Academy chaos “no impact” on Donegal u-20s

By Shaun Casey

DONEGAL u-20 coach Eamon McGee insists the recent chaos with the Donegal Academy, which saw Karl Lacey resign from his post as the Head of the Academy along with a host of coaches, has had no impact on the u-20 squad.

Donegal begin their u-20 Ulster campaign next Wednesday evening as they host Antrim in the opening round.

“On the u-20s, it’s genuinely had no impact,” said the 2012 All-Ireland winner. “There might have been a few people asking what we were going to do but our season had started, and we put in a bulk of work at the start, so we have to respect the lads that have put in the work.

“It never really entered the conversation on whether we were going to come in or not. The young fellas might have chatted amongst themselves but for me, I decided at the start as I coach I was going to stay quiet and not say anything.

“But I chatted to Karl, and I chatted to a few of the coaches, and I had to say something then, I just felt like the were let down. It’s about separating Eamon the coach and Eamon the former Donegal footballer.

“Once I got to the training field it was forgotten about. Antrim won’t be asking how’s the academy going, or is Karl back or not, they’ll just want to get to the next round.

“It’s in Ballybofey and we’re very proud of the record we have in Ballybofey and how it’s hard to get a result there and it’s something we want to keep going.

“We owe it to the young boys, they want to play for Donegal, our season had already started so it was important that we kept with them and kept pushing them on.”