AFTER being turned down for Westmeath’s managerial job, a phone call from Rory Gallagher ensured Jack Cooney will still be busy this summer as Donegal’s new selector and coach.
This turnaround isn’t much of a change of scenery for the Westmeath man – his wife is from Kilcar. He said: “I’ve been up and down to Donegal for 20 years plus and we’ve been following the Donegal team for the last number of years.
“We haven’t missed many games and Rory has been involved in the Kilcar club team, so I would’ve been in and out following the Kilcar lads, watching them training and speaking to Rory a few times. We got chatting just before Christmas and it came together and he asked me to get involved.”
Cooney has experience of being a selector for an inter-county team – he was on the sideline with Páidí Ó Sé in 2004 when Westmeath won what remains their only Leinster title.
“It was a great experience, those were great times for Westmeath football,” he said.
“I was delighted for the lads that had been involved and for the supporters who got a chance to follow the team.”
The former Lake county midfielder had also been tipped to take the county job earlier this year but, for now at least, Donegal are his sole priority and Sunday’s Ulster SFC semi-final against Armagh his most pressing concern.
“I’m not thinking any further than the next training session and working towards Sunday, to be honest," Cooney added.
“It was just a strange turn of events, the Westmeath job didn’t work out and a few weeks later I was talking to Rory and things just went in a different direction.”
Cooney commutes from his native county for training sessions and is also involved during the week with the Dublin-based Donegal contingent. Not surprisingly considering their record in the last few years, Cooney has been impressed with the team’s application.
He said: “They’re very committed and they work hard, there’s no magic formula, it’s just hard work.
“They’re the words that are mentioned by any successful team in any given season – the two words that are used most frequently are hard work.”
Cooney’s first experience of Donegal coaching at Championship level was a titanic preliminary round tussle against Tyrone on May 17, and he affirmed that that match was on Donegal minds throughout the League.
“Coming off the back of the League, we were happy to stay up in Division One and to get a run out in Croke Park in the semi-final, but we were focused on the Tyrone match at the same time," he said.
“We just worked towards that and, wherever that result took us, that’s where we would go and it worked out for us, but it is an early time of the year to be focusing on such a big game.”
When Donegal won the All-Ireland in 2012, the team practically picked itself. The county has been particularly successful at underage level as well, and this is bearing fruit with the likes of Odhrán Mac Niallais and Ryan McHugh becoming established county stars.
Cooney believes the success of the senior team is contributing to the addition of new players in the county set-up: “I think any county that has had recent success, football within the county improves generally, younger players want to be involved and they see what can be achieved, so they have a shift in mindset and focus a bit more on their skills at underage.
“It’s the same with every county that has success, there’s a rippling effect right throughout the club scene when they have players within the county that can they look up to,” he said.
“That’s the great thing about the GAA, the club players are more or less within touching distance of the county scene.”
