McGuinness Threatens to Pull Out of McKenna Cup

Big Jims not happy!


Jim McGuinness has said Donegal will consider their participation in the Dr McKenna Cup next year if third level colleges continue to have first option on inter-county players.

The Donegal manager holds little affection for the Ulster season opener and his record in the competition shows five defeats from six, with the only win last January against UUJ in his first game in charge.

On the other hand, in league and championship, his side lost just twice last year in 14 games, an insignificant reversal against Laois in Portlaoise when Donegal had already sealed a place in the NFL Division 2 final and a two-point defeat to Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final in August.

McGuinness believes the training ban in November and December added to the fact he has to compete in the Dr McKenna Cup without students in January makes preparation for the NFL almost impossible. He also doesn’t believe he will have a full compliment at midweek training until May, with Michael Murphy, Martin McElhinney and Michael Boyle in DCU, Eoin Waide and Leo McLoone at UUJ and Mark McHugh a student at IT Sligo.

"I think we are going to have to seriously consider whether or not we enter the Dr McKenna Cup next year if we don’t have the college players available to us," McGuinness said, "I think this is something the GAA is going to have to look into and who the college players are available to.

"It is certainly not working and I would urge the GAA to look at the whole subsidiary competition and if there is no change we will have to seriously consider not playing in the Dr McKenna next year."

These sentiments back up McGuinness’s thoughts after Donegal’s first game of the new year, which they lost 0-11 to 0-9 to UUJ in Letterkenny earlier this month.

"We’re at a slight disadvantage because of that and heading to Newry for a first league game without the students having played a competitive game for us is a difficult situation," he said. "We’re a young squad and a year down the track and we’re still trying to develop them and develop cohesion in what you want to do. It’s not easy going into a game against Down and then we have Laois the week afterwards. We’d prefer to have them."

McGuinness is still unhappy with the fall-out this week to his very public spat over the services of McElhinney with Niall Moyne. The DCU manager accused McGuinness of bullying the midfielder into playing a challenge game against Monaghan on the same day he was due to play for his college in the O’Byrne Cup semi-final against Meath. Ironically, McElhinney played for neither team after he was injured in the Donegal warm-up before the challenge against Monaghan in Clones.

McGuinness refuted the claims of Moyna and stated he asked McElhinney to travel to Monaghan as he had not had a chance to see the player in the flesh two weeks before Donegal’s NFL Division 1 opener against Down in Newry. He added that the Meath v DCU fixture was originally scheduled for Sunday and McElhinney was supposed to be available for his county on Saturday.

"Seemingly Meath requested the game be brought forward to Saturday night and DCU agreed," McGuinness said. "When Martin told me he had a game on Saturday evening, I said to him we have our first game in the league in two weeks and that I had all the players from the other college back, to get a look at them. I said to him, ‘how can we expect to play you if we haven’t seen you play?’

" Over the last 18 months I have got the best advice for Martin [who had been injured] and also have had a strength and conditioning coach working with him one-to-one once week.

"After investing so much time and expertise do people think that I would abuse such a player? To be honest it is absolutely ridiculous to think or suggest I would and I’m very annoyed that someone would make that claim."


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Personally i can see where he is coming from, but surely if we stopped the varsity sides having first choice then it would make their participation in these pre-season competitions meaningless!

Views?

That is strange. As per the below link, I thought that students could now choose who they play for?? Tyrone have a number of students on their panel this year.

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Thomas Clarke wrote:That is strange. As per the below link, I thought that students could now choose who they play for?? Tyrone have a number of students on their panel this year.

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Hmmm, i must have missed that on the news TC, cheers for that. It kind of backs up what i say though, i do see the county managers point, however what is the point in having Uni sides that are "weakened" by not having their best players available?

Me thinks the McKenna Cup in its current format is on the way out, which is a great shame!

Without their county players, the universities will struggle badly. I know that some players choose the uni's (perhaps due to scholarships?) but most will choose to play for their counties.

The disappointing thing in all this, is that the McKenna Cup was dead before the inclusion of the universities revitalised it. It gave the counties at extra games, something that I'm sure they are all grateful to have.

Part of the issue is the different types of training that players are doing. For instance, Mickey Harte will have his players in early season training at the moment, building strength and stamina with a view to sharpening and peaking in the summer. University (and U-21) managers need their players to peak in the springtime, and are likely to be making different demands on those same players at this time of year. The same players are trying to serve too many masters, and that is perhaps the biggest problem in all of this.

Thomas Clarke wrote:Without their county players, the universities will struggle badly. I know that some players choose the uni's (perhaps due to scholarships?) but most will choose to play for their counties.

The disappointing thing in all this, is that the McKenna Cup was dead before the inclusion of the universities revitalised it. It gave the counties at extra games, something that I'm sure they are all grateful to have.

Part of the issue is the different types of training that players are doing. For instance, Mickey Harte will have his players in early season training at the moment, building strength and stamina with a view to sharpening and peaking in the summer. University (and U-21) managers need their players to peak in the springtime, and are likely to be making different demands on those same players at this time of year. The same players are trying to serve too many masters, and that is perhaps the biggest problem in all of this.

Exactly what i think too, great post. The McKenna Cup is now a great competition with the group format including the Unis. I really didn't like the comment (I think it was Mickey Harte) "I won't disclude players who choose their Uni, but it definately makes it much harder for them".

The managers interviewed were saying that it would be nigh on impossibile for one of the Uni players to break into the team for the first game of the league, i really dislike this style of reverse psychology and pressure that is exerted on the Uni players. Surely even the county managers can see that players getting game time is more beneficial than them keeping the bench warm for the county team?

I would love to see the McKenna Cup retained in its current form, but wouldn't blame the Unis for pulling out, all they have had is grief from the counties over selection of players from day one!

All this coming from a professional student ..... jesus if you need to have all your ducks in a row in January when preparing for the C'ship - its not like all the students are off on the pi55 ...

Seems a strange rant alright

firstly his mckenna cup selections have included less than 5 of his starting 15 and secondly
it comes down to whether the injured murphy and mcelhinney should be on injured bench for dCU or the injured bench for Donegal

He may as well forget about it altogether if it comes to it....

Espousing "my style" to an 0-6 to a 0-8 failure to a years progress smacks of humbuggery.

Jim being interviewed on RTE after todays game - lays the blame soley at not being able to have his entire squad together to bond until "so late in the season" - "We will just have to get on with it and our real focus is in Cavan in the championship".

Jims eternal search for Bogeyman under the bed is starting to test my green and gold blindfold.

OMAR wrote:Jim being interviewed on RTE after todays game - lays the blame soley at not being able to have his entire squad together to bond until "so late in the season" - "We will just have to get on with it and our real focus is in Cavan in the championship".

Jims eternal search for Bogeyman under the bed is starting to test my green and gold blindfold.

Yeah, they were very poor today, from what I saw.

Jim could have a job on his hands to stave off a mutiny before the year is out. No player wants to train 5/6 days a week to go out and play football like that. When winning they will tolerate it but, when they start to lose, disgruntled voices will get louder.

I heard Jim on the radio too.

Ross Carr is a very good pundit. Let's hope we gets promoted to the Sunday Game in the summer.

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:I heard Jim on the radio too.

Ross Carr is a very good pundit. Let's hope we gets promoted to the Sunday Game in the summer.

my

I agree he certainly came across as balanced and measured - but then again my Labrador would probably come out on top if he shared a panel with Flynn and Tommy Carr.(including one on Radio)

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:
Ross Carr is a very good pundit. Let's hope we gets promoted to the Sunday Game in the summer.

He won't, as he has the dullest voice and personality imaginable.

However, I agree, he is a good pundit. Poor record as a manager with down, but the knowledge is there.