Prior to the current era, there existed another period. Right after Donegal secured a victory over Louth in the All-Ireland quarter-final match a couple of weeks prior, an antsy Jim McGuinness was keen to wrap up his post-game media briefing to go outside and observe the contest between Kerry and Derry. He wished to have a fresh look at potential semi-final contenders from Donegal, but when informed by the GAA’s intricate arrangement for preventing repeat matches that the Champion of Ulster would be facing Galway, he seemed less anxious.
He questioned, “Really?” The crowd affirmed, causing Mcguinness to grin, “Alright, I am quite familiar with Pádraic Joyce.”
Joyce and McGuinness established a friendship while studying and playing Sigerson Cup football together in Tralee. This late ’90s bond persists. Joyce played for the university’s pioneering squad that clinched Tralee’s (known as Tralee Regional Technical College at the time) first-ever Sigerson Cup in March 1997. McGuinness returned to finish his Leaving Cert at the age of 24, following which he enrolled in a Health and Leisure course in Tralee. This decision turned out to be as much a football tutorial as any other learning.
In the subsequent season, Joyce and McGuinness made up a bright IT Tralee team which also comprised the Kerry duo of Seamus Moynihan and Mike Frank Russell, Galway’s Michael Donnellan, and Kildare’s Damien Hendy. The Sigerson Cup was won by them in March 1998.
A year later, McGuinness led the team to maintain the championship, and despite Joyce being barred during the finals’ weekend, he accompanied the group to Belfast. Val Andrews was the team manager for the 1997 and 1998 victories, while the reins were handed to Vinny O’Shea for the win in 1999. Father Pat O’Donnell served as college chaplain during this period, though he also acted as a general assistant with the football team. He was a selector for the 1999 squad.
Father O’Donnell later remembered, “Once you familiarised yourself with these two lads, it was clear they were natural leaders. You’d always know when Jimmy was walking down the hallway because the entire place would light up – he was indeed a larger than life figure.”
Joyce was known as an unassuming figure roaming the same hallway, but his demeanour masked his leadership qualities. He had a subtle way of asserting his authority. In contrast, others had different leadership styles. Now, they are not only adept coaches of football but also superb managers of people, displaying an impressive amount of empathy. As a result, they manage to extract the maximum potential out of their players.
People who had the privilege to play alongside Joyce in the 1996-97 Sigerson run were baffled at his omission from Galway’s consideration. His recognition came only after demonstrated success. Father O’Donnell fondly recalls his brilliant on-field performances in friendly matches, where he’d take audacious shots for the thrill of it or just dribble like the young Spaniard, Lamine Yamal, who played with utter spontaneity and energy.
Apart from the evident skill and determination on the pitch, Joyce was an epitome of discipline and organisation – even in his student accommodation where he’d devise a roster for duties such as cooking and cleaning. He and his peers were not just proficient footballers, but also dedicated scholars who never shied away from their project commitments.
“You can’t hope for organisation on the field if you’re not organised off it,” one of them, unrecalled, was praised for his commitment to hard work beyond football. They had a strong belief in this notion, and it’s reflective in their character.
McGuinness and Joyce remained in contact after their departure from Tralee, despite their lives moving in different directions.
Joyce continued to represent Galway while McGuinness took the managerial helm at Donegal in 2011 – however, both counties were on diverse paths and never had a direct competitive encounter.
Just a couple of months after McGuinness led Donegal to an All-Ireland triumph in September 2012, Joyce declared his retirement from intercounty football, with his final appearance being a qualifying loss to Antrim at Casement Park three months earlier.
This season, Galway played in Division One while Donegal was in Division Two. Thus, Sunday is anticipated to be the first time that McGuinness and Joyce will face each other at the sideline.
Certainly, it’s not the first time for McGuinness to share a field with Joyce and the Galway team. In the virus-affected 2020 season, he led a Galway training session in Tuam at Joyce’s request, which fuelled his curiosity about the Galway players. A brief online video captured McGuinness coaching the Galway players in a linear hand-pass drill, sparking irritation in both Joyce and McGuinness.
Eamonn Brannigan, one of the Galway players from that session, shared his intriguing observations on the Smaller Fish podcast. According to Brannigan, although McGuinness’ coaching wasn’t drastically different from any other coach he had encountered, it was the high intensity and high expectations that marked a different training level for him. He further reminisced about that training day, and wondered if such a rigorous workout was a routine part of Donegal’s strategy for their All-Ireland wins.
Ryan McHugh, who has a detailed experience of training under McGuinness, aligns with Brannigan’s observations. In his words, what set McGuinness apart was his relentless drive. McHugh highlighted that McGuinness radiated the same passion and dedication, whether it was before the All-Ireland final or at the initial meeting in December.
Fr O’Donnell recalled watching a Donegal game at Croke Park during his cancer treatment in the early 2000s, when a shout-out for him by McGuinness could be heard from the commentator Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh. The compassionate message gave him a morale boost and helped him through his recovery.
When McGuinness took up the managerial role at Donegal in 2011, Fr O’Donnell was convinced that their team would prosper. He was quite confident that the Anglo Celt Cup would be in Donegal’s hands in that debut year itself.
Fr O’Donnell draws upon an earlier conversation he had with a rowing friend to illustrate the significant role an individual can play in a team, paralleling this with how the cox steers a boat. He pointed to the example of Jimmy McGuinness, whose leadership despite Donegal’s recent underwhelming performances, according to Fr O’Donnell, had the potential to win them the Ulster championship and possibly more. A birthday bet placed for him on Donegal to win Ulster, around 8 or 9-1, is a sharp memory in his mind.
McGuinness’s stirring speeches as a captain in Tralee were so inspirational, he reminisced, that one could feel tingles on the back of their necks. As McGuinness returns for his debut season in managing intercounty, Joyce is heading into his fifth year Tyronesmen management. A clear transition in their playing style has been observed over this period.
Fr O’Donnell noted a year ago about Joyce’s leadership over Galway, which he splits into two parts; before and after the pandemic. Pre-Covid, Galway had implemented a highly traditional, dynamic, attacking style, and at one point there was talk of them potentially altering the trajectory of football.
However, when Covid hit and games resumed, Galway initially found it challenging. Yet during that period, the Galway management appeared to embrace the game’s prevailing trends of defensive structures and strategies of maintaining possession and established offence, displaying a sense of practicality.
Although they weren’t as thrilling as they had been under Joyce’s initial management, Galway, in time, has managed to become incredibly effective in their ‘version two.’ Come Sunday, McGuinness will have the chance to challenge Galway’s efficiency on the field.
In a recent press meeting following the Louth game fortnight ago, he hinted that if Donegal fails to seize the All-Ireland triumph this year, he would be in favour of Galway’s victory.
His words were, “If we’re not the victors, I’d feel immense joy for PJ and Galway, we’ve shared remarkable moments together,” as McGuinness mentioned.
Fr. O’Donnell isn’t shocked by McGuinness’s candid admiration for another team and team’s coach. “Jimmy is sincere about it,” he notes. Adding, “There’s an extraordinary mutual respect between them, they relate and comprehend each other well.”
However, both of them acknowledge that this weekend, their shared experiences in Tralee will have to be set aside for a while. Because come Sunday, there can only be one winner, and it’ll either be Donegal’s moment or Galway’s.