THE decision by Donegal players to part company with their manager Paddy Carr was “difficult” but one that had to be made, according to Dáire Ó Baoill.
The Gaoth Dobhair man told a press gathering in Ballybofey that Paddy Carr understood that “it was for the benefit of the team”.
Carr stood down after a meeting with three senior players in Monaghan last month.
The three players were named as Patrick McBrearty, Hugh McFadden and Eoghan Bán Gallagher at a recent county board meeting.
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When asked if he was disappointed that the players were named at a county board meeting, Ó Baoill said:
“That is out of our control and the three lads had the backing of the squad.
“It was a decision that we had to make. And the minute it was released there was going to be a backlash and some people were not happy and at the end of the day it is a lot of noise outside of our group.
“We have a lot of experienced players on the team. Those older boys know that it is not the end of the world until championship comes and we have full belief in Aidan O’Rourke and Paddy Bradley and the work that has been done over the past few weeks.
“If anything, the matter has given us more bite and it is a bit of a cliché but when you have gone through something like that, other teams might not have had it so hard in terms of what was going on, on the outside of their own county boards.”
When asked if parting with the manager was the hardest decision that he and the squad had to make, he said:
“It was difficult as Paddy Carr, from the way he spoke and the love he has for Donegal, he understood that towards the end that for the benefit of the team to go in the right direction that tough decisions were going to be made.
“He stood by it and ultimately pushed on from it, and we have closed that door.
“When it happened, we knew it had to be closed pretty quickly and not let things linger.”
Ó Baoill agreed when it was suggested that the decision was possibly about doing the right thing as the squad saw it, rather than keeping the head down and doing the easy thing.
“That’s it, we know the level we can get at,” said the two-time Ulster championship winner.
“We have been at it for years and we know where we want to be and tough decisions have to be made.
“In other years it might have gone un-noticed and the timing of it was probably not perfect.”
This latest episode of player power resulted in Carr stepping away from his position after five months in the job with echoes of similar heaves in Fermanagh and Mayo in recent years.
When asked if the last few months had been the most difficult or challenging, Ó Baoill was drawn to their past experience of relegation.
“Yeah, there are a lot of questions asked but most are out of innocence, and I have been relegated before under Declan Bonner in my first year and back then it was the end of the world too until you realise a few weeks later it is only the League.
“It is all about the championship and Sunday is the focus.
“Yeah, at the time it was disappointing and there were a few results were very disappointing and there were a few games when we felt we had got through but faltered.
“We knew that coming to the end of the League, we knew it was something we could work on.”
Expectation in Donegal is at an all-time low so is that motivation for this squad to put down a marker and banish the blues of recent weeks and prove themselves after they parted company with their manager?
“As a player you are within the group, and we are always looking to get the best out of each other and even leaving Convoy we are still in touch with each other and are within our bubble.
“It is important for us to know that there are people out there who are behind us 100 per cent especially when results are not going our way.
“We are looking to getting all of those green and gold supporters coming to Newry on Sunday.”
Given all the turmoil swirling in the background in the county, he feels that it has made the group tighter.
“Yes 100 per cent,” said Ó Baoill.
“There is a lot of background noise that is out of our control and every man has an opinion and there is nothing we can do about it but our focus has always been getting to Convoy four or five times a week and that we are switched on to that.
“The building could be burning behind you and you are still focused on the pitch.”
