THE DONEGAL senior football squad will embark on a five-day training camp during the Allianz League break next month.
Manager Rory Gallagher and his squad will fly to Tenerife in mid-February, it has been confirmed.
Donegal have games against Down and Cork before they have a three-week break from competitive action and, during that window, they’ll spend time in a training camp.
Picture caption: Donegal manager Rory Gallagher with Donegal treasurer Cieran Kelly and Donall Barrett Sales Director MCR Group at the launch of the new Donegal jersey yesterday. Picture by Geraldine Diver.
“We’re heading on a trainning camp during the break in the league so we want to be going there in good spirits with at least two, and hopefuilly four points on board,” Gallagher told Donegal Sport Hub.
“Whatever changes we’re implementing in our style of play we’ll have a couple of competitive games under our belt.
“We have a lot of younger lads too and integration for them was a big part of it. We’ll get a lot of scope to talk about things and also get some time on the training field.”
Two years ago, in April 2014, Donegal spent a week at a training camp in Portugal and later that year, Jim McGuinness spoke of its importance ahead of the All-Ireland final against Kerry.
‘When you get away for four or five days, then it’s like the icing on the cake,’ he said at the time. ‘It’s the thing that pulls it all together. You can sit down and have a chat with somebody and you can ask, ‘Do you understand that?’
‘If you are going with a certain set of kick-outs for that game, you can say, ‘Do you understand that’ and you can have that conversation. And you can get clarity on it.
‘Whereas, if you going to training, you do something on the training pitch, you go back into the dressing-room, you get a bite to eat and they are all shooting off in a hurry, you don’t get that.’
Training camps were regular in McGuinness’ tenure with Johnstown House and Lough Erne utilised. Last year, Gallagher and his squad had a training camp prior to their Ulster SFC opener against Tyrone, but did not head to foreign climbs.
In February last year, the 2014 squad spent a week in Dubai on holiday.
Gallagher said: “The dynamic was different last year. We feel that we have more work done this year. We have more fresh blood in and the way it falls with the break, the boys went away on the holiday last year and found the time good.”
