Eoghan O’Donnell: ‘Dublin’s footballers were giving us the secret all along’

Eoghan O’Donnell got to peek behind the curtain this year. The Dublin footballers are prime time, a main-stage headline act. And for a few weeks he had a backstage pass.

O’Donnell captained the Dublin hurlers in 2022, but shortly after their championship ended he was invited to train with the county’s footballers.

One of the best hurling full-backs in the country, O’Donnell plays in football as a forward for his club, Whitehall Colmcille. He was part of Dessie Farrell’s football squad post Leinster SFC and featured off the bench as a late sub in their All-Ireland quarter-final win over Cork.

He was also among the subs for the semi-final against Kerry, but did not see game-time.

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His involvement with the football sparked fears among the capital’s hurling aficionados that they were about to lose their captain to the big ball game on a more permanent basis.

And while O’Donnell has reassured hurling folk that he intends to focus on hurling again in 2023, he has not ruled out another spell with the footballers in the future.

“Firstly, I’d have to speak to Dessie and see if it was something that he wanted as well, but I certainly wouldn’t be closing any doors,” says O’Donnell. “I play football and hurling, I love both a massive amount, so if the opportunity ever came up again I would have to strongly consider it.”

The experience of training with one of the most successful intercounty squads in the country can only prove to be beneficial for O’Donnell. Still, one of the big takeaways for him was not how different the set-up was to the hurlers, but rather how many similarities there were.

“The footballers, in every interview you see from them, they talk about a player-driven environment and the culture of the team,” states O’Donnell.

“Sometimes I used to think they were avoiding questions, but it turns out they were actually giving us the secret all along and that is what it is, it was an environment where the players all had opinions on how to get better and they all acted on those opinions.

“It was not simply showing up to training and being instructed by a coach that this is the drill. There was a thought process behind it. What do we do in this drill? How does this drill help me? How can I help this drill? How can I get better before training? How can I get better after training?

“It was just such a competitive environment between the players to get better all the time. I think the footballers are doing what everyone else in the country is doing, but maybe doing it slightly better.

“Or maybe they have been doing it for slightly longer. With the hurlers, we are not doing anything massively different, we just need to get slightly better at it.”

The more challenging aspects of the switch for O’Donnell included becoming proficient at the tactical side of the game, learning the names of plays and figuring out the various systems the Dublin footballers used during matches.

And that is that level of detail Micheál Donoghue is expected to bring to the hurlers. The 2017 All-Ireland winning Galway manager has succeeded Mattie Kenny at the helm in the capital and has started work in advance of January’s Walsh Cup.

“When we first met him, he said exactly the same thing, that this would be a player-driven camp and it is really up to the players to drive what direction we want to go,” adds O’Donnell.

Which, as you’d expect, is up the ladder. The Dublin hurlers have plateaued somewhat in recent seasons, never quite kicking on and challenging for major honours after their league and provincial triumphs under Anthony Daly. Next season will mark the tenth anniversary of their most recent Leinster final victory.

“It’s been the story of my career that we just haven’t maybe reached the potential we would have liked,” admits O’Donnell.

“Mattie is a really great guy, first of all, his care for the team was unbelievable and every player there knew that whatever Mattie could do to help someone, hurling related or not, would be done.

“He had a great hurling mind and is just one of these people that lives and breathes hurling. Unfortunately we didn’t get to where we wanted to go.”

O’Donnell feels the hurlers are not far away from a significant breakthrough and hopes the arrival of Donoghue might prove to be the catalyst for success.

“I look at culture the same way that you look at gym work. It’s something you have to repeat to get better at,” he suggests.

“You can go to the gym and lift a certain amount of weight, there’s other people doing the same exercise at a slightly stronger weight and I think culture is the same thing. We’re doing all the right things, we just need to get slightly better at it.”

Eoghan O’Donnell was speaking at the unveiling of eir as a new sponsor of the GAA All-Ireland senior hurling championship