When Brendan Rogers looked across the border into Donegal at times this summer, he saw a squad struggling for inspiration, maybe even questioning itself.
And while Donegal dallied, he and Derry took full advantage, pushing through for back to back Ulster SFC titles and a creditable run at the All-Ireland.
Now, the Derry midfielder concedes, things have got a whole lot more interesting, and challenging, close to home with the return of Jim McGuinness to the Donegal hot seat.
He views the second coming of the 2012 All-Ireland winning manager as a “Godsend” for Donegal who, he expects, will quickly shed any inferiority complex and believe that everything is suddenly attainable for them again.
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That doesn’t necessarily augur well for Derry’s bid for a first ever three-in-a-row of Ulster titles in 2024.
“Do I think it’ll be a massive impact for them? 100 per cent,” said Rogers, the PwC GAA/GPA Footballer of the Month for July. “I think it will be very positive. It will go from them thinking, “Down to Division 2, it’s been a bit of a rough year, where do we go from here?’ To having a winning mentality from the get-go because the players will have an assumption of success, or at least of competing for honours again, even at a national level.
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“So it’s probably a Godsend for everyone in Donegal. For me, personally, I wasn’t too bothered one way or the other. It’s not really something for me to worry about.
“But for the GAA as a whole, it’s good to have all your best personnel out in the GAA environment. You’re looking at a Uefa Pro Licence holder, he’s spent a lot of time in America, he’s coming back to enhance the game of Gaelic football.
“He came up with some brilliant ideas in terms of how he impacted Donegal the last time and a lot of teams took a lot of things from that.
“If he comes back and can bring another string to the bow of the GAA, in terms of how we can learn and progress the game, sure that would be good for everyone.
“The shop window for GAA can only grow when you have the best people around and the best minds. As much as I want Derry to keep winning, at Jim’s expense, what you can learn from other teams and other managers as well is unbelievable.
“When you’re doing video analysis you kind of see the fingerprints of certain managers and what they can bring. Certainly it would be one to be watching from the corner of your eye, to see what he brings to the game in terms of change.”
Rogers feels it would be “naive” to label McGuinness a cautious, defensive manager, as some inevitably did during his first period in charge.
He was credited for introducing the blanket to Gaelic football in the early 2010s but Rogers feels that’s only half the story.
“You’d be very naive to remove the fact that he also brought in a different way to attack,” he said. “It might not have been pretty but what did people expect from a manager? Do they want success or do they want styles of football that are great and there’s a few good passes but it doesn’t ultimately win anything?”
Rory Gallagher was McGuinness’ right hand man when Donegal won the All-Ireland in 2012. Gallagher went on to manage Derry before dramatically departing before this year’s Ulster final.
Ciaran Meenagh took over and delivered back to back Ulster titles but it remains to be seen who is in charge of Derry for 2024.
“There’s absolutely nothing confirmed,” said Rogers. “At this point, there’s not even a rumour about what’s happening. It’s kind of been left for the meantime.”
