Carr assessing a dozen new players ahead of McKenna Cup

New Donegal senior team manager, Paddy Carr, has just under five weeks to his first competitive game in charge of Donegal and he is busy assessing the players that will be available to him for that first test.

The draws for the Dr McKenna Cup have yet to be made but it is known that the three dates for the group games will be Wednesday, January 4; Sunday, January 8 and Wednesday, January 11. There will be three groups of three games and each county will have two games.

The Donegal boss has had many trips to the county in the past few weeks with the first full-training session held on Friday night of last week at the Donegal GAA Centre in Convoy.

“From day one it has just been very, very busy. Assembling the backroom team, essentially you want the best people in their own field of expertise. There is nobody good at what they do that day sitting at home waiting on a ‘phone call,” says Carr, who added that they were happy with who they have got. 

“It has obviously taken a wee bit of time for people to free themselves up and be happy to come on board with Donegal. But that has happened,” he said, adding that he was very encouraged listening to the lads that are in  the frame for Donegal going forward and the commitment they are prepared to give.

“Like any other county, the senior panel is open-ended at the moment. We have brought in about a dozen other lads to have a look and see how they go as well. We have to be inventive in the way that we do that, because Croke Park have indicated that they don’t want any challenge matches during the month of December.

“We have to find another way of assessing lads,” said Carr, who paid tribute to those who have put the facility in Convoy at their disposal.

“It’s not that long ago when intercounty managers were being sent from pillar to post to get venues. It’s a tremendous facility and great credit to everyone that has got behind that project.”

The manager said that as of now who will be captain of Donegal has not been finalised. “That is something that will emerge in the coming weeks. It is a very significant role that was filled by Michael  (Murphy) over the past decade or so. That’s something that we will turn our attention to in due course.

“We would hope to have that in place towards the end of December, but we haven’t put any date on that. We are looking at the leadership that is there in the group at the moment and there is plenty of that,” said Carr, who paid tribute to Michael Murphy and the standards he had set during his term as captain.

The manager said that he had pretty much all of the backroom team in place now. “All the key elements in terms of the medical backup, the sports science, psychological backup. All of those key people are in place.

“But the reality is, and it is the same in most counties, ambitious intercounty footballers, and there are plenty of them in the Donegal dressing room, they want the best and we have to give them the best. They have to know that because of the type of commitment that is expected of these lads.”

The name of former international rugby player, Bernard Jackman, had been linked to the Donegal backroom team but Jackman quashed that rumour himself in a rugby podcast earlier this week. “I was as shocked as everyone else (when I heard that),” said Jackman, who said that he had worked with Aidan O’Rourke in the past. “I love GAA. There’s no story there at all. It was bizarre,” said Jackman.