Martin McElhinney recalls his experiences of the dramatic rise of Donegal’s success

WHEN Donegal player Martin McElhinney made the decision to stop playing county football in 2019 he became a different person.

For the final few years of his 11-year tenure as a county player, things had not been straightforward.

Injury had robbed him of his confidence and he was a frustrated about his place in the team.

“Myself and my partner had had a child. I was coming home and I would have been in bad humour. My partner was in bad humour.

“I was having trouble with injury. I had a problem with my back, and I knew that I needed seven weeks’ rest to get it right. But if I did that then I’d be chasing the pack when I came back. I felt that I didn’t want to be there and not contributing.

“That made it easier for me to make the decision to stop. I didn’t think I would have been playing come Ulster championship so I left.”

Before he made the decision he spoke to the manager Declan Bonner as well as Karl Lacey.

“They told me that I could stay on but I said that I would be happier to leave. I was happy when I made the decision.

“Once I left it was great. Football wasn’t on my mind. I did play a little with the club but I was able to enjoy it.”

That turning point, that moment of relief, illustrates the personality of the player, but it also highlights an issue that exists in the modern game. What drives county players to make the commitment, and is it worth it?

As a player in the later years, McElhinney had a clear drive. He wanted to make a contribution to the team’s success.

“While I was with Donegal I felt that if I was carrying any injuries I had to train. Whereas with the club I felt that I could take a rest.

“When I was playing I felt that if I was togged out and didn’t play I was very frustrated.

“I wasn’t getting the rewards at the end for the effort that I was putting in.

“I always felt that if I was available to play then I always got on or always started. When that started to go I didn’t feel that I had the appetite for it.

“When I wasn’t able to contribute then I trained harder. Then I would get injured and I was playing catch up. Whereas before. I felt that even if I didn’t train I was still going to play.”

The Martin McElhinney at the start of his intercounty career was a lot different to the one at the end. There was no frustrations. He was fit and eager to play. McElhinney says he was a skinny, rangy player in the early days, but grew into a strong, hard-running midfielder/centre half-forward.

He was brought into the Donegal team after he was part of the county minor team that reached the All-Ireland semi-final in 2006. He recalls that season fondly.

“That was the most enjoyable time I had. There were no cares. I was going to training on Tuesday and Thursday on a bus with a group of lads from all over Donegal. We got a great run that year. We were on a high the whole summer.

“I’ve spoke to a few lads who were on that team and we agreed that that was a great year.”

When asked what made the team good McElhinney joked that there was only one answer and it was ‘Michael Murphy’.

“Look, I was very fortunate to play with Murphy. He was unreal. Even back then he trained harder than anyone else. He always sort of demanded respect even though he was a year young on that team. But we had a very good group.

“We won the Buncrana Cup two years before that. Seamus Coleman was actually on that team, but then he went off to Sligo Rovers. He was very athletic and played wing half-forward.

“I remember that he was in with the minor team at the start and he didn’t know what he was going to do. But he ended up making the wrong decision and went off to play for Sligo and then Everton (laughs).”

That year the Ulster final was played in Croke Park, and so McElhinney and his teammates got to play there three times.

“Armagh played Donegal after us in the Ulster final, so there was a massive Donegal crowd in Croke Park. There was a serious buzz.

“We won and when we were receiving the cup the Donegal team ran out, and there was a huge roar. That kind of whet the appetite to get onto the senior team.”

They played Kerry in the semi-final.

“They had David Moran and Tommy Walsh, the athleticism that they had, even at that age, it was obvious.

“To get to play in Croke Park against Kerry who were the kingpins was a standout moment. Even though we were beaten it was important.”

McElhinney also got a glimpse of what the future would be like with Donegal.

“I remember watching Michael Murphy and Tommy Walsh taking lumps out of each other. I remember them running past me and thinking that there was a difference between them two boys and the rest of us.

“I could see that Murphy had real potential.”

McElhinney’s family are GAA fans, though he says that when he started playing for the county their interest increased.

His father introduced him to the game and brought him to the St Michael’s club when he was a child.

“It took off from there. He took teams at my age group along with Christy Toye’s dad. There was a good squad of us who took to it at the same time, and many of us are still hanging on.”

The likes of Kieran Gallagher, Paul Ferry, Peter Witherow are among the lads who were part of the group.

“We were all mad into football, and close knit. We stuck at it and are all still playing. It makes a difference if your friends off the pitch are also your friends on the pitch. If you are the only one that comes through from your age group that can be hard to stick at it.”

It is this sort of insight that makes it clearer as to why McElhinney was keen not to allow injuries at intercounty level to affect his long-term fitness. But at that age, he wasn’t thinking about his future. He was only thinking about playing for the seniors.

After minor he moved quickly into the senior county team. He was delighted about that at the time, but he has changed his mind on that since.

“It was probably a bad thing for me. I went straight into that environment and thought that I had made it. That was a bad thing because I took my foot off the pedal. I didn’t work hard enough on myself for three or four years. They are the most important years. I look back on it and think that I wasn’t as dedicated as Murphy or other players. I was happy just to make it.”

McElhinney explained that he thought it was great to be part of the Donegal team, but his attitude wasn’t quite right. It was only a few years later, when he thought it was too late, that he understood how he should have approached it.

“I saw young guys coming in and they were desperate to play football.”

This experience would inform McElhinney’s approach in the later years. While he wasn’t dedicated as a teenager, the older McElhinney would become determined to always be fit to play.

However, it is perhaps not entirely McElhinney’s fault that he wasn’t dedicated in the early days. The atmosphere around the county team when he arrived in the squad was not the same as it was in the latter years.

“I made my debut against Leitrim, and then two weeks later there was a Qualifier against Monaghan. But two of us went to Oxegen (the music festival). That was naiveté. We weren’t ready to put in the work.

“But that all changed under (Jim) McGuinness. By then all the work had been missed out on. I was maybe a bit young for senior football then.

“Nowadays the younger boys come in and they see the culture that is set by the older players. Then, if you came in, and you weren’t narrow-minded in your own head then you would be led astray.”

The assumption might be that before Jim came along Donegal training lacked challenge. That’s not the case.

McElhinney said he had a great time under Brian McIver.

“I thought the training was brilliant. Ryan Porter was doing the training. Playing with the boys that were there was great.”

He says he remembers playing an u-21 game against Mayo in Breaffy in the morning, and then he travelled over to play for the seniors that evening. “Stuff like that wouldn’t happen now.”

But he loved the challenge and the excitement.

“I was playing along with players like Eamon McGee, Colm McFadden, Christy Toye. Even Brendan Devenney and Brian Roper were still about when I first started. To get in with them bucks was massive.”

Christy Toye and Colm McFadden are club mates of McElhinney’s in St Michael’s and they were on hand to give him advice.

“They told me not to worry about performances, and try to keep working. Just the normal stuff. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

The craic in the changing rooms was one of the aspects of playing county football that McElhinney still misses.

“It was more relaxed than anything. At the same time that team, though I was only on the outskirts, was very talented. But they didn’t win the All-Ireland. They just needed some direction. The team was maybe going through the motions.

“A lot of them boys had been there for a while, and were just used to things. I don’t think that anyone believed that they were going to win the Ulster Championship.”

Brian McIver was McElhinney’s first manager, and then John Joe Doherty came in as the boss.

“We were disappointed when Brian McIver left. A lot of players were happy with him. There was a lot of unrest when it happened. He did a great job. We made strides under him and we won the National League. He definitely did things professionally. But I would say that a lot of players were coming into their prime just before he left.”

McElhinney said that he liked John Joe Doherty as a manager.

“He is a massively passionate Donegal man. He is a Donegal legend. We had a good run in the Qualifiers, but things didn’t go his way in that defeat to Antrim in Ballybofey.”

McElhinney missed the notorious Antrim game which Donegal lost in Ballybofey in 2009. He was getting an operation at the time. He was called into the team after the Ulster Championship.

The issue with John Joe Doherty was that he had the passion and belief, but the results didn’t match up to his hopes.

McElhinney said: “The results didn’t go his way and that is what he is remembered for instead of being remembered for the good things. If you look at some of the players he introduced, he introduced Paddy McGrath, Mark McHugh, ‘Brick’ (Dermot) Molloy. He did introduce good players, it’s just unfortunate that we didn’t get more success in the two years.

“At that time that is what Donegal were happy with, they were happy with a run in the Qualifiers. That’s the level that we were at.”

McElhinney said that that was his attitude too.

“I had just had a groin operation and I was just happy to be called back in. I had a lot of catching up to do. I wasn’t ready athletically to be making a contribution. I wouldn’t have had a wild lot of game time under him.”

The injury to his groin had caused him a number of problems. He had tried to play through the pain. Then got a series of different diagnoses that didn’t solve things. He finally went to Gerry McEntee who told him to get surgery and that solved the problem and kept him injury-free for the following seven years.

That meant that he was in good shape for the arrival of Jim McGuinness. Initially the new manager was an unknown, though McElhinney had an early view of what the Naomh Conaill man was all about.

“I didn’t know what to expect when he came in. I hadn’t had a wild lot of experience of him.”

The one experience he did have happened while at university.

“I was in DCU at the time. The Sigerson was all over but I went out to train with the u-21s when Michael Murphy was with them, and Declan Walsh. There was only five or six of us there but he was up in Dublin training them.”

There is the famous moment in Downings when McGuinness told his new team that they were going to win All-Irelands. McElhinney remembers that as how the manager was able to get his message across.

“He is a very good talker, and very good at getting people on board.

“Everyone thinks that he is a dictator. He was not that at all. There was always craic at training and there would be laughing and joking. Even after training he’d be talking to everyone. He left you feeling at ease. It wasn’t like we were silent when he was about. He wasn’t in shouting at us.”

McElhinney said that McGuinness was good at making players want to play for him.

“He was very good at reading people. Everyone is different. Some people need to be chatted to, others need a kick in the ass. McGuinness identified that early on in different players.

“The older boys in the group were able to get on board and they brought the younger boys on.”

McElhinney said that that was the turning point for him.

“Before that point you might have been worrying about things outside football, nights out and that. But soon after he came in we forgot about all that and concentrated just on football.”

In 2011, McElhinney said that during the league he got the feeling that a big season was ahead. He said confidence was high and the team were playing well.

“When you are winning games you get confident. The big game was the Antrim game in Ballybofey. Once we got that game out of the way then we were confident. I know everyone says Tyrone’s the important one. But that Antrim win was great. We hadn’t won in Ulster in a while.”

McElhinney played in all three of the Ulster Championship games leading up to the final, against Antrim, Cavan and Tyrone.

The Tyrone game was a big one, and McElhinney started at corner-forward.

“It was nip and tuck at the start. There was a serious atmosphere in Clones. It was the first atmosphere like that that I had experienced as I had not been in a semi-final before at senior level. It was intense. Tyrone got a couple of points up but (Kevin) Cassidy got a great point. We got a couple of breaks. The ball broke to ‘Brick’ and we got the goal. If we had not got that win over Tyrone we may never have went on to win what we did, the Ulster titles and the All-Ireland. That was a big break beating them that time.”

In an interview with Gaelic Life, Dermot Molloy told how Jim McGuinness put a lot of emphasis on beating Tyrone. He had targetted that game as one that had to be one.

McElhinney saw it slightly different.

“McGuinness had a great way of making every game in Ulster important. He would turn every game you played into the Ulster Championship into an All-Ireland final. He was great at building the game up and you would never take your eye off the ball and you would be motivated.

“He talked about the Tyrone team because we had suffered against them so many times before. But he did say that if we beat Tyrone we would win Ulster.”

However, McElhinney didn’t start the final against Derry.

McElhinney’s reaction to that period says an awful lot about how McGuinness created a bond with his players, in that there is no animosity at all. McElhinney understood that it was the right call.

“He always made me feel that I was playing alright. I was just happy to be contributing something. I didn’t mind that I got dropped. I wasn’t playing overly well. I knew that. Michael Hegarty was coming on and he was playing well. I knew that it was going to be down to the wire, then Michael Hegarty started in the final.

“I was putting in the effort and contributing, and I got to come on in the final. McGuinness always made you feel that you knew your role. You nearly knew when you were going to be playing.

“I think that is important that a player knows where they are in the squad, whether they are in the first 15, or the next three or four players that are going to be coming on, or in the bracket after that who are pushing in. If you know where you are then it is easier to push on. But if you haven’t a clue where you are at, then it is hard to find the motivation.”

McElhinney said that the team knew there was potential for success and so players committed even though they may not have been starters. As well as that, the older players on the team were on board with the plan and that meant there was no tension.

The preparation for the final was meticulous. The Donegal team put in a tremendous amount of work to win that title.

“I thought that we had a good enough team and we had done the hard work. But we had to perform. That was the good thing about McGuinness he made sure everything was about performing, more so than about beating Derry. You can talk about beating teams and boys can get complacent, but if you talk about performing it is easier.”

He was disappointed that he didn’t get to start in the Ulster final. But he did come on during the game, and he was there at the final whistle when Derry were defeated.

“I remember near the end of that Ulster final there were a couple of scraps. Derry had a couple of chances. Then when we won we were all around each other. I remember people coming onto the pitch. You never think you are going to win an Ulster Championship. To get that after all the hard work was brilliant.”

McElhinney remembers going back to the county after the final and the celebrations were immense. The joy came from realising a victory that many had hoped might happen.

“There were huge crowds when we went back to Donegal, but they were even there the next day. Everyone was in good form and everyone was buzzing. It gave the county a lift. We knew we could compete. We weren’t always chasing Armagh or Tyrone which had happened for the previous 15 years.”

The knock on effect for the Donegal players was tremendous according to McElhinney.

“The older boys had been there for so long they had finally realised their potential.

“Everyone couldn’t wait to get back to training after winning Ulster. We couldn’t wait to get back out. That was the good thing. We couldn’t wait to get on to the pitch and get stuck into the serious training.”

They played Kildare in the next round and got over them after extra-time.

“We weren’t long back down to earth. We were back on the training ground and focus on the Dublin game. We kept our heads down. Dublin were the big team. The talk was all about them.”

Very soon after the Kildare game McGuinness revealed his plan as to how Donegal would beat Dublin. They worked on this plan for three weeks.

“No one blinked an eye about the plan. This was the plan that could beat them. We actually thought we were going to beat them.”

The plan involved playing an ultra defensive game that would stop Dublin getting any clear cut chances in the match. The game achieved notoriety for being so low scoring. Dublin won 0-8 to 0-6, Donegal had led 0-6 to 0-3 early in the second half. They conceded their first point from play in the 60th minute and Dublin edged their way into the lead to win.

“It wasn’t easy on the eye, but we weren’t far away. There were different things that didn’t go our way. But that game stood to us. We knew that we could compete with the big teams.”

They also realised that Jim McGuinness’s talent was in analysing opponents and finding their weak points.

“He would pick out stuff that other people wouldn’t see. You could watch a game 10 times, maybe watch a guy score 10 points, but that wouldn’t be what he would pick out. He would work out how they were getting to that point. He would see things that we could change that would stop it. It would have a knock on effect. He would break a game down and we would take it as gospel.”

That analysis was probably most famously used in 2014 when Jim McGuinness picked out how Dublin left space between their defensive lines on kick-outs. And he set his team up to take advantage of that open space. Donegal got their goals because of that tactic and defeated that strong team.

In 2012, the atmosphere was different. There was a heady mix of delight, confidence and positivity.

McElhinney said that in 2012 there was space to enjoy the season.

“We enjoyed ourselves a wee bit that winter. I remember being in Castlefin and some boys were in bad enough shape. We were back earlier and I remember thinking that there was a lot of work to do. But it wasn’t long getting back into shape.

“The goal was to try and win Ulster again and try to get back and give a rattle at the big teams. But the confidence that we got from 2011 was massive.”

Donegal had to take the long route to win Ulster in 2012. They beat Cavan in the preliminary round, they defeated Derry comfortably in the quarter-final, then they met Tyrone in the semi-final and won by two. Their opponents in the final were Down.

McElhinney said that the second year was more enjoyable than the first.

“I remember just being able to enjoy the final. It was an odd situation to be in. Against Derry we were nervous, but against Down in that final we were well ahead and we could just enjoy the occasion.”

Two years previous, Donegal hadn’t won an Ulster title since 1992, and then by the summer of 2012 they had won back-to-back titles.

The win set up a game against Kerry, a remarkable day for Donegal football as they pitched up against the Kingdom.

This was a day that the Donegal men could only dream about. The game went to plan as Colm McFadden got an early goal, and Donegal led 1-6 to 0-5 at half time. Kieran Donaghy’s late goal put added pressure on Donegal but they held on for the win.

Next up was a semi-final against Cork.

McElhinney said: “Neil Gallagher had a tremendous day. He must have caught about 20 footballs from kick-outs. I just remember thinking it was unreal. We played well that day, but I remember thinking coming down the road that we were in an All-Ireland final.”

Yet while the players were buzzing, the manager had a different approach.

“After that match I remember Jim McGuinness focusing in on one point. He focused on a moment when the ball had bounced over Eamon McGee. I don’t know if they got a goal or a point. He focused on that and said that we went soft. That brought us back down to earth very quick. He was very good at that.”

McElhinney said that that reset the team’s focus.

“He was very good at that sort of stuff. We would think that we have this great team, but he was able to bring you back to earth.”

Donegal met Mayo in the All-Ireland final. They got a perfect start in the game when they scored two first-half goals. The first came from Michael Murphy.

They used the tactic of moving the ball, and kicking it in diagonally to the forward line and Murphy was there to put it in the back of the net. That was a tactic that McGuinness had used ever since his days of coaching the county’s u-21s.

“For that to work straight away it was great. After that I thought Mayo were the better team. Donegal were sloppy. It wasn’t our best performance.

“The good start was very important.”

Like the All-Ireland semi-final, McElhinney was used as an impact sub. He came on in the All-Ireland final for Paddy McBrearty in the second half.

“You would never have thought you were going to win an All-Ireland. To then do it it was brilliant.”

The reaction afterwards was immense.

“For the month or two after we got a great reaction. Everyone was so happy to see us. The club football was played soon after but it maybe wasn’t as serious. When we finished I really enjoyed the winter.

“My life changed for a while. You were in that bubble. From a personal point of view it changed my life in how I feel about having won an All-Ireland. But it hasn’t affected what other people think of me.

“It was a life-long goal. It was one of those goals that you wanted but never thought would actually happen. So then to win it, I was over the moon.”

The challenge after that season was then to try and win another one. McElhinney said that the team felt that they were capable of doing so.

“We gained more respect in the years after. Our standards got higher. The professionalism in the game was increasing throughout Ireland.

“We were setting new standards. We were happy to do it because we knew what we could achieve.”

But the 2013 season did not go to plan. After beating Tyrone and Down in Ulster, Donegal lost to Monaghan in the Ulster final.

“That Monaghan game hurt us because we were going for three-in-a-row of Ulster titles.

“That brought us down to earth and we realised we had to regroup. We went back to the sand dunes in Dunfanaghy and we got our heads together.”

2014 was a return to form. McElhinney said that he felt they played very well. They beat Derry and Antrim in Ulster before defeating Monaghan in the final. That result had an element of revenge in it after the result in the final the previous year. Then in the All-Ireland series they beat Armagh.

“We didn’t play particularly well in that game against Armagh. But when we got over the line we were gearing up for that Dublin game. Everyone was building Dublin up for that game and we were going to try and cause a shock.”

McElhinney went to university with some of the players and he knew how confident those players felt going into the game against Donegal.

“Donegal got a lot of flak for playing defensive football, but this Dublin team were playing a pure, attacking type of football. It was nearly as if there was no system. It was as if they were changing the game.”

The falsehood was that Donegal were a one-dimensional defensive team, but because most people believed that, they weren’t given a chance against Dublin. The match turned out to be an amazing performance.

“There is no experience like playing Dublin in Croke Park. We had noticed that in 2011. Then to go out and play them in 2014 when they were so heavily fancied. It was weird because they became silent when we got on top. That was a great experience to be involved in that.

“But look, we all think that is a bad year because we didn’t win the All-Ireland. Many people will talk about that great Dublin win but Kerry won the All-Ireland that year.”

Donegal were hit with a sucker-punch in that 2014 final, when Kerry got the early goal. Then the Kingdom got a second goal.

“We were playing catch up. It was the same as the Mayo game in that we got the goals and they were playing catch up. Kerry got the goals and we were playing catch up.

“You remember that more than winning the All-Ireland. To win two All-Irelands would have been unheard of.”

Yet while losing was a blow, the Donegal team weren’t downhearted. McElhinney himself felt that he was ready to go again in 2015.

Then the big surprise came.

“It was in pre-season we all got a text message. It said that he was done. It was a bit of a shock.”

After four seasons, in which he had won three Ulster titles and an All-Ireland, Jim McGuinness was no longer going to be the Donegal manager.

“We were delighted when Rory took it on because we all liked Rory. They were both very passionate about football. The knowledge they had was amazing. Rory knew players from everywhere. But McGuinness was calmer. Rory was more of a coach, he was good at giving you advice on things like scoring.”

Rory’s management felt like a continuation of things.

“Me and Rory got on well. I probably played more under Rory than other managers. But we were very unlucky.”

In 2015 Donegal reached the Ulster final and lost by a point to Monaghan. Then in 2016 they were beaten by Tyrone in the final by two.

“I won four Ulster titles, but was beaten in three finals, and it is probably the finals that I lost I remember the most.”

McElhinney remembers them because he thinks that they probably could have won those deciders. He remember the wides in the final against Monaghan. And the Tyrone game he recalls the two big scores from Sean Cavanagh and Peter Harte at the finish.

“I was next to Peter Harte when he kicked that score, and I remember being disappointed. We had had their number. We were well used to their players. It was never easy against those teams. But it was very disappointing to lose two in-a-row.”

Even after those two losing seasons, McElhinney and his teammates felt confident.

“At that point we knew how to prepare. We believed that we were good enough to compete in Ulster from 2011. We always had serious players. Before that we needed the belief.”

2017 was a year to forget as they lost to Donegal and Galway and then Rory Gallagher left. That was a turning point.

“I remember thinking that we need to change. We needed to freshen things up. For six or seven years it was the same. Rory was in with Jim so we knew his approach. So when he left it was a change.”

Declan Bonner came in in 2018.

“Declan is very good at bringing in the right people. He is a very good manager. There was a bit of a bounce but there is always a bounce when there is a new manager.”

Yet while there was a bounce for other players, this was the year when things turned for the worse for McElhinney.

“I played very little that year. I hurt my back and I wasn’t able to train for three months. I was there but I wasn’t able to take part and I didn’t enjoy it.”

McElhinney battled back to be able to compete for his place for the ‘Super Eights’ and he got to play in those games. He felt that in 2019 he would be able to return to full fitness and he feature in some McKenna Cup games. Then he felt sciatica pain during the league campaign. Unable to perform at his full fitness, McElhinney felt frustration.

It was at that point that he reached the decision that to push forward was not worth it.

“I remember going to a training camp in Belfast and I didn’t train once. I wasn’t really enjoying it. I decided then that I’d rather go back and play for the club.

“When I made the decision it was a weight off my shoulders.”

He learnt a lesson about football that year.

“When you are playing football and you are in the bubble, it is all you care about. But when you are out of it you don’t miss it as much as you think you will.

“Sometimes it is a better decision mentally to step away. You think it is the most important thing when you are in it. I came home and I would have been frustrated about things. You are in a bubble. When you came out then you realise there are more important things.”

Even now, two years later, he feels the same about the decision to step away.

“I don’t really miss it. Particularly now when there are no fans. It isn’t the same hype. If there were big games on now then it might be different. But for the last year there has been no crowds (because of the restrictions in place to counter the Covid-19 pandemic).

“They are training on their own as well. That would be hard.

“I have enjoyed club football a lot more for the past few seasons. I can choose when I train and train consistently. I wasn’t fit for the intensity of intercounty football anymore.”

Sometimes in his quiet moments, he does think about the county team.

“I miss the camaraderie and the craic. I wonder about the lads on the bus who are playing cards down the back. I wonder about the craic at training in the good evenings.

“I miss the whole process, the mates you make, the incidents at training. Some of the matches I don’t even remember. But I remember the craic.”

What he doesn’t miss is the frustration of not being fit to train. But with that all gone, McElhinney has a perspective of one of the most dramatic rises in fortune in Ulster football. That of a county who returned to the top in such great speed.

“I experienced both sides of it. There is something to be said about the craic going out of the game.

“Sometimes the craic after the match was important. That was where the camaraderie came from.”

Yet there are no regrets.

“I enjoyed it all. I had a great time because we were so successful. If you were putting in that amount of commitment and not winning anything, it would be very hard.”