The new Fermanagh manager tells Gaelic Life that extensive squad building will be high on his agenda

By Shaun Casey

THE Fermanagh job wasn’t necessarily on Declan Bonner’s radar when Kieran Donnelly stepped aside after four years in charge, but the idea of pulling on the bainisteoir bib at inter-county level once again did spark a desire inside him.

The former Donegal player and manager has spent the last three seasons in charge of Erne Gaels and last year he guided the club to a first Senior Championship since 1981. He’ll see out the remainder of the club championship before turning his full attention to the county set-up and he said that he’ll be casting the net far and wide.

The club action is in full flow, and that’s what Bonner will be focusing on for the time being.

“The immediate concern in the club championship and we have a big match this weekend against Teemore so that’s where my focus is and has been for the last number of weeks,” said the 1992 All-Ireland winner.

“Once the club championship is done then it’ll be full focus on the Fermanagh job. It’s a good challenge, it’s one I didn’t expect to come up, but it has so I look forward to it now.

“I expected Kieran was going to stay on, so I never gave it much thought to be quite honest. I’m enjoying my time in with Erne Gaels and I’ve three years done now and I’ve really enjoyed the football scene in Fermanagh.

“When the opportunity came, I thought why not, and I’ll see where it takes us. It’s a huge challenge, there’s no doubt about that and there’s a huge bit of work involved but I know all about that so I’m looking forward to it.”

Bonner knows the club scene in the Erne County extremely well but is no stranger to the duties of inter-county management either. He has been in charge of Donegal twice during his managerial career.

He took the reins in for four seasons after retiring, from 1997-2000, before returning to for a five-year term more recently in 2017, winning back-to-back Ulster Championship crowns in 2018 and 2019, before stepping down in 2022.

He may be an outsider coming into the Fermanagh job but is excited by the prospect.

“We’ll prepare the team, and we’ll have a good management team put in place. We’ll challenge the lads, that’s our task.

“Naturally enough it’s a different county but I’ve been in the club scene for the last couple of years. There are some decent players in Fermanagh and there’s a very competitive club championship.”

The Erne Gaels post has given him a huge opportunity to sweep the county and have a look at any potential players that could be ready and willing to make the step up and represent Fermanagh at the highest level.

He’ll have an open-door policy and Bonner is determined to get the best players in Fermanagh all singing off the same hymn sheet. Some of the hard work has already been done over the past couple of years though.

Donnelly had “a nucleus of a very good squad of players” already during his time, as Bonner explains, and he’ll be looking to build on that going forward into the 2026 campaign.

“That has made a big difference for me going into it compared to just going in with no experience of being involved in Fermanagh football. We had a really good year last year winning the championship and I feel first hand that there’s a lot of good clubs,” he added.

“The senior championship is very, very competitive. We’re playing Teemore this week and any one of the four teams in our group can end up at the bottom or they can qualify, and the standard of football is decent, so I have a fair idea of what’s there.

“The official start of the (county) season kicks off on the 8th of December but we’ll get a good bit of work done before that in terms of assembling a group and making contact with those guys and working with them.

“Once we come to November, a lot of stuff should be ready to go at that stage. It’ll be a busy couple of weeks, there’s no doubt about that, until the end of the championship now at all levels.

“The door is open for anyone that is willing to put their hand up and we’ll be looking at that over the next couple of weeks and then we’ll start assembling a group of players that’s going to be challenged in terms of inter-county football.

“Kieran did a great job when he was there for a number of years. There’s a nucleus of a very good squad of players there at the minute and they’re ambitious so it’s a challenge that we’re going to embrace and we’re really looking forward to.”

Looking ahead to the new year, Fermanagh will once again compete in Division Three and one of the main objectives will be to fight for promotion. They finished mid-table in 2025, just one point off the promotion spots.

Fermanagh also put in an impressive performance in the opening round of the Ulster Championship where they could and probably should have beaten a Down team that made huge strides during the All-Ireland series.

But that defeat sent them through to the Tailteann Cup, where they gave their best showing so far in the competition. They reached the final four but hopes of getting their hands on silverware was shattered by the eventual winners Kildare.

While what happens on the field will be of major importance for Bonner and his management team, which includes former Donegal footballer Paul Brennan, building a squad will be the initial target first and foremost.

“I’m about long enough to know that the number one priority is to have a good backroom team in place that’s professional and a bunch of 30 or 35 players that are committed to Fermanagh football,” he continued.

“When you’re involved in inter-county football, it’s high performance and it’s elite level. You have to prepare and there’s work to be done every day so that’s my ultimate challenge and I’ll be taking that step by step and training session by training session.

“Ultimately we want to give these lads the best platform that they can go out and deliver a performance that is going to get the results required so that’s where I’m operating and that’s the way it will be.”