AS the house of cards fell in around Donegal last year, Leo McLoone was a mere spectator.
And in some ways, the frustration of being behind the wire was almost preferable to that which he had gone through in the first two years under Rory Gallagher.
The Naomh Conaill man was one of Jim McGuinness’ most trusted lieutenants, but fell out of favour with his successor. He missed a chunk of 2015 after opting out before coming back the following year.
But he started just four games in 2016, all of them in the league, and the camel’s back was broken when he was subbed off against Fermanagh at half-time in the championship opener having only come on 23 minutes earlier.
He didn’t feature again in Ulster and played just 54 minutes of the final two games against Cork and Dublin. That was enough to make him consider his options and ultimately take a year out.
And so he spent the summer days last year as an ordinary spectator, still caged but in a different way. The frustration of being unable to help is different from that of not being given the chance to.
“It’s tough surely watching from the sidelines, it’s not easy. It gives you that added incentive to try and get back in again.
“When you’re on the bench, you always want to get on the field. When you’re not on the panel, you don’t have that option when you’re not looked at.
“When you’re doing the same training as everyone else, you want to try and help your team-mates as best you can. Getting on the field’s an important part of that.
“You know the commitments to play county football. I wasn’t enjoying it really and I was finding it tough, doing the same training and not getting a bit of game time.
“It was impacting me. It was a tough decision to make to take the year out, but doing that’s given me a boost to come in this year and try to make an impact and make up for lost time.”
He is back now, happily so under Declan Bonner, and you sense from the early weeks that he will play a key role. Just what that role is remains the question.
With Nathan Mullins suspended and Michael Murphy still injured, McLoone was deployed at midfield against Galway, where he operated manfully in breaking down the traditional aerial strength of Kevin Walsh’s side.
But come Croke Park on Saturday night and the reigning All-Ireland champions, he is likely to be redeployed to the half-back division.
Donegal head there with the pressure on. The manner of their opening two defeats were similarly sickening, narrow one-point losses to Kerry and Galway, but they are defeats nonetheless.
Six points has been the minimum required to stay in Division One each season since Armagh stayed up with four in 2011, and that would leave Donegal needing to win three of their last four if they bring nothing back from Dublin.
But as much as that looks daunting, McLoone feels that the transition out of their ultra-defensive style has gone relatively well so far.
“We are taking lots of positives out of the games. It’s not as if we’re getting beat by five or 10 points, we’ve run both games close so far and we’re trying new things, Declan’s trying new things and we’re getting to grips with it.
“Although we’ve no points on the board, we’re positive with the way we’re playing and positive going to Dublin.
“We clocked up a big score down in Kerry and I thought we played reasonably well [on Sunday] bar a few mistakes.
“It doesn’t change anything, we still don’t have any points, but we’re happy with the way we’re playing.
“We’ve a few boys coming back from injury and we’re hoping to get them in and give the thing a lift before going to Dublin.”
