Ryan McHugh: 'With Jim McGuinness involved, you are guaranteed to be competing'

Irish Daily Mirror

12 hours ago

Ryan McHugh stood in the tunnel underneath the Hogan Stand and prayed his time in purgatory was about to end.
It is 11 years since it began, 12 days shy of when it might be over. Now, like then, Kerry are blocking his path through Gaelic football's pearly gates.
Way back in 2014, he was a 20-year-old in his second inter-county season, convinced he was about to become the fourth member of the McHugh dynasty to grab an All-Ireland.
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Not so. Kerry got lucky, Donegal got silver medals and McHugh got to sit at the breakfast table with his brother Mark, who had won it in 2012, and his father, Martin - a winner alongside Ryan's Uncle James in 1992.
McHugh said: 'It was a very difficult experience for me in 2014. There is no point lying. I have actually never watched the game back.
'I was 20-years of age at that time and at that time in my life, I assumed I was going to be in semi-finals and in finals every year. But it took us until last year to even get back to an All-Ireland semi-final.
"Now that we have made it back to the final, we want to make the most of it because it could be another 11 years before we get back here again.
'The All-Ireland final is a big regret of mine but in terms of my career, but otherwise, I have had a great career and this could be the cherry on top of it all.
"But it is going to be massive. We are going to have to put in our best performance of the year as Kerry delivered unbelievable performances against Armagh and Tyrone and in David Clifford they have a phenomenal footballer, one of the best the sport has ever seen. We hope to come out on the right side.'
They have every chance of doing so because they too have a generational forward of their own in Michael Murphy, whose comeback from retirement has coincided with Donegal's resurgence as one of the game's superpowers.
Overlooking it all is Jim McGuinness, the only Donegalman to appear in all four of his county's All-Ireland finals, three as manager, one as a non-playing substitute in 1992.
McHugh says: 'What does Jim have? It is hard to put it into words. The way I like to answer this question is he brings it (energy and drive) every single night.
'I have been fortunate enough to be involved with him in an All-Ireland final. Yet he is on it from the first night we meet in December through to the final session of the season.
'And I know that sounds easy but it is actually an extremely difficult thing to do as you never know whether a person has problems off the pitch, a family issue, for example.
'But every single night, Jim is there, demanding the most of us, demanding we put in the best effort we can.
'It is not easy to get that. He is a phenomenal leader. He puts serious belief into you that you are on the top of your game. He gets the training done; gets fitness into the legs. There is no guarantee in life you are going to win. But when Jim is involved there is a good guarantee you are going to be competing.'
If the return of one legend was fortunate, the bonus decision of Murphy to come out of retirement smacked of careful planning.
McHugh said: 'Michael is similar to Jim. They have such great leadership qualities; the two of them bounce off each other so well.
'To be fair to Jim, he came in 2011 and made Michael captain even though he was just 21-years-old. If you think of that now, it is like Donegal making someone like Finnbarr Roarty captain.
'The trust he has in him is huge. He is a phenomenal person, Michael. And he is a phenomenal footballer, too. Everyone sees that.
'It has helped all the younger boys just watching him. Finnbarr Roarty would have been six, seven, eight when Donegal were in the finals in 2012 and 2014. Michael was his hero, his role model. I know myself that Karl Lacey was my hero. I just worshipped him. I followed him. And I was the exact same with Michael.'
McHugh added: 'In elite sports you look for one percents, two percents and Michael definitely adds that. Nobody knows what would have happened if Michael had been there last year but as a team and as a squad, we are delighted to have him back.'
Irrespective of whether an All-Ireland medal arrives into the McHugh house, the arrival of his first child, Senan, just three weeks ago, has already made 2025 a year to remember.
Little Senan was at Croke Park with mum Bridget on Sunday for Donegal's emphatic 20-point win over Meath, just as Mark was there in 1992 when dad, Martin, lifted the trophy.
McHugh junior says: 'I have grown up in a great GAA family. The GAA is our life. I remember going to matches with dad as a kid when he was working with BBC and RTE and meeting heroes, the Kieran McGeeneys of this world, Peter Canavan.
'We just love GAA; love playing it but we are supporters first and foremost and any opportunity we get, we just love to watch matches.
'So with regard to two weeks' time, thankfully life has given me another All-Ireland. I didn't play well in 2014 but we have an opportunity to put that right and hopefully we will take that.'