Meet Ryan McHugh, the 20-year-old veteran
The Kilcar man might well be preparing for his third season with the Donegal seniors but it feels like he has been around this block already. A few times.
That’ll happen when you’re playing for five different teams.
The 2014 Young Footballer of the Year is perhaps the best example of the urgent need to address the GAA calendar. McHugh doesn’t just represent the Donegal machine which made it the whole way to the third Sunday of September last year. Far from it. Somewhere in that mayhem, he finds time for Sligo IT, he guides the county U21s to the Ulster final and, when all that looks to be about over, he’s back out with his club again. Then he has the club U21s on top of that, of course.
In all, the wing forward would’ve been lucky to have gotten two full weeks of a break last year but, whilst he admits that it’s tough, he’s bloody loving it all the same. It’s the price he’s paying to play football every week. That’s what he wants to do.
“It’s not easy but you need good time management and you need good co-operative managers and I’ve been lucky enough to have that as a footballer,” McHugh reflected on his commitments. “My dad’s managing the college team and Rory [Gallagher] is in now [with Donegal] and they would get on good enough, the two of them. It’s not easy sometimes to fit everything in, to fit your gym in and other stuff – your lifestyle, your girlfriends and everything! It’s not easy but, listen, that’s what you sign up for at the start of the year. I enjoy it anyway.
“I’m loving playing football for Donegal, playing football for Sligo IT and playing football for Kilcar. My dad keeps telling me, ‘it’s a short career, enjoy every minute of it.’
“Even going up in the car, myself and Paddy (McBrearty), we’re not the oldest boys but it seems as if we’ve been out and about for a long time, it’s crazy. I don’t know how Michael Murphy and Neil Gallagher and Neil McGee and them boys feel. But I’m enjoying every minute of it. You have to be enthusiastic going to training. If you don’t want to be there and you’re not enjoying yourself, there’s no point being there.”
As calls grow louder to finish the club championship in the calendar year, rather than in March of the next year, McHugh feels it’s time for a change of some sort but he admits that he’s glad he’s not burdened with that task.
“It is a long season at the minute, especially for a young lad. I’m in the thick of it at the minute,” he explained. “We were lucky enough to get to the Donegal club final with the U21s and that was played on the December 20th. I think I had about two weeks off and then you’re back training again. I haven’t really had a break and it’s probably something to look at but it’s not easy for the men at the top to try and figure it out when there’s so much football to be played. There are probably a few wee twigs they could make to it to try and help but, again, it’s not easy. I can understand their headaches.
“It’s going to have to come from the top, from GAA headquarters. I think everybody should just be the same. If we’re playing Derry next weekend, the Derry players should be doing the same as the Donegal players. Someone at the top overlooking it all. If we have a game with Tyrone coming up, the Tyrone players are playing for the club as well as the Donegal players so one’s not doing different.”
The demands on a modern day county player are no secret anymore. But only Rory Kavanagh decided to call it a day with Donegal before the 2015 campaign. Just one. Something is bringing the rest of them back week in, week out, year in and year out. In spite of the slog. Something is bringing them back specifically for the slog.
“I think they just want to play for Donegal,” young McHugh pondered. “The love for Donegal is unbelievable and it’s one of the first things I noticed when I came into the panel in 2013, they just love playing for Donegal. You talk about All-Ireland medals, I think everyone wants to push on now and try to do what the Tyrones and Dublins and Kerrys of this world have done by winning another one and win a few more Ulsters if we can. Rory Kavanagh is going to be a huge miss. He’s, in my opinion, one of the best players in Ireland – or was anyway – he’s an unbelievable player and he was probably Donegal’s best player in the club championship last year.”
It’s more than the hunger though that’s driving the men from the hills. It’s more than the attitude or even a state of mind. The culture is shifting in the north west and Jim McGuinness’ revolution is turning into a legacy.
“It’s cool – if you want to call it that – to play Gaelic Football in Donegal now,” the Kilcar player stated. “It’s becoming the number one sport which is good to see. It’s just everywhere you go, just walking around everyone has a smile on their face, they want to say hello and chat about football and long may that last. It’s a huge soccer county but even up in Inishowen and around that area, Gaelic’s becoming a big sport. There are people playing the two sports now when they might only have played one a while ago but it’s good times in Donegal at the minute and, to be fair to Jim, he instilled that belief in people that it’s going to be good to play Gaelic Football for Donegal and you might get a bit of success if you put the work in.”
The gold and green might be under different direction this year with McGuinness’ former assistant Rory Gallagher taking over the reins but there’s also a new player back in the panel who missed all of last season’s championship. Ryan McHugh hasn’t seen his brother Mark play in the McKenna Cup yet but he’s happy he’s back. Even if it means the two of them wrestling for that number 12 jersey they have both served with such distinction.
“On all reports, he’s playing alright. He’s happy to be back in the Donegal jersey. He enjoyed his break away but he’s glad to be back now and he’s enjoying himself.
“It’s not just us [fighting for places], there’ll be competition between every player. I would say Donegal’s not the only squad like that. I’d say in every squad in Ireland there’s competition for places and you need that in Gaelic Football nowadays. You need men pushing you on and the new men coming into the panel, they’re going to want to get as much game time as possible – we were all the same when we first came into the panel. You need that, the wee bit of competition will do us no harm.”
The nature of the beast though is that comparisons will always be drawn. The GAA loves nothing more than a good sibling story but Ryan insists that there is no shadow being cast from his All-Ireland-winning older brother.
“I didn’t set out at the start of the year or anything to try to be known as ‘Ryan McHugh’,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do about people comparing you. Me and Mark always be chatting about that at the house, there’s nothing you can really do. We’re not the only ones. As [Bernard] Brogan says, he’s known as a brother. The McGees are known as brothers, the Ó Sés, it’s just the way it is, you know. But it’s not an ambition of mine to be known as ‘Ryan McHugh.’ I don’t really mind what I’m known as, as long as Donegal’s winning.”
Donegal kick-start Setanta Sports’ Allianz League coverage with a tasty Saturday night clash in Ballybofey when they welcome neighbours Derry to town. The win over last year’s Division One finalists in the opening round of the championship was the springboard for another provincial title in 2014 and McHugh thinks it will be another battle come January 31st.
“It’ll not be easy,” he said. “But I’m looking forward to it, I can’t wait for the league and to get back into playing football again. It’s nice playing games week in and week out.
“It was a big game [the Derry championship game]. Derry had done exceptionally in the league. They got to the final in a very tough league last year. They were going in as favourites. But we went up that day and Jim had us well prepared, we had a game plan and thankfully it went our way on the day. But it could’ve went either way. It was tough up there in Celtic Park, we knew going up there it was going to be very tough. But thankfully it went our way and we got the victory.
“Division One is a tough league this year. There’s probably all the top teams in the country in it but that’s where you want to be. You want to be playing the best teams in Ireland and see where you’re at.”
Sure by the time the league wraps up, Ryan McHugh won’t just have had the minimum of seven senior county games in Division One to see where he’s at. He’ll have an U21 championship under his belt, a Sigerson Cup tilt and maybe the odd game thrown in there with Kilcar as well. May must seem like a lifetime away for the 20-year-old right now.
But a lifetime of football? That’s one well spent to a McHugh. It’s one even better spent to ‘Ryan McHugh’. That’s what he’s known as.
