John Maughan, his visit to Ballintra, and his subtle impact on Donegal's 1992 win

When asked to name all the people who had any involvement in Donegal’s 1992 All-Ireland winning triumph, it would be understandable if nobody named former Clare manager John Maughan.  

Travel back 32 years ago, still in his 20s and then the boss of the Banner footballers, a week hadn’t passed from Maughan side’s All-Ireland elimination at the hands of Dublin when his Clare team were traveling to Donegal to play Brian McEniff’s troops in a friendly at the opening of Naomh Brid’s new pitch.  

It was late August, days earlier in other sporting fields, Michael Carruth had won Ireland's first Olympic gold in 36 years, and the new English Premier League began behind a TV paywall.

Long before behind closed-door matches, wrapping players in cotton wool, and hiding away from the media, that day Donegal fielded 13 of what would be their starting 15 for the All-Ireland final, with Donal Reid and Barry McGowan dropped to the bench for Martin Shovlin and Paul Carr.  

Donegal ran out 3-9 to 1-7 winners that day, but it was what happened behind the scenes that paved the way for a snippet of their success weeks later in Dublin. 

“I remember we committed to a pitch opening in Ballintra. It was only a week or so after we lost in the All-Ireland semi-final and Donegal won their match against Mayo the week before that,” Maughan told Donegal Live.  

“It was funny because Donegal fielded a really strong team that day which is just something that wouldn’t happen now in terms of protecting players, but that’s the way it was back then.” 

In horrendous conditions in Ballintra and with players wasting little time getting off the field, a conversation between both managers laid a possible foundation for Donegal’s tactical approach against Dublin. 

“I remember meeting Brian after that game, and we spoke about what Donegal needed to do if they were to beat the Dubs. Brian was a little bit like myself that way, if we needed to know something, we would go out of our way to figure it out and Brian leaned on me that day for a small bit of advice. 

“Now I’m sure Brian was at our semi-final in Croke Park against Dublin and knew himself what he needed his side to do, but that day, he just asked me for some advice, and I was more than happy to tell him the lessons that our Clare side took from the Dublin defeat. 

“I don’t think it was a big thing really, we just spoke about how you deal with big games, big matches and not letting the occasion get to you, and I have no doubt that if the roles were reversed and I was in Brian’s situation as a manager going into play the Dubs in an All-Ireland final, I would have no issue leaning on people who might have greater knowledge than myself.” 

The tactical approach focused on dropping players back and not leaving Donegal’s defense exposed. Maughan mentions that he noticed that Dublin had a tendency of moving the ball slowly from defense to attack and that Donegal should use that to their advantage by dropping players back and cutting out their star forwards. 

“I remember the day I met Brian up in Donegal, I spoke to him about how Dublin took an awful lot out of the ball and were quite slow moving forward, so I thought that would help Donegal in getting players like Anthony Molloy and Brian Murray back in their defense and smother the Dublin forwards,” Maughan admits. 

“And that showed! Dublin were very predictable in the final. They really relied too heavily on Vinny Murphy that season and we spoke about that, and it ended up that when things started to go wrong for Dublin, they had no Plan B.” 

In his 2022 memoir ‘Life, Glory and Demons’, Donegal captain Anthony Molloy reiterates Maughan’s comments in saying: “At the end of a 3-9 to 1-7 win in Ballintra, Myself and McEniff hung back and shared some thoughts and words with our opposite numbers John Maughan and Francis McInerney.  

“It was another small but significant moment for us. Both men were adamant we'd be beating Dublin. And it wasn't just lip service. Maughan, in an unguarded moment, held his hands up and said he'd gotten a few match-ups wrong in their 3-14 to 2-12 win.   

‘Get things right on the line and that side there will do Dublin real damage. Vinnie Murphy is a savage, an unbelievable target man. We didn't deal with that.  

‘They are a supremely confident side. But had we got to grips with Murphy I'd have been very interested to see what their Plan B was or, had they one at all ..?’ 

“The weather was atrocious so I jogged off to finally grab a shower. By the time I'd toweled off and looked back out the door, Brian was still there, and still deep in conversation with the knowledgeable Maughan. 

And in the next fortnight, the Ardara man explains that McEniff tailored Donegal’s approach to sniff out Hill 16 talisman Murphy.  

“Brian went into what was a simple enough gameplan. But if we applied it like he directed, he believed it wouldn't fail. We were to isolate big Vinnie and do our best to limit the supply of ball going into him.” 

To give context of the time we’re in and the work Maughan had done, this was far from the days when the Banner hurlers took all the limelight.   

In fact, people of a certain vintage can still say that they saw the Clare footballers win a provincial title before their hurlers, with 1992 being the season where their hurlers were advised to "stick to the traditional music" by Waterford’s Kieran Delahunty in the closing stages of their poorly-attended Munster first round replay.  

The 1980s provided little success, with the county remaining in their usual state of football obscurity. Their most notable match in the years leading up to 1992 was the infamous Milltown Massacre, where Kerry's exceptional forwards amassed a staggering 9-21.  

In the five championship seasons before Clare's Munster triumph in 1992, they managed just one championship victory, defeating Waterford in 1990.  

In fact, when Maughan arrived from Mayo as manager in 1991, there was so little fanfare that only 11 turned up at his first training session. But by the end of 1992, they would be Munster champions, beating Kerry in the final, their first football crown since 1917.  

"We came into that Munster final (in 92) after losing only one game out of 16. We got promoted to Division 1 of the National League. Meath beat us in a league quarter-final by two points, 0-08 to 0-06 in Ballinasloe. So, if we'd put it up to Meath, we'd put it up to Kerry. That was our belief.” 

Reportedly, late on in the dismal 1992 All-Ireland semi-final between Donegal and Mayo a few Dublin players in the stand left early, satisfied they would "beat the pick of those two." They hadn't even played Clare yet. 

So, the question asked, would Clare have beaten Donegal if they met in 1992? 

“I think on the evidence of the All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo, I would’ve felt if we met Donegal that season in the championship, I would’ve said that we would’ve beat them, but on the evidence of their final that year against the Dubs, I don’t think we would’ve beat them, so it was all about hitting form on their day. 

“The performance from Donegal in the semi-final against Mayo was so poor, but in fairness to them, they learned a lot of lessons and Dublin were very complacent in the final that day and to be fair to Donegal they had their homework done.”