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There is a variation on an old James Bond line that can be applied to Ciarán McDonald de Mayo’s drawing: boys want to be like him, boys want to be him. Although he is retired as a player, his talents have not retired.
cDonald is the coach of some of the boys’ underage teams with the Crossmolina Deel Rovers GAA club, where his son, Kobe, plays with the U14s. McDonald travels a lot for work, lays pipes with his father, Danny, and there is also a family farm in Donegal so he is not in every training session.
But when he’s on the home field, McDonald puts on the gear and joins him. If he sees something in training, he runs up to the player, be it a child or an adult, and gives him advice or shows him where the space is.
Younger children don’t know who McDonald was, but they are drawn to who he is today. Adult gamers know who McDonald was and are still amazed at what he can do.
“Kids love him, and adults love him, because he can bond over and he will put our adult footballers to shame with the way he can kick a ball.
“He would kick a 45/50 yard pass with his famous, off the left (foot), and put it on five pence. And he always had a little flair, “says Michael Hegarty of Crossmolina GAA, who grew up and played with McDonald’s.
“Even at this stage, and he’s retired, kids want to be like him. He stands out from the crowd and kids say, ‘Who’s that guy? Who’s that kicking the ball like that?’
“The predator boots that he has, and he has a lot of them, they are polished, but they are from the late 90s and he is throwing them. And you would see it on different social networks, the guys ask: Where is he getting them? children are the same way. “
McDonald’s has always been a figure who made you ask questions that couldn’t be tamed with direct answers.
How did he do that? Where did you learn to do that? It has retired? He’s back? Where is he now? For years his name was misspelled as Kieran, we couldn’t even get it right. Before Diarmuid Connolly, there was McDonald, whose elixir of skill and vision pushed the limits of what a gaelic game player could do; it didn’t quite fit what was expected of a player just so the rest of us could understand who he was.
He left the May panel in 2003 after abuse from the stands. Return. There were cosmetic things like her bleached blonde hair. The tattoos. The white boots. The left boot. The red socks were pulled up. Mayo’s shirt hanging. The ball whisperer.
There was his free wonder against Dublin in the 2006 All-Ireland semi-final from the edge of the Cusack and his winning point on the hill that seemed to defy the law of angles regardless of logic. There was his raised finger to the crowd.
There was the contradiction of the player who seemed to revel in the spotlight on the field and the person who refused to participate off the field. And when his playing career between the counties ended, questions were raised as to whether we would see him in the public arena again.
When it was announced that McDonald would be appearing on the TV show ‘Second Captains Live’ on RTÉ in April 2015, there was suspense at the Who-Shot-JR level, such was the anticipation of finding out a little about McDonald and just hear how it sounded. .
“My job on the court for Mayo was to try to supply balls for the guys inside, to try to be their eyes on the field, to try to see a play or two ahead,” McDonald said in describing his former playing role for Mayo.
He also believed that general defense made it “more of a thinking game now”, describing it as almost a brain challenge for players to think a few steps ahead.
Perhaps those closest to him always knew that he had a lot to offer as a coach. The last time a GAA season was interrupted, although it obviously did not come close to the magnitude of the interruption caused by this pandemic, was in 2001.
Foot-and-mouth disease led to the postponement of the all-Ireland senior club men’s final from St. Patrick’s Day until Easter Monday, when Crossmolina became the first May club to win the title starring McDonald.
Stephen Rochford and James Nallen were also on that Crossmolina team, as was Liam Moffatt.
The year before Moffatt won the race to become the new Mayo County Board Chairman in December 2019, McDonald became the coach of the Mayo Under-14 men’s development team, which was part of the new plan of training ‘The Mayo Way’ launched by Mayo GAA in 2018. The idea was that McDonald would inspire and teach the future talent of Mayo soccer.
But the current generation of inter-county players needed a rise of something different, too. The May season ended with a 10-point loss to Dublin in last year’s Irish semi-final when they scored just one game point in the second half.
Four months later, and amid all the controversy between the county board and benefactor Tim O’Leary, Mayo staged a coup.
Incoming President Moffatt is believed to have played a key role in persuading McDonald to join the senior organization under his former inter-county teammate James Horan.
Mac was back. But even those who have known him for a lifetime were surprised by the shift to inter-county training.
“Yes, because it would attract more public attention and that would not be his thing,” adds Hegarty. “But he loves football, he thinks about it all the time, in its nuances.”
Aidan O’Shea was sitting at the Hogan Stand as a young fan on the day Mayo beat Dublin in that Irish semi-final 14 years ago.
McDonald was the hero of his childhood, but O’Shea could almost count the number of times he had seen or seen him. Now O’Shea is being trained by him. Imagine the bounce it would give you to go into training.
Not that we’re hoping that the traits McDonald had as a player will automatically load into those he works with, but sometimes a sign, a new wrinkle, is what you want to see initially. It was another former star player-turned-coach who saw the mark McDonald has made on this May team.
“I see Ciarán McDonald’s fingerprints all over the Mayo team,” Jason Sherlock said on ‘Off the Ball’ earlier this month.
And Mayo’s forwards look rejuvenated. Recovery time during the lockdown would have obviously helped. In addition to O’Shea on the full attack line, there are the dangerous Tommy Conroy and Cillian O’Connor, who posted a 4-9, 4-3 record since the game. , in the Irish semi-final beat Tipperary.
“It’s about kicking the ball, it’s about taking shots and facing your man,” O’Connor said of McDonald’s influence in preparation for the Irish final today.
“There’s nothing cautious or careful, it’s just kicking the ball, moving the ball, and playing with a smile. That’s contagious, in the first place.
“He’s a striker, he’s a footballer and it’s great to have another voice like that because he will see things that will resonate with us.”
In the January 1996 issue of Hogan Stand magazine, McDonald asked one of those player questions and answers. One question was, ‘Who would be the last person you would go for a pint with?’ Perhaps some players would overthink a question like that. Not McDonald.
‘One who will never buy a pint again’ was his reply. Where some may see challenges or complications, McDonald seems to see clarity. When Dublin will inevitably have Mayo in a staggered mess, they’ll need composure to get out of it.
Before the Dublin leadership sees any loopholes in its own defense, Mayo must have read it first. That’s where McDonald’s could come into play.
Before it was about how you played, now it’s about how you view the game.
In 2020, his vision as a coach could be among the most important contributions he has made to May football.
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