AS Grainne McElwain probes at Davy Byrne about Dublin’s celebration of this year’s Leinster title, the smile breaks across Hugh McFadden’s face.
Sat on the stage in Scotstown’s clubrooms, Byrne makes the discussion benign. ‘Our focus was very quickly on the next game’, etc.
The host then turns the same question to McFadden.
“We were focussing on how quickly we could get back to the Abbey Hotel.”
The Donegal changing room has long been aware of his larger-than-life character. McFadden dominated the stage in Monaghan and when he enters the bar almost an hour later to sit down with the hacks, he fills it with energy.
The Killybegs man, who joined the setup in 2013, bounds in with the enthusiasm of a faithful Labrador that’s just seen its master, joking and jabbing. You sense that there’s an endearing lack of fear which means he knows no other way than to be civil.
There’s also a keen awareness of how good he has things right now as a Donegal footballer.
The stat has been well-worn recently that Michael Murphy’s raising of his fifth Anglo Celt as Tír Chonaill captain brought him into line with the whole rest of the county’s history, which had seen them win only five prior to 2011.
“We are humble enough to know and we have had enough dark days that when you do get an opportunity to lift something like that, you have to enjoy it for all it is worth.
“There are men in our group who have lost three u21 finals and three senior finals, and I suppose those dark days make you appreciate when you are lucky enough to get up the steps in Clones too.”
Having won Ulster last year, they were dealt a blow when Karl Lacey announced he was leaving the setup last autumn. But within a matter of weeks, not only was Lacey back but Stephen Rochford had been added.
“I suppose one thing that he has brought is that he is not from Donegal or Ulster or pigeon holed into thinking the way we are all accustomed to and he is seeing it from a different point of view.
“He was on the touchline for Mayo last year planning against us, so it will be interesting to see what he will be thinking in terms of who is going well or this player will try to expose this here.
“And where do you start with Karl Lacey and Donegal? When you have a player who has done it and walked the walk and he is coaching you is great help for us to plan our preparations around.”
While they won Ulster last year, Donegal weren’t given the same level of credit for it as this time. The fact that they hadn’t encountered with Tyrone or Monaghan in 2018 diluted their success a bit.
This time, they’ve blitzed the Red Hands and destroyed Cavan in the decider, leading to people talking them up as Dublin’s closest challengers.
Declan Bonner last week denounced that as “rubbish”, and while McFadden is not naïve enough to read into it with any great depth, he feels the relatively small margins of victory in the real big games is a possible window of opportunity.
“In the last few weeks we have been reading reports about the financial backing they receive. These things give Dublin an added preparation value but what gets lost is the sheer quality of player they have in their squad.
“They have some of the best footballers that ever played the game and when it comes down to that crunch final 10 minutes in an All-Ireland final, they have the know how and the expertise to show that they are ahead of us.
“At the same time, people talk about their dominance, and that is evident, but they won a couple of those All-Ireland finals by one point. It is not as if they are winning them by nine or 10 points.
“Last year, Tyrone were absolutely phenomenal in the first 20 minutes until they conceded 1-3 and that gave Dublin the platform to go on and win the game.”
