DECLAN BONNER has managed at the top level, but nothing quite could have prepared him to enter the realms of Under-21 management.
It is a grade that is generally accepted as the most frustrating of all. The fact that it’s win or bust from the off adds to both the intrigue and the pressure.
With several key players injured and preparations having been far from ideal, it is perhaps strange to find Bonner in positive tune ahead of tonight’s EirGrid Ulster Under-21 Championship meeting with Derry in Ballybofey (throw-in 8pm).
The Lettermacaward man has managed the Donegal senior team, in a reign from 1997-2000 that included the Ulster final defeat to Derry in 1998.
Two years ago, he guided the Donegal Minors to an Ulster title and an All-Ireland defeat to Kerry.
He’s almost gone full circle again and you wouldn’t put a return to the top job out of bounds for the 1992 All-Ireland winner.
He’s been a picture of torture in the last couple of months as his usually-meticulous preparations hit a series of road blocks from injuries, to college commitments of players, to weather-hit games.
You wonder: Why?
“It’s just there and it’s in the damn blood,” Bonner says of his history in management.
“Being half mad helps along the way: It’s good to put that on the CV.
On the day of his 32nd birthday, namely August 11, 1997, a flu-ridden Bonner sat upstairs in the Sean MacCumhaills clubhouse in Ballybofey.
The County Board were interviewing for the job and Bonner threw his hat in the ring.
It was getting late when Pat Conaghan, then the county chairman, appeared and informed him that he was the new Dongeal senior football manager.
“I learned a huge amount in that time with the seniors,” he says
“We were unlucky in 1998. We played some great football that year. We lost the League semi-final against Offaly, a very good Offaly team actually. We were beaten by a last-minute goal against Derry in the Ulster final. This is all part and parcel of it and we rolled on.”
He is without some of his lead performers for tonight’s game against Derry, who defeated Antrim seven evenings ago.
For one, his captain, Ciaran Thompson, will be absent because of a knee injury. Star forwards Darach O’Connor and Rory Carr are out with long-term injuries, cruciate and shoulder respectively, while the hamstrung Tony McClenaghan, Lorcan Connor, Bruce Waldron and Mark Coyle are all on the missing list.
“This will be tough, but we know that – even with the boys out – if we can perform we’re capable of winning the game,” Bonner says.
“We can talk all day about boys who are injured, but it’s the players who will take to the field that are important now. We expect everyone in our squad to be capable of performing at a decent level.
“It has been frustrating, don’t get me wrong. You take Lorcan Connor, for instance, who came back from an injury and broke down again. That was so hard.
“We’ve had to adapt and sort of had to change our style of play. We have done that and we’re happy with our system now.
“The thing is we just need to get over the line on Wednesday night.”
Donegal won the North-West Under-21 Cup this year in the first year of that competition. Having reached the final and drawn with Mayo in Sligo, they found Mayo reluctant to meet in a replay and, so, Sligo were put into a replayed final won by Donegal.
Derry overcame Antrim 0-16 to 0-11 last week. Fergal McCusker’s men were 0-12 to 0-3 in front at half-time.
Peter Hagan, Niall Loughlin, Aidan Keenan and accomplished freetaker Niall Toner are among the danger men for the Oak Leaf.
Jack O’Brien is set to captain Donegal tonight in Thompson’s absence and is one of those from Bonner’s ranks to have stepped into Rory Gallagher’s senior ranks this year.
O’Connor, Carr and Thompson, from those missing, are all part of the senior set-up, while O’Brien, Danny Rogers, Kieran Gillespie, Eoghan Ban Gallagher, Stephen McMenamin, Stephen McBrearty, Micheál Carroll and Caolan McGonagle have made their senior debuts.
“We’re just itching to get the game now,” Bonner says. “We’ve put an awful lot of time into this. Hopefully things will fall into place now. We have to treat this like a final.
“We have to bring our ‘A’ game from day one. Anything short of that won’t be good enough and anything short of that will mean we’re out.
“Championship does bring that pressure and these boys have been coached to cope with that. Most of these boys have been with us for three or four years now.
“The under-21s is a small window. This is just step one on a three-step mission with the Ulster final three weeks from now.”
Donegal Under-21 panel: Danny Rogers, Jack O’Brien, Kieran Gillespie, Conor Morrison, Eoghan Ban Gallagher, Conor O’Donnell, Eamonn McGrath, Stephen McMenamin, Michael Langan, Christian Bonner, Stephen McBrearty, Andrew McClean, Ciaran Thompson, Micheál Carroll, Jamie Brennan, Paddy Byrne, Danny Monagle, Bruce Waldron, Jack Scally, Cian Mulligan, Daniel Gallagher, Conor Doherty, Niall Friel, Adam Neely, John McDyre, Aodhán McGinley, Hugh Yank Boyle, Jack Quinn, Caolan McGonagle, Lorcan Connor, Mark Coyle.
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