Re-enter Jim McGuinness.
The younger McHugh sibling took a step back in 2023, hoping to finally sort out some lingering injury issues including a groin problem. In his absence, the year itself was a recurring nightmare for Donegal, marked by league relegation, managerial upheaval, an erratic championship and off-field turbulence.
Watching on, Mark McHugh was “fearful” for what the future held.
“If things were going to go the way they were seeming to go last year, no matter how good a player you were, no matter how good form you were in, Donegal weren’t really going anywhere,” he said, speaking as an AIB ambassador ahead of tomorrow’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final date with Galway.
“I always knew Ryan is a top player, and he’s still only turned 30 this year so he’d still a lot to give. But he and the rest of the Donegal squad needed Jim McGuinness and there’s no point in saying any different.
“It gave them all a kick to get started again. Got everybody in the physical shape that they needed to be in to play at this level. And, yeah, sometimes a bit of R&R . . . you just feel refreshed.
“Ryan had been about a long, long time with no real break,” the 2012 All-Ireland winner reminded. “The way Ryan plays, it’s all or nothing. He’d come in for a lot of hard hits throughout his career as well. You know, he suffered sometimes from head injuries and stuff like that.
“So the wee break definitely did him a world of wonders last year; it rejuvenated him.
“But I think everybody in Donegal was rejuvenated with the incoming of Jim McGuinness.”
The collective benefits are tangible: immediate promotion back to the top flight, a Division 2 title, a stunning return to the Ulster summit, and now a genuine shot at reaching the county’s first All-Ireland final since 2014.
That year, a 20-year-old Ryan McHugh stunned Dublin with a 2-2 salvo in their shock-and-awe semi-final ambush of the holders. All-Stars followed in 2016 and ’18, and now this year’s renaissance leaves him strongly placed to win a third award.
His long-retired big brother, himself an All-Star in 2012, cuts to the heart of why McGuinness makes them tick. “If you’ve sat in a room with him and I’ve sure you have, you come away feeling unbelievable. So those players with him four or five times a week, that’s the reason they’re all the way they are,” he explains.
“It’s the thing Jim McGuinness brings to it, that sense of invincibility.
“If you had the best 15 players over the last 20 years in one team and they were playing a Donegal team managed by Jim McGuinness – this is all I can say from my own experience – you would think you’re going to beat them. And not even that you’re going to beat them; like, you’re going to beat them pretty easy.
“It’s a strange feeling. It’s a great feeling,” he expands. “It’s just that air of confidence. And it’s not an arrogance – it’s pure and utter confidence. And you know that if you carry out what he and his management team have said to do, you’re like, ‘We can’t lose this game..’
“And listen, I’ve lost games with Donegal under Jim McGuinness – but it’s just before the game, every single game I ever went into under him, you’re like, ‘There’s absolutely no way we can lose this match, if we do what he said to be done’.
“I would love to know how he does it, because it would make me a far better coach than maybe I am.”
