The Donegal team that made history five years ago is slowly being chiselled away.
That is the reality of top-level sport. Teams come in waves, success is cyclical and, often, a group only reaches its peak potential when the key figures have been around the block.
This was true of Jim McGuinness’s revolutionary Donegal team that claimed Sam Maguire in 2012, won three Ulster titles and inflicted the last Championship defeat on Dublin back in 2014 in that amazing semi-final.
Colm McFadden, Eamon McGee, Rory Kavanagh, Christy Toye and David Walsh have all walked away recently and, on Monday, the Donegal Twitter account confirmed the news that many fans would have feared.
Rory Gallagher has today confirmed that due to injury Neil Gallagher has retired from Inter County Football. Thank you Neil for all you did
— CLG Dhún na nGall (@officialdonegal) February 20, 2017
The county have lost their totemic and inspirational midfielder Neil Gallagher and, while nobody is irreplaceable, his will be giant boots to fill.
Manager Rory Gallagher has expanded on his namesake’s departure, confirming that it was definitely not by choice. The spirit was willing, the flesh that has seen more battles than most of us have had hot dinners was just not up to another trip around the intercounty sun.
“The will was 100 per cent there from Big Neil,” said Gallagher on the Donegal Sports Talk podcast.
“He was mad keen to go, but he just wasn’t able to shake off the back injury. He was working away in the gym, but he wasn’t symptom free and he’s going to take a period of rest to see if he can get back to a level for club football.
“All he knows is Donegal for the last 13 years. The hunger was there, commitment wasn’t an issue and he was enjoying it. It’s just not to be.”
Gallagher’s retirement, on top of the absence of Odhrán McNiallais and Leo McLoone, begs the question: Who the hell is going to play midfield for Donegal?
Cloughaneely’s Jason McGee and Hugh McFadden of Killybegs have started the first two National League matches but Donegal may need an experienced head around the middle.
They are in short supply following a raft of departures, with captain Michael Murphy the most likely candidate to fill the slot left by Gallagher’s departure.
Donegal, like Mayo and Aidan O’Shea, have a conundrum over where best to play their talisman. Ideally Murphy would be positioned closer to goal, where he can do things like this.
But then, he is also the best man to play that ball into the full-forward line. In a perfect world Donegal could clone Murphy, but there is only one Michael Murphy and he may be spending this summer around the middle of the park.
