Football the priority for Kilcormac-Killoughey club man Donoghue

CATHAL Donoghue is a very rare species indeed – a Kilcormac-Killoughey club man whose favourite sport is football, the code where he sees his future in and will commit fully to.

A key member of the Offaly U-20 football team that will play Roscommon in the All-Ireland U-20 final on Sunday, Donoghue's emergence has been watched with great interest. He is an exciting prospect with great movement on and off the ball and a powerful engine that enables him to cover considerable ground.

He had been brought onto the Offaly senior football panel by John Maughan earlier this year but an injury meant that he didn't get any game time here in the league. He will almost certainly play at that level in the future but at the moment, it is all about the U-20s. He has been excellent at wing forward for them, working hard, carrying ball, setting up scores and moving to midfield when needed out there during games.

His emergence has enticed people as he comes from a club where hurling is very much the priority and often they only pay lip service to football. Particularly at adult level where they scarcely train and at times only go through the motions, even if they generally retain the ability to win championships down the ranks in intermediate and junior level, when back that far. It can be a different story at underage level where Kilcormac/Killoughey have fielded some fine sides and just last weekend, they won the 2020 U-15 Football Championship.

The vast majority of their players tend to head down a hurling path once they hit adult ranks but Donoghue has been different. He played senior hurling for Kilcormac-Killoughey last year, coming on as a sub in their semi-final win over Belmont and he is likely to play senior hurling this year. Yet it is telling that both him and Kilcormac-Killoughey have been agreeable to the delayed 2020 senior hurling final against St Rynagh's going ahead this Saturday, even if they could have got a postponement because of Donoghue.

He is also a fine hurler and he played U-20 hurling for Offaly last year. He was eligible to play for them again this year but his U-20 manager Declan Kelly told players that they had to opt for one or the other. Donoghue chose football as did Ferbane's Cathal Flynn and Shannonbridge's Aaron Brazil, who also featured for the hurlers last year. Tullamore's Luke Egan opted for hurling.

Donoghue has grown up in the Blueball, little more than a stone's throw from the border with Shamrocks but football has always been in his DNA. His father Sean is a Kildare man, his mother Brenda a Galway woman and it is through his mother's side of the family that he really developed his passion for football. She is a Tierney from Galway and Donoghue's first cousin Matthew Tierney is one of the stars of Galway football while another, Enda is also a fine player and has played for them.

They are from the Oughterard club and Donoghue attributes his footballing emergence at least partly to them. “Watching them playing football growing up, I would have played football with them so I always had an interest in football. Even underage in the club, we've a good football set-up. We'd compete at times. I always had a great interest in football. I played both all the way up but this year I decided to step away from the Offaly Under 20 hurling to focus on this fooball and it's after working out alright.”

He admits that it was a hard decision to step away from the county U-20 hurlers. “Absolutely. I love the hurling. Even last year after playing for them after we were knocked out of the football and then going back to the club I was flying fit for hurling. It was tough to choose one or the other but I thought I would go with football, especially being with the seniors, getting plenty of football so I said I might as well stick with the football.”

He accepted the manager's call that they had to play one or the other and stressed that it was their own choice then. “It was up to us really. Dec (Declan Kelly) said that to us, it was up to us which one you'd want to go with. You couldn't do both this year, championship was so condensed and trying to train for both it would have made you no good for either.”

Playing football for Kilcormac/Killoughey could prove a handicap as he progresses into adult ranks but it shouldn't be a big problem for him. He won't get the intensity of training and quality of football at club level that many of his colleagues will have but he has loads of football under his belt and will get a lot more in the Offaly senior panel next year. He came into the Offaly football and hurling development squad system at U-13 level but as he has got older, the toll of doing the two has told.

“I was in it from the start. I was in both from Under 13 all the way up and in both all the way up to this year and I just decided to do the football. I found last year doing senior and both Under 20 codes, it's tough going, a lot of training and then getting back to the club, it was a bit too much really.”

Is it hard being from a club that is unlikely to put a focus on adult football?

“It is tough. We have the team that could win and get promoted to Senior B and compete. It's just about really putting in the training and finding the time and if they're willing to split it with hurling and football.”

His footballing future will also be helped by a football scholarship to NUIG where he will study Commerce and he confirmed that football is his priority from now on. “ I'll play club hurling but football is going to be my game now. I'll see how it goes with college.”

Now he has the biggest day of his career looming in front of him. An injury to the captain, Kieran Dolan meant that he took on that responsibility for the Leinster final, receiving the cup, and the All-Ireland semi-final win over Cork. He is thrilled at what they have achieved to date.

“Unbelievable really. I suppose at the start of the year we set out one goal, it was to get to a Leinster final and we knew if we'd get there we'd have a fair chance of winning it. So we completed that goal and now we're just pushing on to see how far we can go.”

He agreed that Offaly have improved with every game. “Every performance has been a step up and with the games being so close together, we were just in form the whole time for football and it's just going well. Every game was improving, the football's improving, the backs are sharpening up, the forwards are sharpening up. Even over the last few games like we've been more clinical, we're taking our goal chances and starting to really show form.”

What did it feel like after beating Dublin in the Leinster final? “It was unbelievable. We coudln't believe we were Leinster champions. It was unreal coming back to Tullamore and having a cup. Even at the match, the support that was there was unbelievable, the noise being made, to see the Offaly people so happy to see us up on those steps was unreal.”

Was it hard to come back down to earth after that? “It wasn't too bad. Ger (Rafferty) and Declan brought us straight back down to earth. We were training again Saturday and the boys, to be fair to them, trained fierce hard and we knew we had to set our eyes on Cork. We knew they were the best team to come.”

Offaly were underdogs for the Cork game but produced their best performance of the season. “We knew they'd be the best team in it. They fairly beat Kerry and they destroyed Tipp and we knew they were the best of the rest. We watched a lot of their game. They're a high scoring team so we had to focus on stopping them scoring goals, putting pressure on their points. We seen the other day the backs were unbelievable. Any breaking ball, we were winning it, they just forced them to take tough shots and that's what won it in the end of the day for us.”

Donoghue knows there is a great window of opportunity for Offaly to make history. “It's unreal to be there. I still can't believe it at all. We're in the All-Ireland in two weeks time. It's just madness.”

He can't wait to play in Croke Park. “It is a whole different ballgame. I remember being up there with the seniors for the Derry game and I was like a tourist up there. We need to keep our feet on the ground and keep our heads grounded and just focus on the task at hand when we get up there and not stray from it.”

He was asked about the injury he picked up earlier in the year with Offaly seniors. “We were in training here in O'Connor Park and I went up for a high ball and came down and landed wrong and kind of got my standing leg taken out. I was fairly fearful at the start, I thought it was bad enough, I heard it pop when I came down. But the boys sorted me out, got me straight up to Santry and it turned out it was just a bit of cartilage damage, it wasn't too serious, I was out for two or three weeks and back then. I came back at the perfect time for Under 20, not the perfect time for the seniors.”

Donoghue enjoyed training under John Maughan and it has whetted his appetite for more. “John Maughan's brilliant. He definitely taught us a lot. Even we notice going back to the Under 20, the pace John Maughan had us at, it was just different level. Even football wise, IQ wise, he'd be teaching you a few things. He'd play me wing forward in there and I play wing forward with the Under 20s, just keeping the space, giving the boys inside room, holding your run back, he'd be teaching you all that. Really good to learn from.”

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