FEATURE

MARK MCHUGH

By Shaun Casey

AS a player, Mark McHugh made the right decisions. He knew where to be, how to cover space, when to sit deep, when to bomb forward. His game was all about making good decisions.

A high footballing IQ is how Maxi Curran describes it. Eamon McGee explains how McHugh perfected the sweeper role during Donegal’s historic surge towards Sam in 2012.

After walking away from the inter-county scene, McHugh is still plugging away with Kilcar. Still doing the business. But he’s also stepped into the realms of football management.

He built up an impressive CV on the coaching circuit, but management is a different ball game. McHugh has taken to it like a duck to water, having led Westmeath to just their second ever Leinster Championship title.

“He was extremely intelligent, he played that sweeper role in 2012, and I never had to tell Mark where to be, he was just always at the right place,” recalls his All-Ireland winning teammate McGee.

“I never had to tell him to cover me or ask him to go a certain side, he was just there and there’s a trust in that when you get to the level that you don’t have to vocally say it. There’s just a football intelligence.”

Maxi Curran first saw McHugh as part of his U15 development squad around 20 years ago. Curran also worked with him as part of Jim McGuinness’ management ticket at U21 and senior level.

McHugh was involved in an U16 team that lost the Buncrana Cup final to Tyrone while the Donegal U21 side suffered a heartbreaking All-Ireland final defeat at the hands of Jim Gavin’s Dublin in 2010.

By the end of that summer, McHugh had already made his senior debut under John Joe Doherty, but everything changed dramatically when McGuinness got the senior job.

“When I got involved with him again at U21 level in 2010, Mark would have been a big part of that team,” Curran added.

“He was a highly intelligent footballer, highly skilled, unbelievable endurance. He wasn’t overly big but played big.

“He was a vital cog in that 2012 team because he was so smart and he played the role really well. Teams were quite naïve at that time where they were happy to kick the ball to him, he was very happy to get it and well able to use it.

“That 2011 game against Kildare (All-Ireland quarter-final), they targeted Karl Lacey and it was one of the first times I ever saw a defender being tagged. Karl would have been a huge offensive player for us even though he was playing at six.

“I remember Mark McHugh in that game in particular taking the mantle on in terms of going forward more so than his usual sweeping duties when he was in there so his football brain and football intelligence was evident from a very early stage.

“The system in 2012 was very similar to what the U21 team were doing in 2010.

“He was the standout candidate for the sweeper position. He had created a niche for himself but one of the key traits for playing that role is a high footballing IQ and Mark had that.

“He just read the game very well; he had a great nose for danger and always knew where to be. Teams weren’t as educated as they are today and he would have played it so well in 2010, he was always going to be a frontrunner for a similar role in Jim’s senior teams.”

McGee knew McHugh could work his magic in the coaching world but wasn’t sure if the bainisteoir bib would suit him. “I wasn’t surprised at him going into coaching, but I was surprised he took to management and has taken to it so well,” added the Gaoth Dobhair native.

“That obsessiveness and desire to win has rubbed off on the Westmeath boys and it’s great to see. Westmeath stuttered in the last ten minutes of normal time (in the Leinster final) and I thought they’d blown their chance, but they just kicked on.

“It’s that belief thing. People talk about fitness and it’s in the legs but if you were to do a bleep test between Dublin and Westmeath, they’d probably have similar enough scores.

“I think it’s just the belief. Once Westmeath started to believe, they kicked on and got that energy and that’s why they looked the fitter team. It’s that psychological part of it and that’s a lot of what Mark brings.

“Everybody has their own way of bringing that out in players. Jim brought it out by breaking us down mentally, just dogging the shit out of us and then building us up and instilling that belief that we were as good as the Tyrones and the Armaghs.

“I think that’s what Mark does as well and you got a wee bit of it in the interviews when he talks about people writing them off and why not Westmeath?

“He’s giving that out in interviews so you can just imagine what he’s saying to the group indoors in terms of building them up and making them believe in themselves.

“There’s a large amount of teams out there that don’t have that belief. They’ll do their gym, they’ll do their conditioning, they’ll turn up to training, but there’s no point in doing that if you don’t believe you’re good enough and Mark has done a brilliant job.”

McHugh has learned his ropes with plenty of teams. He was involved with the Fermanagh minors, coached Roscommon and Westmeath under Dermot McCabe. He’s worked with Maigh Cuilinn in Galway and Monaghan’s Corduff at club level.

Curran welcomed McHugh into his Donegal Ladies management team in 2022. They took Armagh to extra time in the Ulster final that year and lost via a last-minute goal before upsetting the odds to defeat Dublin in the All-Ireland quarter-final.

“Ladies football is still the poor relation and at that stage we had a Donegal team that was really knocking on the door to try and get over the line to an All-Ireland,” Curran continued.

“I just felt that someone like Mark, the respect he would garner from the players would be an addition, but it was clear from early on that Mark really understood his football inside out.

“He was also very keen to learn and that was shown in the years after when he went to Roscommon to work under Davy Burke and joined Corduff.

“Having played under Rory Gallagher with club and county, that was another really good landing spot for him to learn a bit more. No matter where you go, you’re always learning bits and pieces and that has come through in where he’s at now.”

Curran echoes the energy point made by McGee.

“He comes with an unbelievable energy. He oozes enthusiasm, he loves football, absolutely adores the game.

“He eats, sleeps and breathes football. He obviously has the knowledge and the football brain but has that almost childlike enthusiasm and love for the game.

“That definitely has huge merits in the dressing room and that has obviously rubbed off on Westmeath. They play the game in a very energetic way and that mirrors a lot of his personality.”

Curran has also been on the other side of McHugh’s footballing talents, and he recalls a club meeting last year.

“All these years on from 2012, he’s still doing the business on the pitch.

“He was a lovely footballer on the ball, two good feet and he just read the thing so well.

“He was very agile, very evasive and when he did win the ball in the full back line, he was able to get out with it because he was so nimble on his feet.

“I would have come up against him in the last couple of years playing for Kilcar, I managed Downings, my own club and we lost a relegation playoff last year and he was the best player on the field.

“He played that sweeper role and with the new rules, he kicked 0-7 and kicked a two-point free into the breeze late in the game, as straight as a die over the bar and for a number of years he would have been the best player in Donegal not playing county football.”