You know it’s coming up to championship time when the media are being frozen out but Donegal are taking measures of privacy and leak-prevention to a whole new level.
This week, Joe Brolly came back from a week off of writing with a bang. In his column in the Derry Journal, he uncovered information on the Donegal training weekend plan and, since, the country has been talking.
In his piece, he revealed that Donegal are hiring security to man their grounds in Belfast to ensure no-one can spy on them while training.
‘A short term job opening has arisen in Belfast,’ Brolly wrote.
‘The Donegal senior squad is travelling to the city on Thursday for a three-day training camp. They will be training at pitch number seven at QUB’s grounds at the Dub, on the upper side of the campus. They require three security personnel for the three days, to police the pitch and its surrounding woodland area.
‘Duties include a) stopping all vehicles that approach the perimeter of pitch seven; b) stopping all pedestrians, dog walkers, joggers and the like from being at a vantage point over the pitch at any time.’
It’s not uncommon for teams to want to keep their training away from the prying eyes of the public but perhaps this desire is better served when you’re training for three days in a place like the Dub in Belfast which has several GAA pitches, soccer pitches, sports halls and walkways.
On The GAA Hour, Colm Parkinson explained that this isn’t the first kind of blackout that he’s experienced from the Donegal camp recently.
“Do your main tactical stuff that you think is private in Ballybofey and lock the doors – that’s what any county with brains would do,” Wooly said.
“But this is the embarrassing thing about this. Somebody who’s now out walking their dog is now going to be asked by some security fella to stay away. It’s just farcical stuff. I don’t know what the story with Donegal is, I really don’t. I don’t understand why on earth they’re going down this road.
“I contacted the manager and a player recently and I would have a decent relationship with both of them and they both read the message and didn’t reply. And I saw an email that was sent around by the Donegal PRO that they’re doing a media day at the start of May and they won’t be answering any questions before or after that. Talk about being on lockdown, where has this come from?
“Do Donegal have new tactics for the summer that we didn’t see during the league? What can a spy find out outside of where they’re going to play Michael Murphy? But, Jesus, if a team’s playing Donegal, prepare for Michael being in the full forward line and prepare for him being out around the middle.
“Fair enough, we’ve kind of accepted that this kind of thing goes on if it’s in your county grounds and close the doors. But to go to a public university…”
Listen to the whole discussion below from 3:53.
