{"id":56045,"date":"2025-09-10T22:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T22:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/56045\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T22:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T22:19:09","slug":"jim-mcguinness-looking-to-bulk-donegal-backroom-team-after-high-profile-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/56045\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim McGuinness looking to bulk Donegal backroom team after high-profile departure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jim McGuinness is on the lookout for a new backroom team member with the news that Luke Barrett has stepped away to further his education.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Milford native recently published his thesis after the completion of a Masters in Applied Sports Coaching from the University of Limerick (UL).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegallive.ie\/news\/gaa-lgfa\/1889870\/all-the-dates-times-and-venues-for-the-weekend-s-donegal-club-championship-matches.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Times, dates and venues for this weekend&#8217;s club championship action\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Barrett now plans to undertake a second Masters, this time on Skill Acquisition in Sport, at Munster Technological University (MUT).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Barrett &#8211; a former Donegal minor manager &#8211; came on board back in late 2023 along with Colm McFadden and Neil McGee as McGuinness made a shock return to the helm.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since then, the 2012 All-Ireland winning boss has led his county to back-to-back Ulster titles as well as an All-Ireland final in July, where they lost out to Kerry.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Declan Bonner has emerged as a leading contender for the vacant Fermanagh senior football manager\u2019s post.<\/p>\n<p>The former Donegal boss is currently at the helm of Erne Gaels. Also in the frame is ex-Fermanagh U-20 boss Maurice McLaughlin.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But Bonner seems odds on at this point to succeed Kieran Donnelly, who stepped down last month after five years in charge.<\/p>\n<p>Ex Donegal player Paul Brennan, who is currently part of Bonner\u2019s management in Belleek, is also being tipped to form part of the 1992 All-Ireland winner\u2019s backroom team if he is appointed.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, another Donegal All-Ireland winner in 2012, Mark McHugh, has been confirmed as the new manager of the Westmeath senior football team.<\/p>\n<p>McHugh, who was part of Dermot McCabe\u2019s management setup with the Lake County last season, also spent time coaching Roscommon in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The Kilcar native has previously worked with Galway\u2019s Moycullen club, the Donegal ladies senior side, and the Fermanagh minors.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Westmeath and Down are expected to be among the frontrunners for promotion from Division 3 following their relegation this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim McGuinness is on the lookout for a new backroom team member with the news that Luke Barrett&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[6368,18,19,17,40603,40604,40605,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-56045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-donegal","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-jim-mcguinness","13":"tag-michael-murphy","14":"tag-milford-gaa","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}