Football

Donegal seek replacement for Karl Lacey

Karl Lacey (left) has left Donegal's backroom team. Picture by Seamus Loughran
Karl Lacey (left) has left Donegal's backroom team. Picture by Seamus Loughran Karl Lacey (left) has left Donegal's backroom team. Picture by Seamus Loughran

DONEGAL are on the lookout for a new defensive coach after Karl Lacey stepped away from the management setup.

The 2012 Footballer of the Year had gone straight out of playing and into Declan Bonner’s backroom team when he retired at the end of 2017.

The Four Masters clubman had originally opted out of the role after his first year, citing work commitments, but had a quick change of heart in the weeks after Stephen Rochford was added to the setup.

Lacey returned to add considerably to an impressive management team headed by Bonner and imbued by Rochford.

Leading the defensive end of coaching as well as working one-to-one with players, Letterkenny YIT lecturer Lacey has now stepped away citing his work and family commitments.

Donegal are already on the lookout for a new head of strength and conditioning following the decision of Paul Fisher to leave the role he had held for six years.

He told The Irish News recently that he would have willingly gone into a full-time position as head of performance but with no role currently in existence in Donegal, he had to step away from the part-time role.

“Look at the other top teams now, they have made that investment, they have invested in a high-performance coach or an athletic-development coach and it’s not just for the senior football, it’s from the top right down,” he said.

“They’ll be putting structures in place in terms of academy, the hurlers… not just the senior football.”

“Everybody is asking: How are we going to close the gap with Dublin? As long as they have somebody spending 40 hours a week doing a job, versus somebody in Donegal who can only do six or seven… It’s a big difference. There’s a massive amount of work you can do if you have 40 hours a week to commit to it.

“Maybe if a full-time role was in place I mightn’t have been the man for the job but it would be an important role. It didn’t come up and I don’t see it changing any time soon unfortunately.

“We’ve just got the training centre off the ground and that was a big focus in the county for a while. They (the Donegal county board) have other things to look after first and foremost and that’s the way it’s going to be.

“But going forward, most inter-county teams are going to have to look to do bring in full-time staff because if you’re looking for a professional service for players your coach has to be looked after in the sense that they don’t have to work three other jobs to make ends meet and look after a county team as well,” he said.