ST MICHAEL’S PLAYER Michael Gallagher always knew, but he can remember vividly the day he witnessed confirmation of the talents of Colm Anthony McFadden.
When Donegal met Mayo in the final of the Ted Webb Cup (Under-16) in 1999, Michael Gallagher traveled to Ballyhaunis from Dunfanaghy.
His brother Gerard lined out at full-back on a team that included future All-Ireland winners Paul Durcan, Christy Toye, Barry Dunnion (who captained the Donegal team) and, the eye-catching McFadden, who hit 1-6 as the Donegal boys, managed by Martin McHugh, took a commanding win, 1-15 to 0-4.
“Colm just blew them apart,” Gallagher remembers.
“I just knew that day that this fella was going places. He was head and shoulders above anyone else. He always stood out, all through club level, but when he was at it that day against another county team that was when we knew.”
McFadden retired from inter-county football on Saturday night after Donegal’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Dublin at Croke Park.
The St Michael’s man leaves behind quite the legacy. He is Donegal’s all-time record appearance holder after 170 games and is the county’s record scorer, having notched up 25 goals and 434 (509) points in a career that began in 2001.
To those who know him closely it has never been any different.
Through the ranks of the St Michael’s underage teams, McFadden rose to the occasion.
The stars aligned for the Creeslough-Dunfanaghy team in an Under-12 B final against Downings in 1994, a game they won 2-10 to 1-7.
“Colm Anthony always stood out,” says Danny Lafferty, who managed McFadden at several junctures.
McFadden was not alone and his partner in crime then remained in tandem until the moment on Saturday night when the left-footed ace called it a day.
In terms of Championship appearances for Donegal, only one man has bettered McFadden’s 64 games – Christy Toye has played 65 Championship games for Donegal.
“Himself and Christy always had a great understanding between one another,” says Noel Toye.
[adrotate group=”38″]Club people can always delve a little deeper than the grand stage of Croke Park or the heaving heat of Clones.
The one that stands out for the good folk around The Bridge is the Minor Division 2 campaign of 1998.
McFadden hit 0-6 to gun down Dungloe in the semi-final, but he absolutely nailed the final. He swung over 0-10 as St Michael’s defeated Carndonagh 0-13 to 1-8 in Ballybofey.
“That left foot was always on show,” smiles Noel Toye.
“Sometimes we were going to games scraping at the bottom of the barrel, but Colm Anthony would pull something out of the fire to get us over the line.”
Five years later, McFadden was at it again when St Michael’s crossed a threshold they thought wasn’t possible.
[adrotate group=”53″]St Michael’s long wait was over as McFadden scored 0-6 in a 0-18 to 0-5 win over Carndonagh in the Donegal Intermediate Championship final.
Senior football, finally, beckoned.
“I thought that we were never going to win an Intermediate Championship, but it was Colm who broke the ice for us,” says Mickey McFadden, who played alongside him in those years and who remains a familiar figure along the touchlines at The Bridge.
“We had been beaten in a couple of finals, but Colm was the difference for us in winning when we finally got over the line. He was that bit of class that we were missing.”
Such was his influence, St Michael’s went on to win the Ulster Intermediate title and reached the All-Ireland final, losing to Cork’s Illen Rovers.
Mickey McFadden says: “That was probably the time he really announced himself. It’s amazing now when you go anywhere with a St Michael’s crest on you, people will come up and say: ‘Aww, you’re from McFadden’s club’. He’s so well known and well respected for what he’s done.”
[adrotate group=”46″]Mickey Moran had already taken note. The Derry man came in to replace Declan Bonner as manager late in 2000.
McFadden by then was making waves in the minors and it wasn’t long before he was given a go at senior level.
“I had no hesitation bringing him in,” Moran says. “He just blossomed. The cub worked so hard. He put in a great effort with his strength and conditioning. The premise I base everything on is that a fella has to be a good fella inside. By that, I mean he needs to be a strong character. Colm McFadden is that. He realised himself once he hit inter-county level that he’d have to work hard to reach his goals. He did that and what a finished article he became. He’s fabulous.”
Times have not always been kind.
It is easy now, perhaps, to forget that there have been bad days too. There was the hook that floored Brian Dooher at Clones in 2007 when Donegal crashed and burned at Tyrone’s hands in an Ulster semi-final or that oft-mentioned Crossmaglen crucifixion on the occasion of his 100th Donegal appearance that left him wondering if he’d been nailed to the cross for the last time as a Donegal player.
[adrotate group=”37″]He was just 27 at the time. The mental toughness answered his questions.
“Tennis players might start to retire at that age, but as a footballer I knew I could go on,” he later revealed.
McFadden was in the running for Player of the Year as Donegal reclaimed ownership of Sam Maguire in 2012 having scored 4-32 along the way.
Those predatory instincts were laid down in the final when, after eleven minutes, he seized on a rebound after Patrick McBrearty struck an upright before firing low past David Clarke to the Hill 16 net.
An All-Star followed, but it was not by chance that McFadden reached the top, but rather by his own design.
[adrotate group=”68″]His father, Colm senior, once drove him through the snow from Creeslough to Galway in 2003 to train with UCG. McFadden and UCG won a Sigerson Cup medal that year. It had all been worthwhile.
“It could be a Saturday afternoon or any random evening during the week and it wouldn’t be unusual to wander past The Bridge and Colm would be out kicking ball, practicing his frees,” Lafferty says.
“He’s lethal inside. He’s a killer in there.
“All you hear from opponents is: ‘Watch the left’; ‘Put him on his right’, but if Colm gets that half-a-yard on you he’ll punish you.
“He has fantastic composure, mental ability and concentration. His coolness under pressure is there for everyone to see.”
Gallagher was captain of St Michael’s when they reached the Donegal SFC final in 2011. Although two years McFadden’s junior he’s always been in his company.
“Sometimes you actually think that he can do the impossible,” he says
[adrotate group=”70″]“He just oozes confidence and it’s never advisable to take Colm off. When he’s on form there’s actually no stopping him – a blanket defence and he’ll just stick them over from way out the field; you need to be stuck to him like a plaster. I’d trust him with anything inside the opposition half at all – regardless of the breeze!
“He has natural ability, obviously, but he works hard at it. He isn’t a man who turns up at the weekend and, by chance, expects the kicks to go for him.
“Still, to this day, his frees are something that he works on.”
The stance is a familiar one: Facing away from the posts, around he sweeps, effortlessly pinging over with that trusted left boot.
“We had the same with Enda Gormley in Derry where the run-up nearly defied everything,” Moran says. “But under pressure, there is no-one as cool. He’s the man for the big scores and he pops up with them so many times.
“It’s just a fearlessness.”
Sports people known by just their Christian names are a rare and unique breed, but it’s something that marks out just good they were or are.
Donegal should always be thankful for Colm Anthony.
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