McHugh ball

WHEN Jim McGuinness was appointed Donegal manager ahead of the 2011 season, Mark McHugh sensed there was something special on the horizon. Having worked with the Glenties clubman at u-21 level, McHugh had an insight into what McGuinness would bring.

From also-rans to All-Ireland champions, it was a swift transformation under the watchful eye of McGuinness and McHugh played a huge role in that. Son of Donegal legend Martin, he followed in his father’s footsteps in collecting an All-Ireland medal.

While he lined out every day at wing half forward for a number of years, McHugh drifted back into the permanent plus-one position that is so commonly talked about these day. But back then, it was a revelation.

He doesn’t recall many of the one-on-one discussions he shared with McGuinness when they were drawing up the Donegal gameplan, but the tactical advancement of that team would change the way Gaelic Football was played forever.

“I was only a young cub at the time and obviously if you go back now, you’d love to be able to re-have those conversations and you’d remember them,” said the 2012 All-Ireland winner.

“It’s funny, when I was brought into the Donegal squad (in 2010), you thought this was kind of the norm, it was going to happen every year. You thought we’d be in All-Ireland semi-finals and finals every year.

“You’re living on a buzz, and I was only 20 or 21 years of age, and I’d love to have recorded those conversations with him, because to be truthful, I can’t exactly remember every single conversation I had with him.

“I had worked under Jim previously for the u-21 campaign the year before (2010), and I played something very similar with him in that campaign. He deployed me as a wing forward, just coming back, and doubling up, cutting out balls that were kicked inside.

“I played well enough that year and that role suited me. I had a good engine, I would always pride myself on being one of the fittest on the team, and I would always push myself, and when he took over, the position was there for me.”

McHugh believes that simple sweeper tactic that also earned him an All-Star award in 2012 simply wouldn’t apply nowadays.

“I honestly don’t think that tactic would work in modern day football,” added the Kilcar clubman.

“Looking back at the big games we played against Dublin, Cork, Kerry, they just kicked the ball to me and that doesn’t happen nowadays. It’s a possession-based game, you don’t see teams kicking the ball inside as much as they did because of that.

“Even look back in the 2014 game against Dublin, they kicked a lot of balls in and we turned them over. The 2011 game as well, I remember the first half, it was terrible game of football, but it was effective.

“We doubled up Bernard Brogan and Alan Brogan, we snuffed them out and they kept kicking ball down me. That’s probably what helped my career because it made me as a player.

“Today that doesn’t work, that sweeper now, it’s not usually developed off a wing forward or corner forward anymore, it’s developed nearly off a player on the weaker side of the field if you want to call it.

“The conversations me and Jim had at that time, he looked at the way football was played, and he thought that if we can stop teams kicking in the ball to Cillian O’Connor or Kieran Donaghy or ‘Gooch’ Cooper or Bernard Brogan, then we’ll be competitive, and we were.”

McHugh finished up playing in the green and gold of the Tir Chonaill men in 2019 but football is in his blood, and it wasn’t long before he was pulling on the boots once again, in a coaching capacity this time.

Even before he finished up at intercounty level, he was dabbling in coaching and management, and he gets a real kick out of it. While continuing to line out for Kilcar at club level, coaching is a big part of McHugh’s future.

“I’m actually involved with Maigh Cuilinn Galway at the minute and I’m still playing football for my own club, so it’s just balancing the two,” he explained. “I have a very, very understanding wife at home that lets me do that.

“I suppose coaching, that’s talking about the future, I can’t play forever unfortunately, and even though I love it, when the legs give up, they’ll give up so I can see me being involved in some sort of football capacity.

“If that’s coaching or management, if it’s carrying water, if it’s coaching my son’s team, football is our life in Kilcar so I can’t see myself doing anything much more other than my day job for the rest of my life.”

Getting involved with the Roscommon footballers under Davy Burke last season was a huge step in the right direction and an opportunity that McHugh simply couldn’t turn down. Along with enjoying the experience, the Rossies had a fairly successful season.

They finished third in Division One, winning four of their seven outings and just missed out on a place in the top two by two points. They beat Mayo, the league champions, in the first round of the Connacht Championship, but fell to Galway in the semi-final.

Roscommon drew with Dublin in the group stages and qualified to the preliminary quarter-finals where their season came to an end against Cork. Still, 2023 was an extremely positive year for Davy Burke’s men.

“I got into coaching right when I finished up playing with Donegal in 2019. I got involved in the Fermanagh minor teams and all the 20 teams back then, and I loved it,” McHugh continued. “Then I got involved in the Donegal ladies team and we did very well that year.

“We got to the semi-final and league final and lost both to Meath, and I had decided to take a year out of everything and then Davy rang me. I was actually on my stag do over in Portugal and he said he wanted to meet me and see would I get involved in Roscommon.

“Even though the distance was very far away, it was an opportunity that I couldn’t turn down. To learn from other coaches, learn from a management team at that level, I played at that level, but you don’t see the ins and outs of what happens on the other side of the table.

“It was a great learning experience. I probably learned more last year than I’ve ever learned in terms of studying opposition and doing all the due diligence of everything you need to do.

“I have to say I loved it and just with different circumstances this year, I had to step away from the lads and they got to a quarter-final this year too.”

Looking back on his illustrious career, McHugh has a fairly stacked medal collection.

The 2012 All-Ireland title is obviously his most prized possession, but he also picked up three Ulster crowns along the way as well.

McGuinness completely turned the fortunes of the county and McHugh had a massive part to play in that. Reflecting on how it all panned out, he doesn’t have many regrets.

“I don’t really dwell on regrets or look back and everything you can say is hypothetical or hindsight and stuff like that, so I don’t really look at the past too much, I have a young family now and that’s all I’m thinking about is their future.

“As Donegal people, I wasn’t involved in 2014, I travelled that year and as Donegal people, that was definitely one that we felt that we probably could have or should have won.

“In my own career, I was lucky. If you look back at other footballers from Donegal that haven’t been as lucky, that didn’t play in a time that we were successful.

“I was in Ulster finals nearly every year until I finished up. There are definitely teams there that we felt we could and should have done better against but only one team can win it, and everybody starts out at the start of the year trying to win it and they’re out to get you.

“I class myself very lucky and very fortunate to have firstly played in an era that we won in All-Ireland, there’s no point in saying different, I have my medal in my back pocket and nobody can take that away from me.

“I would just love to see this group of players, it’s there for them. It wasn’t too be this year but it’s not too far away. There’s a group of players in Donegal, there’s a group of players coming, that’s one thing about Donegal. We always have good footballers that can challenge.

“I class myself very fortunate to have played when I did for Donegal and the regrets are there, but I don’t focus on them, I just always look forward.”