Nickey Rackard Cup finalist Donegal's Conor Gartland during a Joe McDonagh, Christy Ring, Nicky Rackard, Lory Meagher Cup Final media day at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
When Conor Gartland was appointed Donegal senior hurling team captain for the 2024 season at the age of 20, he set a new record.
He became the youngest ever Donegal senior team captain, beating the previous record set by a certain Michael Murphy who Jim McGuinness made Donegal football captain as a 21-year-old in 2011.
Donegal hurling manager, Mickey McCann, clearly holds Gartland in the same sort of esteem that McGuinness did Murphy.
He knows him well given that they’re both Burt men, and it’s a testament to the faith he has in Gartland that he brought him to train with the Donegal seniors as a 17-year-old even before he was eligible to play for them.
Gartland might be young in years, but spend some time in his company and you’ll understand why he wears the Donegal arm-band.
He’s a quietly confident sort who speaks well and matches words with deeds as soon as a sliotar is thrown in.
“It's brilliant to get that chance to be captain at such a young age but a lot of responsibility comes with it,” Gartland told GAA.ie “I feel like it's going well so far.
“I've captained my club teams and Donegal at minor and U20 the whole way up but it's a very different ball-game underage compared to senior.
“I'd actually nearly say that the role is, maybe not easier, but lads are all 100 per cent committed and all want to be there in a senior inter-county team and I've a great group around me as well.
“All the lads had complete respect for me when I stepped into the position. Even boys who have been playing since I was no age. It's great. I like the role.”
Conor Gartland of Donegal and Ben Gormley of Tyrone during the Allianz Hurling League Division 2 Group B match between Tyrone and Donegal at O'Neills Healy Park in Omagh, Tyrone. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
Gartland is one of a number of talented young players that McCann has brought into the Donegal panel years who will be key figures in Sunday’s Nickey Rackard Cup Final against Mayo and look primed to bring the county to new heights in the coming years.
The likes of Stephen McBride, Liam McKinney, Ruairi Campbell, Kevin Curran, and Ciaran Curran are already very good county hurlers and will only get better.
“The younger lads are really driving on the team and pushing the older lads and there's a lot of competition for places at the minute," says Gartland.
“Donegal hurling is in a position it's never been before in that Mickey will have a tough time even picking the 26 for this weekend, never mind the starting XV. Donegal hurling is in a good place and it's definitely driving from that underage development.
“We lost eight starters from the team that started the Nickey Rackard Final last year. People would have been saying at the start of the season we wouldn't be able to manage without them. But the depth of talent in our squad is as good as it's ever been.
“From that comes ambition. Now that we have a lot of lads pushing for spots it's driving the starters on and the subs that are coming in are doing a great job. I think we can be very ambitious about our future in Donegal.”
Mickey McCann is now in his sixth year in charge of Donegal and over that period of time has developed a system of play that makes them a very difficult team to come up against.
The bedrock of it all is a ferocious work ethic. This Donegal team likes to get in your face and give you very little room to hurl in.
“It's something that Mickey has been saying since I've been on the panel,” says Gartland. “He says 'give me a worker over a hurler any day'.
“I think that's maybe part of the reason why he gave me the captaincy, because I would always give my full hilt and I'll go in to every challenge I can.
“Mickey really prides the team on effort and work-rate and I do think that's stands to us in terms of where we're going because Donegal is on an upward trajectory now and it's based on that hard work.
“In previous years we might have been hard enough workers on the pitch but now we've been doing it off the pitch. We have a brilliant S&C coach in Shane Sweeney and you can see the lads are all developing physically and we're able to handle teams from an athletic perspective as well as a hurling one.
“The work-rate we put in on the game day translate into the performance. Definitely the work-rate is key to our play.”
Nickey Rackard Cup finalists Donegal's Conor Gartland and Mayo's David Kenny during a Joe McDonagh, Christy Ring, Nicky Rackard, Lory Meagher Cup Final media day at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Victory in Sunday’s Nickey Rackard Cup Final would likely accelerate the development of this young Donegal team because the sooner they get hurling at a higher level the more they’ll learn in their formative years.
“Absolutely,” says Gartland. “We definitely do feel that if we can get over the line on Sunday we'll be fit to hold our own in the Christy Ring.
“We're up in Division 2 in the League next year and playing the likes of Kerry and Kildare and they're teams we've never gotten a chance to even play before never mind try to compete with them.
“It’s going to be big challenge on Sunday because Mayo are a very good team. We beat them in Letterkenny in the group stage but we know this is going to be a very difficult game. Mayo have six very good forwards and their defence is very strong as well.
“We maybe got our match-ups right in Letterkenny the first day and were able to nullify their forwards, but we know they're going to come out as different men this weekend.
“We're looking forward to the challenge but it's going to be a tough game.”
And if the youngest captain to ever captain a Donegal team could climb the Hogan Stand steps and lift some silverware, how would that feel?
“It would mean the absolute world to me,” says Gartland. “It's something you dream of as a young lad. I've been trying not to think about it too much and trying to let it come naturally.
“You just have to put it to the back of your head but I'd do anything to get up those steps on Sunday and hopefully it comes off for us on the day and we can regroup and give the League and Christy Ring a good rattle next year.”
