Ryan McHugh says he’s ‘excited’ to get the chance to work with Stephen Rochford in 2019.
Rochford stepped down as Mayo manager in August having guided his native county to successive All-Ireland final appearances in 2016 and 2017.
Donegal manager Declan Bonner has recruited Rochford as a coach with the Crossmolina man filling the void left by Karl Lacey. It seems a real statement of intent by Bonner and Donegal.
“Stephen is an exciting appointment and I’m excited to work with Stephen in 2019,” McHugh said.
“It’s exciting times. Karl is a huge loss to Donegal, he was extremely good. He’s one of Donegal’s best ever.
“We want to get out of Division 2. We were disappointed to get relegated, but we’re in Division 2. We’ll look to kick start the league well and get out of Division 2.
“We have a tough draw with Fermanagh in the Championship, but we’ll take it game-by-game and see where we get.”
McHugh picked up his second All-Star award on Friday night. Previously an All-Star in 2016, the Kilcar man – who was the GAA’s Young Player of the Year in 2014 – McHugh scored a goal in this year’s Ulster final win over Fermanagh.
Donegal regained their provincial crown, winning the Anglo Celt Cup in Bonner’s first year as manager, winning the prize for the fourth time in eight years.
However, Donegal fell to Tyrone in the Super 8 series, despite leading for long spells in Ballybofey.
McHugh said: “The Tyrone match was a huge disappointment. The fact that we were in a winning position and didn’t see it out was extremely disappointing.”
Donegal had to win against the Red Hands to reach the All-Ireland semi-finals, but Tyrone prevailed 2-17 to 1-13, with Mickey Harte’s men scoring 2-7 in the final quarter.
The absence of Patrick McBrearty, McHugh’s club mate from Kilcar who sustained a cruciate injury in the Ulster final, deprived Donegal of one of the form players in the country for the latter spells.
McHugh said: “The big injury was Paddy, which was a huge loss. He was playing extremely well. That’s football. You’re going to get injuries.
“It was a huge loss, but it’s how you react and we reacted alright. We came up against Dublin, which was always going to be extremely tough, and we did alright.”
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