Gavin’s glory days

GAVIN Doogan probably didn’t attract a lot of headlines during his playing days. He may not have been on the end of many moves or got his name on the scoresheet too often, but he was vital to the Monaghan cause for years.

To win big championship games, you need warriors around the battleground of midfield, and he was certainly one of them. The old dog for the hard road. He didn’t kick screamers in front of the posts, but his efforts out the pitch laid for the foundations for the finishers up top.

Doogan also embraced plenty of special days in the Magheracloone jersey and helped the Mitchell’s embark on an incredible journey that saw the club end up in Croke Park. And the former Monaghan forward may not be done just yet.

Being the youngest of seven, Doogan had to battle for everything growing up. He carried those combative qualities into his footballing career and had no problem putting in the hard yards or doing the dirty work that others shy away from.

All his siblings played for Magheracloone, as did his father. Football was everything growing up.

“Mum and dad would have always encouraged us to play,” recalled Doogan, reflecting on his childhood.

“We would have gone to club games with dad, and I would have been the wee boy behind the goals kicking the ball back at training. I always liked being down around the club and at home around the dinner table we’d always have conversations about football.

“Even to this day, it always comes back to football. We were always out kicking football in the back garden and there’d be plenty of arguments and rows and with me being the smallest and youngest, I usually came out the worst.

“But they were good times, and it was always great craic. Dad broke his leg playing, I can remember that, but I don’t actually remember him playing. We have pictures at home, and he won an Intermediate Championship so we’re lucky enough that we both have won that.

“My nephews, his grandsons, won a championship last year so it’s nice that we have that. Dad would have played but mum was the one that brought us to training and then the brothers and sisters would have been doing that as well when they got older.”

It all started with the club. Magheracloone claimed the Senior Championship title for the first time in their history back in 2004 and while a 17-year-old Doogan didn’t get to experience it on the pitch, he had a ringside view.

“I actually trained in ‘04 with the team, myself and a good friend Pete Ward,” Doogan continued. “We ended up being water carriers that year, so we were at every training session, every team meeting, we were on the line.

“It was actually very good because the manager at the time, David Reilly, probably thought we were going to be playing in the next couple of years, so he took us in that year and we didn’t play but we were always there, so it was a good experience.

“He was probably ahead of his time bringing us in at such a young age. I missed out and it would have been lovely to have gotten that one, but I missed out on it, and I never ended up getting that one back.”

From being called into the county team by Seamus McEnaney, to experiencing the glory days under Malachy O’Rourke to slipping out of the inter-county scene without much fuss, Doogan has always went about his business quietly.

“I played with the u-21s in 2008, and Donegal beat us on St Patrick’s Day. Seamus McEnaney was the manager and then he called me into the senior squad in ’09 and we played Cork in the National League, and I was called into the squad.”

Doogan’s Monaghan career could have turned out a lot differently. He jetted off to Australia in 2012 and left the blue and white jersey behind. But he made the sensible decision to return to the Farney County for the 2013 campaign.

Had he not got back on that plane and sat down with O’Rourke, he would have regretted it for the rest of his life. Little did he or O’Rourke know at the time that the good times that Monaghan yearned for were just around the corner.

“I ended up going to Australia. Everyone seemed to be emigrating at the time, and I think I maybe fell out of love a wee bit with football for some strange reason,” he explained.

“I picked up a bad injury (a broken ankle) in 2011 in a club league game against Scotstown and I actually got back for a bit of the league, but I ended up heading to Australia for a couple of months and maybe just got that out of my system.

“I landed home in November and met up with Malachy and was back in for preseason training. I would have been kicking myself if I didn’t come home because I remember in 2012 sitting in a canteen in Australia when Monaghan played Down in the championship.

“I remember sitting watching it and I would have been fairly sick if I had of missed out on that 2013 season, it would have been annoying, but it was lovely to get home and get playing that year.”

Donegal were “unbeatable” at the time. Jim McGuinness had swooped into the Tir Chonaill county and turned a team of chumps into champs almost overnight. By 2013, Donegal were the All-Ireland champions and heading for a first ever three in a row of Ulster titles.

Having swatted aside both Tyrone and Down, only Monaghan stood between Donegal and the Anglo Celt. Not many gave the Farney men a chance, but they had a deep belief that they could upset the odds.

That day in Clones really kickstarted the good times for Monaghan. By the time O’Rourke departed, he had collected two Ulster titles, contested three provincial finals in a row, and reached an All-Ireland semi-final in 2018.

“When you look back, we were caught up in a bubble and it was all positive. They (O’Rourke’s management team) completely changed the mindset of the whole panel of players and got Monaghan into an Ulster final and ended up winning it.

“We were back in 2014 and lost to Donegal, back in 2015 and we won it again. When you look back, I probably didn’t realise the significance of what we were achieving with Monaghan and what that Monaghan team did achieve.

“We were going up against a Donegal team that was after winning the All-Ireland. This was the Jim McGuinness era too and they were kind of unbeatable, but Monaghan went out and stopped them on a number of occasions.

“It was a healthy rivalry with them. I’d have good time for those Donegal players and for Donegal people. They had the same mindset as us, they just wanted to play football and to win and Malachy would have installed that in us, that’s what it came down to.”

For a brief period, Monaghan perhaps started to look beyond the Ulster Championship. Dublin were the dominant force on the national stage and in the middle of their historic six in a row charge by 2018. But could Monaghan at least contest the decider?

They certainly believed they could. They got as far as the last four that year, having come through the backdoor after a surprising Ulster semi-final defeat to Fermanagh. In Croke Park stood the old enemy, Tyrone.

“In ’18 we were within a kick of the ball from beating Tyrone, I think Niall Sludden got a goal in the second half and completely changed the game,” added Doogan, looking back on that gut-wrenching one-point defeat in the All-Ireland semi-final.

“Malachy would have been very good at how he set us up. We wouldn’t have gone about our business arrogantly, but we were always confident that if we worked hard and kept the head down that something would come out of it.

“We did achieve massive things during that time and the mindset would have been to push on and contest an All-Ireland final. It would have been great; we didn’t get it but that’s the joys of Gaelic football.”

Monaghan just came up short in their quest and a year later Doogan called time on his inter-county career. But his footballing journey was far from finished and in Magheracloone, his experience was needed more than ever.

In September of 2018, a giant sinkhole appeared in the middle of the Magheracloone football pitch and left the Mitchell’s club without a home. They travelled near and far to keep the club afloat, but it was difficult times.

The GAA family pulled together, like it always does, and Magheracloone played their home games at various different pitches across the country, including venues in Monaghan, Cavan, Meath and Louth.

It was during this time, that the club rose to its highest point. “It kind of just happened. With everything that happened in the club, we just knuckled down and the group was very quiet about what we wanted to do.”

Despite not having a place to call home, Magheracloone didn’t seek sympathy. They turned their attentions from the destroyed club grounds to the accomplishments they could achieve on the pitch.

Magheracloone won the Monaghan Intermediate Championship. They reached the Ulster final and saw off Galbally of Tyrone. Then they went all the way to Croke Park and the All-Ireland final, where they came up short against Galway club Oughterard

“There was a lot of media attention on it, it was big news at the time, but we just tried to work hard and worry about results. We ended up getting an Ulster and then an All-Ireland final and it was great to get to Croke Park.

“It was a massive experience, to see our own flag up in Croke Park and so many family members and kids out supporting the club. We fell short on the day, and it is what it is, you have to accept these things.

“But it was a massive experience, and it was great to see the club up there and showcasing what the GAA is all about. We can say we got to the All-Ireland. We didn’t win it, but it brought a smile back on people’s faces around the club.

“It was dire times. We lost our pitch; we lost our hub and getting on that run maybe gelled people back together again and they were good times. It was a good journey and it’s something we’ll definitely all look back on fondly.”

Doogan could have sailed off into the sunset with his championship medal and glorious career behind him. But that’s not his style. Magheracloone were back in the Intermediate Championship last season and needed an extra boost to recapture the crown.

“I got back last year just and no more; the body is slowing down,” he added. “I played in the semi-final and came on as a sub in the final and got another championship which was nice to get, last year was a special one.

“I ended up playing with my nephews Jack and Packie and Nathan was a sub, so my three nephews were on the team and then my cousin Ryan as well. They’re all only 19 or 20, they’re young guys so it was a nice one to get.”

Twenty-one years ago, Doogan was a keen onlooker excited by the prospect of playing Senior Championship for Magheracloone. In 2025, he’ll be 38 years old by the time the championship rolls around. Will he be back in the black jersey once again?

“It’s probably 50/50,” he laughed. “I am back but the boots haven’t gone on yet. I’m doing a wee bit of gym work and last year I got word that the body isn’t great, I’m due for an operation on my back so this year could be the year that I have to get the operation.

“If I get back after that, it’d be good going but at the minute it’s all gym work and trying to get a bit of strength into the back. I’m in with the group and helping out in any way that I can and if the boots go back on, I’d like to say they will, but we’ll have to see.”