All-Ireland Senior Football Championship quarter-final preliminary round: Donegal 0-13 Tyrone 1-18
AIDAN O’Rourke has stepped down as Donegal manager following Saturday night’s All-Ireland exit to Tyrone and says it’s time to “hand it back for Donegal to find a Donegal solution.”
O’Rourke and Paddy Bradley took the reins towards the end of the National Football League campaign after Paddy Carr was ousted as manager.
With high player absenteeism and the tumultuous events at county committee level, the interim management team managed to steady the ship after suffering relegation and a surprise Ulster Championship exit to Down.
All-Ireland group wins over Clare and Monaghan gave them a fighting chance against a wounded Tyrone – but the Red Hands ultimately cruised into the quarter-finals in Ballybofey with a bit to spare.
Asked if he was considering staying on in Donegal, O’Rourke said yesterday morning: “No. Listen, halfway through the season we were asked to take on a job to try and support the players.
“We’ve done what was asked of us and we’ve done it to the best of our ability and we’re happy to hand it back now for Donegal to find a Donegal solution.”
Armagh’s 2002 All-Ireland winning defender added: “I’ll be going back to Dromintee U16s and spending a bit more time watching my kids playing. I’ve two daughters who are always complaining to me that I’m not at their matches, so I’ll be doing a lot of that over the summer.”
Shorn of 10 first-choice players for various reasons this year, O’Rourke acknowledged that he enjoyed coaching the Donegal players immensely despite all the noise outside of the camp following the well-documented fall-out at the county’s academy,
“The enjoyment came on the pitch, to be fair,” said O’Rourke.
“There’s a brilliant group of lads there. They are driven and they want to progress and you couldn’t have asked for any more from them on the pitch. That aspect of things is the bit I love about it. Once you’re on the pitch with the players and everyone’s focused, that really was enjoyable. There’s a lot of quality there, a lot of emerging quality too that needs moulding.”
