IN early June, despite going into the game as favourites, it looked like it would be another near miss for the Donegal hurlers in the Nickey Rackard Cup.
Having already defeated Mayo by eight points in the group phase, it seemed like there would be no stopping Mickey McCann’s men on a sunny day in Croke Park.
Donegal had been beaten in the final 12 months previous and were narrowly defeated in their last group game which acted as a semi-final against Tyrone the year before.
“For a lot of boys, all you want to do is play at Croke Park and the nerves can get the better of you and things might not go to plan,” substitute and eventual hero on the day Josh McGee Cronolly said.
And it wasn’t going to plan for Mickey McCann’s men, as they trailed by four at half-time.
McGee Cronolly was introduced at the interval, but Mayo extended their lead out to six points.
Ruairi Campbell struck for a goal but the Connacht men responded well, before the big moments of the game.
Sixty-one and sixty-four minutes were gone on the clock when McGee Cronolly struck for goals to turn it around, earning him the Donegal News Sports Personality of the Month Award for June, in conjunction with Brian McCormick Sports & Leisure.
“The boys always said Mayo hurled for the bulk of the game but Donegal came to life in the last 15 minutes and it’s better to do it then.
“Sean McVeigh pointed and then I got the goal to level, the other goal came straight after so it was a quick turnaround and there were only about three scores after that.
“I was thinking to myself if I did get on and score then I’d be relaxed but it was the complete opposite, once the ball hit the net I was overwhelmed.
“The whole team responded serious to it, Danny Cullen in the middle of the pitch was brilliant and he did so much work that day.
“Then once I went into the dressing room I had something like 55 notifications on the phone and that was straight after it.”
It wasn’t a sport that the 25-year-old got immediately in to when he was young and it wasn’t until his teens that he picked up the hurl and never looked back.
“I was playing minor football at the time and two of my friends said they were tight for numbers so we went to field a team.
“Paul Campbell got us to go to the senior training to see how we got on and we stuck at it.
“I just ended up falling in love with it and it became the sole focus.
“I had one year at Under 21, then I started with the senior team in 2020, we won the league and Nickey Rackard that year but there was no promotion.
“Even playing in Croke Park there were no supporters so it was very different to this year when we played in it.
“I didn’t play that time either, we had a couple injuries and (Mickey) McCann was on to me that I could be called upon and I was nervous anyway.”
McGee Cronolly finished his Electrical apprenticeship last year, which meant he didn’t opt in for the squad in 2023.
But once he had finished his studies, he was itching to get back.
“I needed a year out to focus on it, you’re in college 9-6 then trying to look over stuff in the evening and if two of your evenings are taken out and a Saturday or a Sunday then it’s a lot of time.
“It was too much to do altogether and you couldn’t give 100% to both things.
“But the year out helped me refocus on hurling, the boys were all heading away to games and you missed out on that too so I was mad to get back.
“The Nickey Rackard was always the goal and coming back into the panel at the start of the year my own goal was to start at Croke Park.”
A good league campaign followed as the side got promoted to Division, but that goal of playing in HQ soon looked in doubt, as a hamstring injury against Monaghan at the end of April looked like it may have been curtains on his county season.
But the Setanta man put in the hard work to ensure he was available for selection for the final.
“I pulled my hamstring and it went away fairly quick and I was happy with how it worked out.
“I drowned my sorrows that night but I went back to training and was getting frustrated in the weeks coming back that I wasn’t able to train and I could have been getting put out of the picture for the final.
“It was five weeks to the final with a six week injury but with a bit of luck I got back, I had never pulled my hamstring before so there was no scar tissue to deal with which helped.
“The last week before the final I had a big push on and I said to McCann if it goes again then it goes again, I wanted to get into the mix and I got myself back into the picture.”
With Division 2 in the league to come, followed by the Christy Ring, it’s a huge step up in class for Donegal next year, but they are looking forward to the challenge with a fairly young team.
“It is definitely a massive step up, but we’re hoping to step up with it and show we can hurl at the next level.
“There will be a lot of tough games and the likes of Kerry will be a massive challenge. Nobody is saying we’re going to turn the tables and beat these teams but we’re definitely going to compete, we’re not there to be walked over and we want to show Donegal can compete with the best of them.
“We have a young enough squad but the likes of Danny (Cullen) and ‘Decky’ (Coulter) especially have so much to offer. Anytime you’re doing a fitness test, Danny will be right there at the top. Then in the Nickey Rackard final at half-time when I got the shout, I was up for it and maybe too hyped up and Decky was straight over to calm me down and it helped massively.”
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