Aodh Ruadh look forward to brighter days

Aodh Ruadh are back in the top flight of Donegal football and it is very much mission accomplished for Barry Ward and his men.

The former county man who has won literally everything that is to be won in Donegal club football including three Donegal Senior Championships, has guided the Ballyshannon club back to the top after what they feel would’ve been too long in the lower divisions.

They did make a fleeting return to the top division two seasons ago but they were not ready and swiftly dropped back down again.

“Promotion in the league was the number one priority for the season and thankfully we achieved that with a couple of games to go,” said the Aodh Ruadh boss, who is in his third season in the manager’s bib.

“It was the target last year too. We had all the pre-season done and just when the season was just about to get up and running Covid hit and the lockdown came and all football was off.

“There was no league last year. But thankfully we played the championship and had a good run in the Intermediate and went on to win it. We beat Cloughaneely in the final.

“That was a positive and it meant we were back in the senior championship and we are now looking forward to that too.”
Aodh Ruadh clinched the Division Two title and promotion in Pairc Na nGael, in Glencolmcille, with victory over Naomh Columba, the weekend before last with a game still to play.

The men from Fr Tierney Park top the Division Two table on 14 points, two points clear of Termon who occupy second place. And they are due to play Downings this weekend to bring the curtain down on the league season.

“Division Two is a very competitive division,” Ward added. “You have teams like Glenfin, MacCumhaill’s, Termon, Milford and St Naul’s - all senior championship teams and then you have Naomh Columba and their great tradition and Dungloe is never an easy place to pick up points.

“It was always going to be tight and in a league of nine games we knew starting out there was very little room for error. We felt we could afford to lose one game but no more and that is how it worked out.

“We lost to MacCumhaills in Ballybofey but it was the only points dropped. We did not play well and MacCumhaill’s were the better side. They were hungrier and were in relegation trouble at the time and I guess they were more fired up and had more to play for than we had on the day.”

Thankfully for Barry Ward and Aodh Ruadh, the MacCumhaill’s defeat was only a minor dip on the road to redemption.
They bounced back with a big win over Termon and that win against Naomh Columba. Aodh Ruadh 2021 is by and large a young side.

“Darren Drummond and former county man Johnny Gallagher are the older members of the squad,” Ward added. “Then you have Johnny Gethins and Eamonn McGrath in that middle age group and then you have a number of younger players.

“The great thing about having a league this year is that it gave a chance to try out a number of good young lads. While you want to win all your games you have to balance it with trying out new players. And Senan Rooney, Mark McGlynn, Kyle Murray and Cian Rooney have stepped up this season and have added a freshness to the squad.”

It has been a long hard road back for Aodh Ruadh. But for the 2018 season Aodh Ruadh have been out of the top tier for well over a decade. And in that time they went from Division One right down to Division Three and came agonisingly making the unthinkable drop to the bottom rung and the fourth division.

And Ward, who's playing career with the club spanned two decades, was ever present in those years of freefall.
Ward has a strong management team. Former Sligo coach Aaron McGowan is the team coach, Gregory Sweeney is the goalkeeper coach, John Lunny the team statistician, Ronan Matthews looks after physical training and Brian McGuinness is the strength and conditioning coach.

“I went from playing in the Ulster Club Championship to playing in Division Three and playing the last game of the season having to win to avoid being dragged into a relegation playoff,” Ward said. “That is how close we came to dropping down to Division Four.

“That was in 2012 and the league game. I remember we played Termon in the Intermediate Championship final, losing the Wednesday night before that final league game.

“Philip O’Reilly was the manager and because the league game was such a big game it was felt that neither myself or my brother Stephen were up to two games in the space of a few days.

“So it was decided that Stephen would play in the Intermediate final and I would be held back to play in the league game.
“Termon beat us in the Intermediate final but we beat Carndonagh in the league game to avoid the playoff. It has been a slow road back to where we are today.”

Aodh Ruadh are in the senior championship for the first time since 2010, and are due to face Four Masters and Naomh Conaill.
“They don’t come much bigger than Naomh Conaill and we are really looking forward to playing them in Pairc Aodh Ruaidh,” Ward added.