It was now or never for Eoghan O'Donnell as he switches from Dublin hurlers to footballers
Dublin football boss Dessie Farrell has managed to tempt Eoghan O'Donnell back to his squad - for good this time.
The Dublin footballers offer Eoghan O’Donnell something that the hurlers never could, as he becomes the latest to tread a well-worn path.
It’s one that O’Donnell has been down before, of course, having joined the football panel after the hurlers’ early elimination in 2022, but he quickly retraced his steps, insisting that hurling for Dublin was always his priority. “I was always going to be hurling next year,” he said a few months later. “It’s nice to set the record straight that I never left Dublin (hurling). The hurling year was finished early unfortunately and I took the opportunity with both hands.”
At the time, Micheal Donoghue had just taken charge of the hurlers, a move that reflected some ambition with it being the first time that Dublin had appointed a manager with All-Ireland winning experience in hurling. Donoghue made progress without transforming them before taking up the reins in Galway again this year.
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With O’Donnell in his late 20s, it was stick or twist and he’s now made the move to football, with Donoghue’s successor Niall O Ceallachain acknowledging that the player has been “very up front and has had an itch for a long time to have a go at the football and he has taken that opportunity now”.
The Whitehall Colmcilles man is recognised as one of the finest full-backs in hurling; he won’t command a status anything like that in football, wherever he’s employed, but he’ll be with a group that will contend strongly for major honours, something that couldn’t have been said with any great conviction about the hurlers for a decade now.
Speaking in December 2022, O’Donnell said he “certainly wouldn’t be closing any doors” when asked if he might link up with the footballers again.
“I’d have to see what my personal life was at the moment. It was a huge strain and huge challenge to rise to the time commitment it took to learn a new set up, to learn new plays, systems and a new sport. I play full-forward with the club but that’s not where I was playing with the Dublin footballers - I was playing further out the pitch. It was such a new experience to me that it really took a toll on my time and work and personal life so it would all depend on the set-up.
“A big thing is I’d really want to know what my role was going in this time, that I felt I could have maybe added value in certain games that I didn’t get an opportunity.”
His only appearance for the footballers came late on in a one-sided All-Ireland quarter-final win over Cork two years ago. He wasn’t called from the bench in the subsequent semi-final loss to Kerry, which stung a little, but the size of the occasion, far greater than anything he experienced with the hurlers before or since, wasn’t lost on him.
“I thought the Kerry game was an unbelievable atmosphere. The Artane Boys Band were marching around Croke Park and I just had goose bumps on my arm listening to it and in my head I was thinking, ‘I have to play in this game, I have to try and contribute here, that this is going to be one of the big games that people are going to talk about for a long time’, so I wanted to try and add to the story.”
He’s given himself the chance to do so now.
TALENTED HURLERS THAT CHOSE FOOTBALL FOR DUBLIN
Conal Keaney - First broke through with the hurlers and combined both before choosing football. Reverted to hurling in 2011, missing the footballers’ All-Ireland win that year but won landmark League and Leinster titles with the hurlers.
Ciarán Kilkenny - Never played senior hurling for Dublin but starred on underage sides and would have been a huge asset over the past decade and more. Instead, he’s won eight All-Irelands in football.
Tomás Brady - O’Donnell’s call is reminiscent of Brady’s, with the Na Fianna man the established full-back for the hurlers before switching to football in 2012, winning three All-Irelands as a fringe player.
Shane Ryan - Gave his best years to football, winning an All Star in 2008 and six Leinster medals, before switching back to hurling after the 2009 season. Was part of the League winning squad in 2011 and retired the following year.
Vinnie Murphy - Best known as a footballer but played intermittently for the hurlers over the years. Could have been the difference for the hurlers when they were close to a breakthrough in the 1990 and ‘91 Leinster finals.
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