WHEN MAURICE MCLAUGHLIN got the job of Fermanagh minor manager in time for the 2020 season, he found himself having the usual internal conversations around compiling a backroom team.
As proprietor of the Ballyshannon pub, ‘Sean Ógs’, he had many dealings with Martin McHugh, who owns MCM Spirits and Liqueur and stocked many pubs around Donegal.
Asked if he had any ideas on a coach, McHugh didn’t have to look beyond the sofa of his own living room.
His son Mark had been an All-Ireland winner and All-Star in 2012 and was still of playing age, but hadn’t been feeling it with county football for a few years.
Under Jim McGuinness, he wasn’t the first ‘sweeper’ in Gaelic football. The number on his back was 12, but his positioning was just in front of the full-back line.
Others, such as Kieran McGeeney and Gavin Devlin, had dropped back a little to hold their position, but McHugh became a ‘plus-one’ as Donegal sacrificed an attacker to offer protection to the full-back line of the McGee brothers, Eamon and Neil, and Paddy McGrath.
Firefighter: Mark McHugh and Eamon McGee tangle Ronan Sweeney up. James Crombie
James Crombie
“I never had a conversation with Mark, bar him giving out to me, or me giving out to him,” says Eamon McGee.
“You can see it even now in the club game, his play is so quick and he is able to read that. That’s why he was such an effective sweeper.
“I don’t even like the word ‘sweeper’ because of the connotations. I preferred to call him the ‘Firefighter.’ He was able to go where the danger was.
“Mark was able to read the danger and get across to it. So we were just able to take him for granted. His ability to read the game, he was brilliant at it.”
A wonderful moment for the McHugh family as Mark meets his father, Martin after the final whistle. pic.twitter.com/wD4td6ea
Two years later, injuries halted his activity and he grew disillusioned with the game, dropping off the panel after their Division 2 final defeat to Monaghan.
“He hasn’t been enjoying his football,” Donegal selector Damian Diver told the Donegal News at the time.
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“He has been troubled by hamstring injury and his form has been indifferent. He just wasn’t enjoying it and wanted to take time out.
“It can be hard to keep it going mentally. He felt that he wanted a break and take some time to find himself.”
When he returned, he struggled to re-establish himself in a game that kept evolving. The plus-one tool was adopted by everyone, including Dublin who used Cian O’Sullivan for the role.
After not returning to Donegal for 2019, he accepted McLaughlin’s offer to join the Fermanagh minors. For him, it was a foot on the rung of county football. Due to the vastness and shape of Donegal, he also reasoned that Fermanagh’s regular training base of Irvinestown was as close to his home in Kilcar as Letterkenny or Convoy.
“I was just looking to bring somebody in who was that ex-county player that was ‘a name,’ and had an impact,” says McLaughlin.
“Look, it was a gamble. But it worked. He had that profile and was somebody the guys were going to look up to.”
Early on, certain things leapt out at that group of Fermanagh minors. In the early days of Covid, with the world seeking a purpose, McHugh had the answer.
With Kilcar clubmate Paddy McBrearty after the 2012 All-Ireland win. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
They embarked upon a fundraiser for two charities; Mental Health New Horizons Fermanagh, and the GAA’s charity partner, The Samaritans.
They gave the project a snappy title of ‘It’s Not Minor, It Matters,’ and completed a number of activities including marathons, push-up challenges and simply lifting the phone to someone who might want to hear a friendly voice.
They had Zoom calls with several high-profile figures in GAA and others sports, including Jim McGuinness.
It was on the training ground that they got another education.
“After sessions, he always left you with a wee quote at the end of a session. Something simple, like, ‘Stick with the winners,’ said one Fermanagh minor of the time.
“It would have been something like that most nights.
“Honestly, you would have been hopping off the walls. Up to high dough with what you done that night.”
One day they went out to train in Teemore. The training pitch was frozen solid and ballwork was out of the question. But they warmed up anyway and then McHugh blew the whistle.
“‘Right, on the end line. We have ten minutes of hard work to do,’” said McHugh.
They started running lengths of the frozen pitch. Then McHugh started roaring commands. Down for five press-ups. Roll over onto your back. On your front. Five press-ups. On and on and on.
“It felt like a lifetime but those things built real character in the group,” the player said.
Last year, the same player was part of the Fermanagh senior squad when they travelled to play Westmeath in a challenge match. The conditions were just as bad. Playing a game was unsafe.
Fermanagh did a few long-distance runs before cutting it short and getting back on the bus. But as they were walking off they took a look at the Westmeath panel running lengths of the pitch, McHugh overseeing it.
“Press-ups! Roll on your back! On your front! Press-ups.”
“I would definitely say he was the best trainer I have ever had,” he said.
As Roscommon coach. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
With the world in semi-lockdown, they beat a Down team with Odhran Murdock in the Ulster quarter-final the Sunday before Christmas 2020.
They had to wait for months before restrictions eased and came within a kick of the ball in the Ulster semi-final against Monaghan.
McHugh moved on. He had a spell with Donegal ladies. He moved on then to Roscommon, who delighted in spoiling a few parties. He had time with Moycullen in Galway and was invited into the Westmeath set-up by Dermot McCabe, later succeeding him when McCabe left to take over Cavan.
“He had obviously been part of the good set-ups,” says McLaughlin.
“The Jim McGuinness set-ups. He had played and won multiple Ulster championships and won an All-Ireland medal, an All-Star. He came from a serious footballing family with pedigree.
“That doesn’t always transfer that a person is going to be a good coach or a good manager.
“But his attention to detail, his obsessive nature, and how he transferred that and brought it into his sessions and bought into the lads and got them to buy-in.
“It’s no surprise to me, what’s happening in Westmeath. Anywhere he went, all of the teams were greatly improved.”
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That obsessive streak was there for all to see after they beat Meath.
In the post-match interviews, he talked about the week after walloping Longford. He said to Jonathan Higgins of Off The Ball about staying on in Cusack Park with the Westmeath players past midnight that week, making sure everyone understood their role perfectly before playing Meath in the quarter-final.
Losing Luke Loughlin to injury robs them of their super power ahead of meeting Kildare in the Leinster semi-final in Tullamore. McHugh will move on fast.
“I knew as a manager, bringing in Mark McHugh, what that meant in terms of plaudits and stuff. But I would give all the plaudits of that time to Mark McHugh,” says McLaughlin.
“I have been involved in football for thirty years managing, and he is the best coach I have ever worked with. And he was only starting out on his journey at that time.
“I would see him as a young manager who is very much on an upward trajectory. You would see him with one of the top three or four teams in the country in my opinion.”
On Sunday, he was there in Letterkenny, in his familiar New York Yankees cap, watching his brother Ryan in Donegal’s defeat to Down.
At some point in the future, he will be the next Donegal manager.
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'He is the best coach I ever worked with in 30 years' - How Westmeath are onto a good thing
WHEN MAURICE MCLAUGHLIN got the job of Fermanagh minor manager in time for the 2020 season, he found himself having the usual internal conversations around compiling a backroom team.
As proprietor of the Ballyshannon pub, ‘Sean Ógs’, he had many dealings with Martin McHugh, who owns MCM Spirits and Liqueur and stocked many pubs around Donegal.
Asked if he had any ideas on a coach, McHugh didn’t have to look beyond the sofa of his own living room.
His son Mark had been an All-Ireland winner and All-Star in 2012 and was still of playing age, but hadn’t been feeling it with county football for a few years.
Under Jim McGuinness, he wasn’t the first ‘sweeper’ in Gaelic football. The number on his back was 12, but his positioning was just in front of the full-back line.
Others, such as Kieran McGeeney and Gavin Devlin, had dropped back a little to hold their position, but McHugh became a ‘plus-one’ as Donegal sacrificed an attacker to offer protection to the full-back line of the McGee brothers, Eamon and Neil, and Paddy McGrath.
“I never had a conversation with Mark, bar him giving out to me, or me giving out to him,” says Eamon McGee.
“You can see it even now in the club game, his play is so quick and he is able to read that. That’s why he was such an effective sweeper.
“I don’t even like the word ‘sweeper’ because of the connotations. I preferred to call him the ‘Firefighter.’ He was able to go where the danger was.
“Mark was able to read the danger and get across to it. So we were just able to take him for granted. His ability to read the game, he was brilliant at it.”
Two years later, injuries halted his activity and he grew disillusioned with the game, dropping off the panel after their Division 2 final defeat to Monaghan.
“He hasn’t been enjoying his football,” Donegal selector Damian Diver told the Donegal News at the time.
“He has been troubled by hamstring injury and his form has been indifferent. He just wasn’t enjoying it and wanted to take time out.
“It can be hard to keep it going mentally. He felt that he wanted a break and take some time to find himself.”
When he returned, he struggled to re-establish himself in a game that kept evolving. The plus-one tool was adopted by everyone, including Dublin who used Cian O’Sullivan for the role.
After not returning to Donegal for 2019, he accepted McLaughlin’s offer to join the Fermanagh minors. For him, it was a foot on the rung of county football. Due to the vastness and shape of Donegal, he also reasoned that Fermanagh’s regular training base of Irvinestown was as close to his home in Kilcar as Letterkenny or Convoy.
“I was just looking to bring somebody in who was that ex-county player that was ‘a name,’ and had an impact,” says McLaughlin.
“Look, it was a gamble. But it worked. He had that profile and was somebody the guys were going to look up to.”
Early on, certain things leapt out at that group of Fermanagh minors. In the early days of Covid, with the world seeking a purpose, McHugh had the answer.
They embarked upon a fundraiser for two charities; Mental Health New Horizons Fermanagh, and the GAA’s charity partner, The Samaritans.
They gave the project a snappy title of ‘It’s Not Minor, It Matters,’ and completed a number of activities including marathons, push-up challenges and simply lifting the phone to someone who might want to hear a friendly voice.
They had Zoom calls with several high-profile figures in GAA and others sports, including Jim McGuinness.
It was on the training ground that they got another education.
“After sessions, he always left you with a wee quote at the end of a session. Something simple, like, ‘Stick with the winners,’ said one Fermanagh minor of the time.
“It would have been something like that most nights.
“Honestly, you would have been hopping off the walls. Up to high dough with what you done that night.”
One day they went out to train in Teemore. The training pitch was frozen solid and ballwork was out of the question. But they warmed up anyway and then McHugh blew the whistle.
“‘Right, on the end line. We have ten minutes of hard work to do,’” said McHugh.
They started running lengths of the frozen pitch. Then McHugh started roaring commands. Down for five press-ups. Roll over onto your back. On your front. Five press-ups. On and on and on.
“It felt like a lifetime but those things built real character in the group,” the player said.
Last year, the same player was part of the Fermanagh senior squad when they travelled to play Westmeath in a challenge match. The conditions were just as bad. Playing a game was unsafe.
Fermanagh did a few long-distance runs before cutting it short and getting back on the bus. But as they were walking off they took a look at the Westmeath panel running lengths of the pitch, McHugh overseeing it.
“Press-ups! Roll on your back! On your front! Press-ups.”
“I would definitely say he was the best trainer I have ever had,” he said.
With the world in semi-lockdown, they beat a Down team with Odhran Murdock in the Ulster quarter-final the Sunday before Christmas 2020.
They had to wait for months before restrictions eased and came within a kick of the ball in the Ulster semi-final against Monaghan.
McHugh moved on. He had a spell with Donegal ladies. He moved on then to Roscommon, who delighted in spoiling a few parties. He had time with Moycullen in Galway and was invited into the Westmeath set-up by Dermot McCabe, later succeeding him when McCabe left to take over Cavan.
“He had obviously been part of the good set-ups,” says McLaughlin.
“The Jim McGuinness set-ups. He had played and won multiple Ulster championships and won an All-Ireland medal, an All-Star. He came from a serious footballing family with pedigree.
“That doesn’t always transfer that a person is going to be a good coach or a good manager.
“But his attention to detail, his obsessive nature, and how he transferred that and brought it into his sessions and bought into the lads and got them to buy-in.
“It’s no surprise to me, what’s happening in Westmeath. Anywhere he went, all of the teams were greatly improved.”
That obsessive streak was there for all to see after they beat Meath.
In the post-match interviews, he talked about the week after walloping Longford. He said to Jonathan Higgins of Off The Ball about staying on in Cusack Park with the Westmeath players past midnight that week, making sure everyone understood their role perfectly before playing Meath in the quarter-final.
Losing Luke Loughlin to injury robs them of their super power ahead of meeting Kildare in the Leinster semi-final in Tullamore. McHugh will move on fast.
“I knew as a manager, bringing in Mark McHugh, what that meant in terms of plaudits and stuff. But I would give all the plaudits of that time to Mark McHugh,” says McLaughlin.
“I would see him as a young manager who is very much on an upward trajectory. You would see him with one of the top three or four teams in the country in my opinion.”
On Sunday, he was there in Letterkenny, in his familiar New York Yankees cap, watching his brother Ryan in Donegal’s defeat to Down.
At some point in the future, he will be the next Donegal manager.
Nothing more certain.
****
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