Mark McHugh and Kilcar eager for more silverware

Mark McHugh has won every honour that can be won by a Gaelic footballer - All-Ireland, Ulster and Donegal Senior Champions medals, and an All-Star.

But the versatile Kilcar man, a key weapon in Jim McGuinness’s All-Ireland winning plan in 2012, wants to win more and he still has the appetite and hunger to do so. The Donegal championship medal was the one he craved most after Donegal All-Ireland winning triumph.

“It was the one I wanted to win,” he said ahead of Saturday night’s showdown with arch rivals, Naomh Conaill. “I had won all the other major honours in the game that were to be won and the Donegal medal was one I was missing to complete the set.”

Kilcar under the guidance of Barry Doherty, McHugh and his teammates got to climb Sean MacCumhaill Park’s famous steps to raise aloft the Dr Maguire Cup in 2017. The most coveted prize in Donegal football was back in Kilcar hands for a sixth time.
The 0-7 to 0-4 triumph over Naomh Conaill was the famous nursery's first senior title success in 24 seasons.

The men from Towney had fallen at the final hurdle the year before when they were pipped by the Michael Murphy powered Glenswilly.

“We had come desperately close on a few occasions, especially the year before,” McHugh added. “It was the one I really wanted.

“We attended a lot of events, dinner dances and functions after 2012 going around clubs that had won county championships and I was jealous as hell of those clubs. I was jealous of Naomh Conaill. I was jealous of Gaoth Dobhair and there is no point in saying any different. I really wanted it.

“Lucky enough we had a squad good enough to win and we have a squad there now competing for championships and we are lucky to be in that position.”

And now that he has one Donegal medal in the trophy cabinet to go along with the Ulster and All-Ireland medals, he wants more.

“If you win one you want to win another one and if you win 10 you want to win 11,” he added. “I suppose that is why we are successful because we are competitive sports people.”

The former county ace insists he is not lacking in motivation to bring home the bacon again on Saturday night. He believes the hurt that went with losing the 2016 final and the year before’s semi-final defeat by Naomh Conaill drove Kilcar on in 2017. And Kilcar are hurting again after the way the last few seasons have panned out.

“You remember the ones you lose more than the ones you win because it stays with you longer,” he added. “I think that is what got us over the line in 2017 because the hurt we had the previous year.

“In the last number of years we would be very unhappy at not getting back to the final. We were very depleted against Glenties in 2018 and Gaoth Dobhair showed us up in 2019. That drives us on.”