Fergal O'Donnell

Fergal O'Donnell
Personal information
Sport Gaelic football
Position Forward
Born Roscommon Town,
County Roscommon, Ireland
Occupation Garda Síochána
Club(s)
Years Club
 Roscommon Gaels
Club titles
Roscommon titles 5
Inter-county(ies)
Years County
1992–2003
 Roscommon
Inter-county titles
Connacht titles 1
All-Irelands 0
NFL 0
All Stars 0

Fergal O'Donnell is an Irish former Gaelic football manager and player. As a player, he captained the Roscommon county team to the 2001 Connacht Senior Football Championship title. He also won a Connacht Minor Football Championship in 1989.

From County Roscommon, O'Donnell played his club football for Roscommon Gaels, with whom he won Roscommon Senior Football Championship medals in 1994, 1998, 1999 2001 and 2004.

After retiring from playing he went into management. In 2006 he led Roscommon to a shock Connacht Minor Football Championship and All-Ireland Minor Football Championship. In 2010 he once again led Roscommon to a Connacht Senior Football Championship, this time as manager of the team. In October 2011 O'Donnell resigned as manager due to work commitments.[1]

O'Donnell returned to management in 2013 when he took over Roscommon minor team once more. He led them back to back Connacht final appearances but lost on both occasions to Mayo. The highlight of his term was beating hot favourites Kildare to reach an All-Ireland semi-final[2] O'Donnell stepped down from his post after a narrow All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Ulster champions Donegal the following year [3]

In October 2015, it was confirmed that O'Donnell would become joint manager of Roscommon senior team alongside his former Roscommon Gaels teammate Kevin McStay.[4] He announced he was standing aside in September 2016, leaving McStay in sole charge of the team.[5]

  1. ^ "O'Donnell departs Roscommon role". RTÉ Sport. 5 October 2011. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  2. ^ "Clinical 14-man Roscommon too good for Kildare in minor quarter-final". The Irish Times. 5 August 2013.
  3. ^ "GAA.ie". Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  4. ^ Kelly, Daniel (6 October 2015). "Kevin McStay and Fergal O'Donnell become Roscommon joint-managers". Archived from the original on 27 September 2018. Retrieved 6 October 2015.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ "Fergal O'Donnell steps down from Roscommon job". RTÉ. 7 September 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.