We have had two weeks to prepare for the final,” says Regan.

One of the great characteristics of this present Naomh Conaill side is their ability to stay calm, especially when they go behind, and this has happened a few times this year already, says Regan.

“We have been behind in games, six or seven points against St Eunan’s in Glenties, the same against Glenswilly and we were four down against Kilcar in the quarter-final.

“Listen, the boys keep chipping away and you hop at the end of 60-65 minutes you’re on the right side of the scoreline. But then there are times when you are not.”

Now for Sunday, the Naomh Conaill manager says it is all about getting the performance for the entire length of the game.

“We haven’t got a 60 minute performance this year yet. There have been spells in games, good first halves, poor in the second half. We were very good for 25-30 minutes against St Eunan’s in the semi-final but finished poorly. We are looking for a 60 minute performance, that’s what we’re looking for now on Sunday,” said Regan.

With their ‘Lucky Charm’ manager, who would bet against Naomh Conaill taking Dr Maguire back home once more.