Cathal Dervan, Editor
His passing was almost lost in the midst of the last international window, his passing is so, so lamentable. Jacko McDonagh was a League of Ireland legend with a genius touch that was way ahead of his time.
The 64-year-old Dubliner left this world a month or so ago and he left it all the better for those of us who were lucky enough to see him start out as a young kid with Bohemians, graduate to international honours via Shamrock Rovers and prosper in the professional leagues of France and Belgium.
That football didn’t reward him - or his family - with the fame and fortune that his talents deserved is just one of those things so typical of a game that can be a cruel master.
article continues below
Will to win…
But Jacko was never a typical footballer and he most certainly wasn’t a centre-back typical of those who earned a League of Ireland living.
He was tall and he was elegant on the ball, a David O’Leary of the LOI who first came to prominence under the great Billy Young at Dalymount Park and prospered under Jim McLaughlin at Shamrock Rovers.
Milltown was the perfect playground for a player of McDonagh’s flair and calmness on the ball. This was the ground that gave birth to the famous Rovers teams and Hoops legends, Coad’s Colts and Tuohy’s marvels amongst them in the glory years.
McDonagh was good enough to play in any of those title winning sides but the one he graced between 1982 and 1985, capturing two LOI championships, was the perfect example of how he could fit into any system.
Consider for example his partnership with fellow League of Ireland legend Dermot Keely, two players as different as chalk and cheese.
Very few forwards got past Dermot, a tank with a ‘thou shall not pass’ motto inscribed invisibly on the front of his shirt.
Very few balls got past Jacko and a brain that matched pace with an ability to keep possession that was so ahead of its time - one that would easily fit into the modern game.
Today centre-backs and goalkeepers, the two positions were ball playing and passing were never a consideration in the mucky pitch days of the past, have to be good on the ball.
Every kick-out now starts with them passing the ball sideways. How often in the recent international window did we see a full-back or a centre-back direct the kick-out across the six yard box to his own goalkeeper?
That ‘pass within your own box’ theory was against the rules in the 80s but it was also against the very nature of players like Dermot Keely who, I suspect, would rather have eaten the net than pass the ball sideways to his goalkeeper Jodi Byrne at any time in a game, never mind from a restart.
Jacko though was different. He was elegant enough on the ball to have coped comfortably with the modern day transitions, maybe even thrived on them.
Given a modern day coach, Jacko would have earned more than the three Ireland caps that came his way in an era when the likes of O’Leary, Lawrenson, Moran, McGrath and McCarthy were all ahead of him in the queue.
We will never know how good he could have been in 21st century football but Jacko’s passing, after a long battle following a stroke in 2022, was a sad one for Irish football.
As Shamrock Rovers continue to battle for the current league title with two games to go , winning it would be a fitting tribute to his memory.
May he rest in peace.
As the League of Ireland Academies welcome the Budget increase to €4million in Government funding, our resident coach Larry Mahony argues that funding should be directed at grassroots clubs and a bottom to top approach be taken by the FAI. Editor Cathal Dervan asks the questions. You can catch up with Larry at www.bigpicturecoachingIreland.com.
The full episode is available on site now and you can watch all the previous Let’s Talk Football episodes now on TheSportsHacks.com
or you can listen to all of our podcasts on our Spotify channel
Check our socials (X here or insta here or tiktok here) for all the latest or just to see the World Cup giraffes again!
No noise, just the news & views that matters. The Sports Hacks is a reader supported publication - if you like what you read, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber and sharing our work.