WHATEVER HAPPENS WITH Donegal in 2024, it’s certain that Aidan O’Rourke will not be the manager.
2002 All-Ireland winning Armagh player O’Rourke took over along with former Derry player Paddy Bradley, after Paddy Carr stepped down with the league still in progress during March.
It’s been a difficult time since with defeat to Down in the Ulster championship and while they emerged from their Group in the round-robin sector, O’Rourke said he was, “Happy to go and lie down in a dark room for a fortnight.”
Working as a GAA Development Officer in Queen’s University, O’Rourke stated that full-time employment cannot co-exist with the demands of managing a county team.
“I never intended to be managing Donegal at any stage this year. There were a lot of moving parts all year. It is absolutely a full-time job, managing an intercounty team. I was going to say at this level, but at any level really, at this point,” he explained.
“And that’s just the facts of it. You need a lot of time on your hands or to be retired to really do this properly.
“And from a pressure point of view, it was really tough from that time on.”
He added, “I have to tip my hat to my family at this stage because they have seen virtually nothing of me between trying to do my job half-decently as well as trying to keep the wheels moving here.
“So it has been a tough period for sure. Gaelic games continue to evolve. The job of an intercounty manager is not one you can do part-time, to be sure.”
With Donegal also being the subject of a review by a committee established by the Ulster Council and the high-profile departure of Karl Lacey from the Academy role, O’Rourke can hardly believe he was in the centre of all that turmoil.
“It’s surely an interesting year. A famous philosopher said, ‘May you live in interesting times,’ we have jammed about five years of interesting times into this year, I think,” he said.
“I said to the boys in the dressing room, the experience of this year will stand to them. They have all long careers ahead of them and it is a young team. There is a lot they can take from the year.
“Adversity breeds tough men and there is plenty of tough men in that dressing room.”
Asked if he received a call from the county board to take the job in 2024, he stated, “I was asked to do a job midway through the season.
“I am not one to abandon ship when times are tough. I saw that out to be the best of our ability. I would like to thank the boys for their hard work. It’s been Herculean some of the stuff the boys have gone through to try and turn it around.
“I have done the job I was asked to do and I am happy to go and lie down in a dark room for a fortnight.”
He added, “But I think I have done what I can and Donegal have a lot of soul-searching to do in terms of what happens next, on and off the pitch. And I suppose it’s time to thank the people who supported me and Paddy and the backroom team whenever we did the role.
“I want to thank Paddy Carr for asking me to get involved as well.
“Coaching is a funny old game, it is never what you think it is.
“That’s taking U8’s, minors, a senior club team or a county team. There are loads of challenges, personalities involved. It is never as straightforward as coaching players. You have a lot of work to do to get the chance to coach players.
“I wouldn’t be involved if I didn’t enjoy it. But glad to get to the end of the year, too.”
