McIver's open approach is key to Donegal success

GAELIC GAMES:It's a 20,000 sell-out, a home venue, Donegal are favourites and manager Brian McIver must be thinking he'll be glad to get out of it alive. And that's if they beat Armagh. If Donegal lose he'd probably be better off not being born at all.

Of course that's a slight exaggeration, but if there was ever a game Donegal look primed to win then Sunday's Ulster quarter-final at Ballybofey is probably it. They haven't beaten Armagh since 1993, and having already delivered a first national league title last month, McIver is certain to be mobbed by the Donegal fans should they win.

McIver must know he's fast approaching hero status within the county, no easy feat for a man from the Derry-Tyrone border.

He must also know how fickle that hero status is when it comes to management, especially if league success is not transferred to the championship.

But like most management situations, it's far from a one-man show. When McIver was appointed in November 2005 he surrounded himself with three of the most successful club managers in Donegal - Michael Kelly of Four Masters, Pierce Coyle of Gweedore, and Francie Martin of Glenfin - as his selectors.

All three have played an important role in Donegal's progress over the past 12 months. Naturally, the ultimate responsibility for success or failure ends with McIver, and yet, as Kelly explains, the Donegal backroom team couldn't be any more professional. And they all have a role to play.

"Well Brian has been a very big influence on this team, obviously," says Kelly. "The main thing about Brian is that he's totally professional in everything he does. He's brought that to the whole backroom team, to the selectors, the trainer, everyone. Nothing is done short of professional and that really is because of his attitude.

"He did come in as something of an unknown. He wouldn't have known much about the club scene here either, but between myself and the two other selectors he was able to get that into his head fairly quick.

"And obviously Donegal had a bit of a reputation in terms of discipline, and that was the first thing he set out to address. He did have to make a few hard calls, but I think they're paying off now, because certainly that's not a problem anymore."

While McIver is running the show, he's not afraid to distribute the responsibilities - and that's clearly contributed to Donegal's new-found status: "It's a very open set-up," adds Kelly, "in that we all have our say, the selectors, the team trainer, everyone. Obviously Brian is the one who makes whatever calls that need to be made, but we're all involved in the discussion. We all do our bit on the training end as well and then we'd also have quite a say in the selection of the team.

"He also treats everyone exactly the same, which I think is very important. And when I say that I mean everyone from himself to the players to the kit man to whoever is driving the bus. He gives everyone the same respect and again that pays off."

McIver, in fact, further expanded his backroom team this year by bringing in Adrian McGuckin, one of his old Ballinderry cohorts from the days of the 2002 All-Ireland club success.

For Kelly, who managed his own club, Four Masters, between 2000 and 2004, the feeling now is that most of the hard work is done, and it's simply a matter now of Donegal going out and playing to the best of their ability.

"Things have been going well since winning the league title, and we're really just looking forward to the game now. Of course it's all about what happens on the day, that's something we're well aware of.

"We haven't had any problems keeping the momentum going, and in the weeks of the league semi-final and final we were training at great intensity, and getting the intense games to go with that. That beats anything you can do in training. If we hadn't made the league final we'd have been doing the same intense training, but without the games to go with it.

"We've actually enjoyed the last few weeks. There's big hype about the game, for sure. There's a capacity of 20,000 in the place and I'd say they could have sold another 10,000 tickets. We've been looking forward to having Armagh at this home venue for a while now."

Winning, it seems, is the only option for Donegal.