Colm McFadden

Colm McFadden
Personal information
Irish name Colm Mac Pháidín
Sport Gaelic Football
Position Left Corner Forward
Born Letterkenny, Ireland
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Occupation Secondary School Teacher
Club(s)
Years Club
Naomh Mícheál
Colleges(s)
Years College
NUI Galway
College titles
Sigerson titles 1
Inter-county(ies)
Years County Apps (scores)
2002–2016 Donegal 170 (25-434)
Inter-county titles
Ulster titles 3
All-Irelands 1
NFL 1
All Stars 1

Colm McFadden (Irish: Colm Mac Pháidín; born 1982/1983) is a Gaelic footballer who plays at full forward for Naomh Mícheál and Donegal. He is Donegal's all-time leading scorer and most-capped Championship player.[1] He played an integral role in Donegal's successful 2011-2014 run of matches, starting every Championship game in that period.

Among other accolades, he has one All Star to his name (2012), one All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (2012), three Ulster Senior Football Championships (2011, 2012 and 2014) and one National Football League (2007). Top scorer in the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, he was subsequently shortlisted for All Stars Footballer of the Year, but the award went to team-mate Karl Lacey.

Early life

In 2000, McFadden was part of the victorious Saint Eunan's College team that brought the McLarnon Cup back to the school for a third time, the first win since 1979.[2][3] His words of advice also helped the College to reclaim the McLarnon Cup in 2007, and to go on to compete in the All-Ireland B Colleges Final, which they subsequently lost.

That 2000 final victory over St Columb's of Derry at Casement Park has been described as "arguably the match that catapulted him to people's attention outside of Donegal". He scored a late goal to give the College victory by a scoreline of 1-11 to 1-9, 1-8 of which McFadden scored himself.[2]

Soon he was off to the National University of Ireland, Galway, where he studied Financial Maths and Economics. There he won the All-Ireland Freshers and, two years after that, the Sigerson Cup, with the final held at Cork's Páirc Uí Rinn. He took his Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Liverpool Hope University, discussing football with a fellow teacher (and semi-professional footballer with a Conference team – name forgotten) during teaching practice at St Catherine's in Edge Hill.[2]

Inter-county

Early years: 2002 - 2006

McFadden made his senior championship debut for Donegal in 2002. That year, Donegal drew against Dublin by a scoreline of 0-14 to 2-8 in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship quarter-final held on August Bank Holiday Monday, Dublin eventually winning the replay. In the 2003 Championship, Donegal defeated Galway, the All-Ireland champions of two years previous, in the All-Ireland quarter-final replay at McHale Park in Castlebar. That victory qualified them for a semi-final against reigning All-Ireland Senior Football Champions Armagh, whom Donegal led with 14 men (after Raymond Sweeney was harshly sent off for a second yellow card) until a last minute penalty from Oisín McConville led to Donegal losing the game by a scoreline of 2-10 to 1-9. In the 2004 Championship, McFadden was the star against Tyrone in the Ulster semi-final but did not do as well against Armagh in the final at Croke Park.[4] And so ended the high points of McFadden's early inter-county career.[2] He missed the 2006 Championship due to his studies in Liverpool.[5]

Middle years: 2007 - 2010

McFadden would return to play a vital part in the Donegal team that won their first National Football League title in 2007.[6] He scored three points in the final against Mayo.[7]

McFadden was asked by Donegal County Board officials to receive a presentation on his 100th inter-county appearance, a presentation the player thought inappropriate in light of a bruising defeat in the Ulster Senior Football Championship during which he had been replaced by Adrian Hanlon, of all people. RTÉ's television cameras caught McFadden grinning ironically at the timing of such a request - but all irony was lost in the scramble to condemn the player's attitude. McFadden considered retiring amid all the furore, the misunderstanding, the calls for his head.[2]

Later years: 2011 - 2016

2011 brought the dawning of the Jim McGuinness managerial era, the most successful in the county's history. McFadden won his first Ulster title and Donegal progressed to an All-Ireland semi-final that year.[8][9]

2012 would prove to be McFadden's most successful season for Donegal.[10] In helping Donegal to back-to-back Ulster titles in 2011-2012, McFadden became the first Donegal footballer to twice finish top scorer in the Ulster Championship.[11] He scored an unusual goal in the seventh minute of Donegal's All-Ireland Senior Football Championship quarter-final defeat of Kerry at Croke Park, later describing it as "fortunate".[12] He was also involved in the semi-final victory over Cork.[13] Then he scored Donegal's second goal of the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final. Patrick McBrearty's attempt at scoring a point came crashing off the Mayo post after eleven minutes of the game, and Mayo's Kevin Keane fumbled, dropping the ball into the path of Colm McFadden who promptly slotted it into the back of the net.[14][15] His goal helped Donegal win the Sam Maguire Cup and McFadden later added an All Star and was named 2012 Ulster GAA Player of the Year.[16] He was shortlisted for All Stars Footballer of the Year, but the award went to team-mate Karl Lacey.[17]

McFadden made his 51st championship appearance against Derry in the Ulster quarter-final on 25 May 2014, a team record which had until then been held by Michael Hegarty.[18] McFadden's appearance in the 2014 Ulster final against Monaghan was his 152nd overall for Donegal, second only to Brian Roper's 159, and McFadden won his third Ulster title at the end.[19] On August 06, 2016 McFadden announced his retirement from Inter-County football following Donegal's exit from the championship in the hands of Dublin.[20] He retired with a total of 170 appearances for Donegal, 64 of those in the Championship, having scored a county record 25-434.[21]

Personal life

McFadden was educated and is now a teacher at Saint Eunan's College in Letterkenny,[22] where the success of the 2012 Donegal senior football team has lifted the spirits of staff, including mathematical whiz Edward Harvey - seen on RTÉ with an enormous grin on his face at the end of the semi-final against Cork. McFadden told the Irish Examiner, "Eddie Harvey said to me last year when he was in the leisure centre, he'd pop into the jacuzzi and everyone would be talking doom and gloom and the recession. Last summer and this year too, he said he could go in there and all anyone would talk about was football. It's great to hear."[23]

McFadden is also manager of the school team.[24] He is 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) and weighs 14 st 3 lb (90 kg).

McFadden's brother-in-law is his manager, Jim McGuinness. He married Levina Wilkie. Their daughter Maisie was born in April 2012.[2] Their son Matthew was born in June 2013.[25]

Club

McFadden's club have not had much success at senior level. They reached the final of the 2011 Donegal Senior Football Championship— their first ever senior final—but lost, though McFadden scored three points including one free.[26][27]

Honours

Individual

References

  1. ↑ "Numbers keep adding up for Colm McFadden". Donegal News. 24 May 2014. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Foley, Alan (11 September 2012). "Forward thinking McFadden". Donegal Democrat. Johnston Press. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  3. ↑ "GAA MacLarnon". Saint Eunan's. Archived from the original on 2006-10-24.
  4. ↑ "Awesome Armagh destroy Donegal". RTÉ Sport. RTÉ. 11 July 2004. Retrieved 11 July 2004. A foul on Devenney four minutes later allowed Colm McFadden, the star of the show against Tyrone but decidedly out of sorts today, to land his side's first score of the game from a relatively simple free.
  5. ↑ "Return of the prodigals". Irish Independent. Independent News & Media. 20 April 2007. Archived from the original on 18 February 2013. Retrieved 20 April 2007.
  6. ↑ "Donegal claim the spoils". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. 22 April 2007. Retrieved 22 April 2007.
  7. ↑ "Donegal achieve historic win - First national league title comes to county after victory over Mayo". Donegal Times. 25 April 2007. Retrieved 25 April 2007.
  8. ↑ "Derry: 'Donegal have had hoodoo over us' – O'Kane". Gaelic Life. 23 May 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
  9. ↑ "Donegal 1-12 Kildare 0-14 (aet)". RTÉ Sport. RTÉ. 30 July 2011. Archived from the original on 29 March 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  10. ↑ Keys, Colm (6 August 2012). "Donegal eyes on the big prize: McFadden twists knife as curtain falls on illustrious Kingdom era". Irish Independent. Independent News & Media. Retrieved 6 August 2012. The polish of McFadden's finishing was the last critical element as he added to what had already been his best-ever season in a long Donegal career.
  11. ↑ "Colm hoping to have the last laugh". Donegal Democrat. Johnston Press. 24 August 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
  12. ↑ "Colm McFadden wants Donegal to go one step further in 2012". RTÉ Sport. RTÉ. 6 August 2012. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  13. ↑ Porter, Liam (25 August 2012). "All in the preparation for McFadden". Donegal News. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  14. ↑ "Live updates from the All-Ireland finals at Croke Park". RTÉ Sport. RTÉ. 23 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  15. ↑ Roche, Frank (24 September 2012). "Dazzling Donegal's day". Evening Herald. Independent News & Media. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 24 September 2012. You could argue that what happened then spooked Keane eight minutes later: as Paddy McBrearty's attempted point rebounded off an upright, the Mayo No 2 was in pole position to clear the danger but, one disastrous fumble later, McFadden had the ball in his hands and then the ball in the net.
  16. ↑ "McFadden is Ulster Player of the Year". Donegal News. 10 September 2012. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
  17. ↑ "Donegal's Karl Lacey is named Gaelic Footballer of 2012". BBC Sport. BBC. 27 October 2012. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
  18. ↑ "Home fires still burn bright for McFadden". Irish Independent. 20 June 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  19. ↑ "Donegal beat Monaghan in provincial decider". BBC Sport. BBC. 20 July 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  20. ↑ "Colm McFadden walks and may be first of many to exit big stage". Irish Examiner. 8 August 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  21. ↑ "Record scorer McFadden calls time on Donegal career". RTÉ Sport. RTÉ. 7 August 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  22. ↑ "Twitter feed". Saint Eunan's College. EunansFootball Best of luck 2our past pupils who r in Donegal panel v Cork in All Ire Semi-Final on Sun @neilgerardgalla @murphm95 @AntoinMcFadden @Tommyk_91 @BrickMolloy @123kav @kevin_raff @gmacfadden14 @mdboyler24 +Mr McFadden #TheCollege
  23. ↑ O'Brien, Brendan (25 August 2012). "Memories of '92 rekindled". Irish Examiner. Thomas Crosbie Holdings. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  24. ↑ "St. Eunan's through to semi-final". Donegal Democrat. Johnston Press. 13 February 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2013. Colm McFadden's side defeated St Patrick's College from Keady at the Mid-Ulster Sports Arena's 4G pitch in Cookstown yesterday
  25. ↑ "Memorable week for McFadden". Donegal Democrat. Johnston Press. 24 June 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  26. ↑ "Murphy is the star as Glenswilly triumph". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. 2 October 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2012.
  27. ↑ "Murphy magic proves key as Glenswilly secure first Donegal crown". Irish Independent. Independent News & Media. 3 October 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
  28. ↑ "Donegal team clean up on Sunday Game Team of the Year". Donegal Daily. 23 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
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