OVER THE WINTER, Hugh McFadden watched back last year’s All-Ireland football final.
Of course he did. Those players who try to convince others that they never watch an All-Ireland final back are bluffing.
What McFadden doesn’t mention is one of the glaring elements that contributed to Donegal’s defeat.
They couldn’t get their hands on the ball.
Not from Kerry’s kickout. Not from their own.
Kerry’s ability to dominate the skies meant that they dictated the first half. At half-time, Jim McGuinness sent in McFadden for Caolan McColgan. Five minutes later, Jason McGee went on.
While the ultimate losing margin was greater than it stood at half-time, Donegal had their moments to get back in, spurred on by at least getting a foothold at midfield.
Since then, McFadden ended up having a good winter with his club Killybegs and was able to put in a full pre-season. He ended up playing every minute of Donegal’s league campaign. That’s fair going for a 32-year-old midfielder.
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McFadden climbs for a ball against Antrim in the Dr McKenna Cup. Leah Scholes / INPHO
Leah Scholes / INPHO / INPHO
It would seem certain he will start this Sunday in Letterkenny for Donegal’s Ulster championship quarter-final against Down.
Having McFadden, Michael Langan, Jason McGee and Michael Murphy around the middle in the recent league final meant Donegal could reverse the result of last summer’s All-Ireland decider.
But first, back to last winter and the video nasty.
“I watched it back personally,” he winces, “It makes for raw viewing.
“You don’t get through it all in one sitting either if that makes sense… A few awkward conversations across the sofa with your father when you’re trying to watch it! That’s kind of the grieving process of it.”
Asked what he gets out of that process, McFadden elaborates.
“I would say to answer a few questions. You play a game and you have thoughts of what happened. Sometimes you watch back a game and you get a different perspective, not necessarily a better perspective.
“Sometimes you’re chatting to a teammate or somebody after a game and you’re saying X, Y and Z went well in the heat of battle, an emotional view.
“Then you watch it back that’s not exactly the way it went – you probably get a second take on it if that makes sense.”
Under review, there are a number of ways Donegal players and to an extent management, could be kind to themselves.
Big moments went against them include the injury withdrawals of Ciaran Thompson and Ryan McHugh, and a clearly fitness-hampered Patrick McBrearty missing a point that would have really turned the screw at a vital time.
Dangle them out for McFadden though, and he refuses to grasp for them.
“We were comprehensively beaten in the All-Ireland final – I don’t think there’s any way of dressing that up,” he says.
In action in the All-Ireland final. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
“There’s definitely things that were unfortunate on the day. We lost two very good players. We know now looking back that Paddy was obviously carrying bumps and bruises going into the game as well – a fully fit Paddy McBrearty puts that ball over the bar, and it definitely narrows the game.
“We just have to learn from it as a group of players that we didn’t show up and put our best foot forward in the All-Ireland final. That poses a lot of hard questions personally and then as a group as to why it didn’t work out.
“You just have to improve from that. I know that sounds very simplistic but you just have to go away and see what were our shortcomings.”
Following the league final, Donegal went to Quinta do Lago on the Algarve for a training camp, their time there overlapping with Kerry’s in the nearby Browns Complex.
The value of such camps is well-aired by now. For McFadden, a school teacher in Killymard National School in Donegal town, having the extra time makes all the difference.
“There’s very little time to maybe ask a few of your teammates, do you think this is working or this isn’t working?
“So that’s probably one of the things that you get huge value off – you’re never rushing off the pitch, you’re never rushing out of the meeting room.
“You can sit down and go through things and bounce ideas off the coaches and the managers in a manner that’s energetic and fresh.
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“We, as players, get to work on things and hopefully that could come to fruition as the year goes on.”
They might have been baking under a hot sun, but the panel still made time for that most Donegal of activities, and played a few hands of ‘25’, a card game of strategy that remains popular in the north-west.
“You have an inter-county set up,” explains McFadden, “even though we’re all mad about football, there’s people with their own interests outside of football.
“Maybe people doing all types of work and you get to sit down for a while and have a bit of crack and build up that understanding. You are not under pressure and I think (that’s) one of the benefits can be of a training camp.
“One thing inter-county football does do is make your week very regimented. You have to get your stuff sorted in your own life outside of that so they have to fit in the days around it so you’re basically this hamster on a wheel. So a training camp gives an opportunity to refocus and download and have a bit of fun.”
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'That's the grieving process of it': Reliving Donegal's All-Ireland final defeat
OVER THE WINTER, Hugh McFadden watched back last year’s All-Ireland football final.
Of course he did. Those players who try to convince others that they never watch an All-Ireland final back are bluffing.
What McFadden doesn’t mention is one of the glaring elements that contributed to Donegal’s defeat.
They couldn’t get their hands on the ball.
Not from Kerry’s kickout. Not from their own.
Kerry’s ability to dominate the skies meant that they dictated the first half. At half-time, Jim McGuinness sent in McFadden for Caolan McColgan. Five minutes later, Jason McGee went on.
While the ultimate losing margin was greater than it stood at half-time, Donegal had their moments to get back in, spurred on by at least getting a foothold at midfield.
Since then, McFadden ended up having a good winter with his club Killybegs and was able to put in a full pre-season. He ended up playing every minute of Donegal’s league campaign. That’s fair going for a 32-year-old midfielder.
It would seem certain he will start this Sunday in Letterkenny for Donegal’s Ulster championship quarter-final against Down.
Having McFadden, Michael Langan, Jason McGee and Michael Murphy around the middle in the recent league final meant Donegal could reverse the result of last summer’s All-Ireland decider.
But first, back to last winter and the video nasty.
“I watched it back personally,” he winces, “It makes for raw viewing.
Asked what he gets out of that process, McFadden elaborates.
“I would say to answer a few questions. You play a game and you have thoughts of what happened. Sometimes you watch back a game and you get a different perspective, not necessarily a better perspective.
“Sometimes you’re chatting to a teammate or somebody after a game and you’re saying X, Y and Z went well in the heat of battle, an emotional view.
“Then you watch it back that’s not exactly the way it went – you probably get a second take on it if that makes sense.”
Under review, there are a number of ways Donegal players and to an extent management, could be kind to themselves.
Big moments went against them include the injury withdrawals of Ciaran Thompson and Ryan McHugh, and a clearly fitness-hampered Patrick McBrearty missing a point that would have really turned the screw at a vital time.
Dangle them out for McFadden though, and he refuses to grasp for them.
“We were comprehensively beaten in the All-Ireland final – I don’t think there’s any way of dressing that up,” he says.
“There’s definitely things that were unfortunate on the day. We lost two very good players. We know now looking back that Paddy was obviously carrying bumps and bruises going into the game as well – a fully fit Paddy McBrearty puts that ball over the bar, and it definitely narrows the game.
“We just have to learn from it as a group of players that we didn’t show up and put our best foot forward in the All-Ireland final. That poses a lot of hard questions personally and then as a group as to why it didn’t work out.
“You just have to improve from that. I know that sounds very simplistic but you just have to go away and see what were our shortcomings.”
Following the league final, Donegal went to Quinta do Lago on the Algarve for a training camp, their time there overlapping with Kerry’s in the nearby Browns Complex.
The value of such camps is well-aired by now. For McFadden, a school teacher in Killymard National School in Donegal town, having the extra time makes all the difference.
“There’s very little time to maybe ask a few of your teammates, do you think this is working or this isn’t working?
“So that’s probably one of the things that you get huge value off – you’re never rushing off the pitch, you’re never rushing out of the meeting room.
“You can sit down and go through things and bounce ideas off the coaches and the managers in a manner that’s energetic and fresh.
“We, as players, get to work on things and hopefully that could come to fruition as the year goes on.”
They might have been baking under a hot sun, but the panel still made time for that most Donegal of activities, and played a few hands of ‘25’, a card game of strategy that remains popular in the north-west.
“You have an inter-county set up,” explains McFadden, “even though we’re all mad about football, there’s people with their own interests outside of football.
“Maybe people doing all types of work and you get to sit down for a while and have a bit of crack and build up that understanding. You are not under pressure and I think (that’s) one of the benefits can be of a training camp.
“One thing inter-county football does do is make your week very regimented. You have to get your stuff sorted in your own life outside of that so they have to fit in the days around it so you’re basically this hamster on a wheel. So a training camp gives an opportunity to refocus and download and have a bit of fun.”
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