Seán McVeigh and the growth of Donegal hurling

Former Donegal hurler Seán McVeigh has been appointed as the county’s Head of Hurling. He spoke to Michael McMullan about the game in the county and his new role…

SEÁN McVeigh hurled for Donegal long enough to know where exactly to look under the bonnet.

The county’s recently appointed Head of Hurling feels the senior team is in a “very strong” position.

That’s the now. The next is about maintaining their level, while also taking steps forward. The next rung is putting a defined structure to their academy system.

Above that, the seniors, under Mickey McCann, are the only Ulster county to have moved up a division in the National League.

Seán MacCulhaill’s: Building a bridge to the future

“It’s in a very strong place, in the context of where Donegal hurling has been for such a long time,” McVeigh said of the current landscape within the county.

“When you look at the senior county team, they are extremely competitive, are back up to Division Two next year and playing Christy Ring Cup hurling more consistently.

“With those kinds of stats, Donegal hurling is in the best place that it’s been.”

Appointing McVeigh is a similar move as Karl Lacey coming on board to oversee all things underage football in the county.

McVeigh understands progress in hurling within Ulster can have fragility too. With momentum comes progress but it’s all about getting momentum to keep appearing. Without it, the wheels stop.

At board level, Donegal are backing hurling. Last November, they drew up a plan for growth. Top of the list was the appointment of someone to oversee it. McVeigh came on board. Box ticked.

Links between schools and clubs were there too. Teaching the core hurling skills to the very young is also pivotal. Fixture discussion is also part of it. Go Games also comes under the spotlight.

Willie Maher was appointed as the GAA’s overall hurling head. Part of his remit is the growth of 45 new hurling clubs.

New hurling clubs

Seven are in Donegal. Ardara, Kilcar, Glenswilly, Na Rossa, St Michael’s, Naomh Mhuire and Downings. There has been a push to take hurling into the Gaeltacht region.

“Hopefully we can find that this sticks and then 10-15 years’ time, you can see more players coming from those clubs to represent Donegal,” McVeigh said of the importance of growing the pool.

Men like Marty McGrath have been driving the growth and Hurling Officer Cormac Hartnett has been pushing it at board level.

Harnett’s playing days were in the late 1990s, an era when Donegal were ranked among the bottom of the pile, 31st or 32nd in Ireland.

As runners-up in Division three, they are currently 20th ahead of the 2027 season. Their win over Kerry last year was arguably the most seismic result anywhere in 2025.

“I think, no more than on the football side, when the senior team is doing well, it has a knock-on effect to everyone else then as well,” McVeigh adds.

In Donegal it is now about progress. The example of Seán MacCumhaill’s getting their house in order at underage is one to follow. They’ve won a litany of titles in recent years.

BACKING…Donegal GAA and National hurling head Willie Maher have backed Seán McVeigh’s new role as the county’s head of Hurling. Photo: Donegal GAA

At county level, Kildare are a shining light. They always had hurling in a county where football often came first. Now they are in the Leinster championship and will compete for the Liam MacCarthy.

“Once you decide you want to get teams to a certain level and you put the people in who want to commit to it, then things can happen,” McVeigh said of what MacCumhaill’s have built.

“That’s what we’re trying to do at a county level now, within the academy teams, is take ownership of the development.”

In Donegal, there is a senior team that can attract the young players to buy into. Aside from hurling, there is a culture of conditioning and showing up for preseason prepared to hurl.

While the fit players used to stand out back in the day, it’s the ones not ready for road that are now in the minority.

McVeigh points to developing counties like Donegal not looking over the wall for comparisons but rather taking a look inside the camp.

He doesn’t even use the comparison with the football side of things in the Ulster counties where the big ball is often under the brighter lights. It’s all about controlling what can be controlled and pressing on.

Hurling people must concentrate on hurling. They don’t need anyone to hold their hand. They had to make their own way.

“You have to take control of that and you need to stop the comparisons,” McVeigh explains, “and take ownership of the development within your own area.

“Then, try and push it on as much as possible and I suppose that’s what we’re trying to do here in Donegal.”

*****

Seán McVeigh’s background is in hurling for club and county. He also kicked football for his club St Eunan’s.

After his undergraduate study of sports coaching performance in Letterkenny IT, now rebranded as ATU Donegal, he headed for Spain.

In Murcia, he took his studies further and secured a masters in high performance sport.

There was always an obsession with professional sport he takes into his day job with KinetikIQ where he heads up marketing and operations. It’s the perfect crossover with hurling.

“I could be working with high-end technology, directly linking in with professional teams around the world on a weekly basis,” he said.

“I am still able to go in the evening and do my S&C, do my training, and play hurling at the weekends, or play club football.”

Technology

McVeigh’s decade in sports technology has straddled the clunky equipment to now having everything based on mobility.

“Now we’re a completely mobile camera-based solution,” he added. “All you need is an iPad or an iPhone to basically run the platform and you can use it anywhere.”

The company is working with sporting teams in 15 different countries. From Premier League soccer to baseball and American football across the pond.

Teams use their technology for scouting players, their movement patterns and linking in with medical teams, looking at any small issues before they become bigger problems.

“Everything’s stored through the cloud, we have the video and the data, that’ll all sync back to the HQ straight away,” he adds.

“They’d be able to build athletic profiles, basically, off that, so they could be going anywhere, like, the Dominican Republic, or Africa, or Korea.

“They see somebody who could have an athletic profile, and they try and gauge where their ceiling is.”

That’s the full-time job with his Head of Hurling role a part-time role.

Part of Donegal’s plan is to source another Games Development Officer.

“The role was primarily to look at the Donegal academy squads,” McVeigh said of his new role in the county.

“We are looking to build a player and coach pathway, to develop senior players, senior coaches within Donegal.

NEW FACES…Termon are one of Donegal’s newest clubs to take up hurling. Photo: Donegal GAA

We want to build a performance, a proper pathway to bring players through to senior level.”

Once the pillars are in place, the next stage will be sharing the gospel out to clubs.

By that point, the hope is that the newly formed hurling pockets across Donegal will have begun to blossom.

“You want to make sure you have some of the basic things in place, athletic development and good nutrition habits,” McVeigh said of their plans.

“We want to make sure of the simple things, like the players are hitting balls off the wall outside of training hours and getting the coaches to a level as well and recruiting more coaches.”

Getting more helping hands is major in the overall plan. With the senior team operating in Division Two, the speed of the game goes up. The standard is higher.

Donegal were close to beating Derry in the Conor McGurk Cup earlier in the year.

It’s about getting to a level where that becomes a regular occurrence with Down and then Antrim beyond that again.

The building blocks will come at u-15, minor and u-20 academy level to make sure there will always be quality to step into the senior ranks.

It’s not about reinventing the wheel, it’s the cycle of a team.

With the skill level required to play hurling, it’s not an overnight process. It’s going to take time, commitment and that word again – momentum.

“We produce very good players here in Donegal,” McVeigh said. “The likes of Danny Cullen, Liam McKinney there at the minute, Conor Gartland, Conor O’Grady.

“We’ve always produced a skilful hurler; I think it’s just about doing that on a more regular scale now.”

Environment

He goes back to the importance of the environment, creating an academy players want to be part of. High-level hurling must be the light they gaze through the tunnel to.

“I think it’s very different as a player coming into the senior team now,” he said.

“You’re going to be playing the likes of Westmeath, Carlow and Down. When I would have started out, it would have been a very different type of set-up.

“I know the game was different back then, and the whole kind of culture might have been slightly different.

“I think what would be seen as a success would be us producing players that are able to come in and help Donegal stay at a Division Two level and compete to win Christy Rings.”

This level of goal brings McVeigh back to both the level and volume of coaches needed, with Donegal hurling firmly in their sights.

“It’s about how many coaches can we recruit into the academy that then go back to the club so the club game starts to rise then as well,” he added.

“To me, that is success. The higher the level Donegal hurling is, the more ready those players are when they get to that level

“Hopefully they are able to keep Donegal hurling there and push it on further.”

That’s where McVeigh uses the Kildare comparison and having a vision of where they should be aiming to climb to.

There obviously isn’t a bold statement of Donegal playing in the Liam MacCarthy but anything close to what Kildare have done would be quite the climb.

Off the pitch, Donegal ambitious about their hurling future. Mickey McCann’s senior squad will look ahead to another season in Division Two.

Seán McVeigh is the man in the middle. He has been there and walked the walk. Collectively, it’s about growing the game.