Donie Buckley (born early 1960s) is an Irish

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

coach and former player. He played at full forward with his local club

Castleisland Desmonds Castleisland Desmonds are a Gaelic Athletic Association club in Castleisland, County Kerry, Ireland. The club is affiliated with North Kerry and their players play with St Kieran's divisional team. The club won its first County Championship in ...

but never with the Kerry county team. His coaching has taken him all along the western coast from Clare to Galway, to Limerick, Kerry and Mayo.

Career

Buckley scored a last-minute goal for Castleisland Desmonds in the final of the 1985

All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football tournament which began in season 1970–71. It is the top-tier competition for the senior football clubs of Ireland and London. The current champions are Cuala of D ...

to defeat St Vincents. Soon after retiring from playing he became involved in coaching. His coaching career began in Clare where he led

Milltown Malbay Milltown Malbay (), also Miltown Malbay, is a town in the west of County Clare, Ireland, near Spanish Point, County Clare, Spanish Point. The population was 921 at the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census. Name There is a townland on the souther ...

in 1990 and Faughs in 1994 to

Clare Senior Football Championship The Clare Senior Football Championship is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association club competition organised by Clare GAA between the top twelve gaelic football clubs in County Clare, Ireland. The winners represent the county in the Munster Senio ...

s. He served as joint manager with Michael Brennan of the Clare county team in 2006. He then moved on to the Galway county team, working as forwards coach under the management of Peter Ford for a year. Then onwards to Galway club

Moycullen Moycullen () is a village situated in the Gaeltacht region of County Galway, Ireland, about 10 km (7 mi) northwest of Galway city. It is near Lough Corrib, on the N59 road to Oughterard and Clifden, in Connemara. Moycullen is now ...

, whom he led to the 2008

All-Ireland Intermediate Club Football Championship The All-Ireland Intermediate Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association, GAA. It is played between the Intermediate championship winners from each of the thirty-two counties of ...

. Buckley then served as selector alongside

Mickey Ned O'Sullivan Mickey "Ned" O'Sullivan (born 14 April 1952) is an Irish former Gaelic football manager, selector and former player. His league and championship career at senior level with the Kerry county team spanned ten seasons from 1971 to 1980. Born in K ...

with

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

for three years, during which time the county experienced narrow losses in the finals of the

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and

2010 Munster Senior Football Championship The 2010 Munster Senior Football Championship was that year's installment of the annual Munster Senior Football Championship held under the auspices of the Munster GAA. Kerry won the title, defeating Limerick in the final. It was Limerick's second ...

s. O'Sullivan's previous coach Michael McGeehin, who left the Limerick team because of work commitments, recommended Buckley to O'Sullivan. He joined the Kerry senior setup in 2011. He then had to have knee surgery. He stood down from Kerry ahead of the start of the 2012 Championship, when Donegal knocked them out in the All-Ireland quarter-final. James Horan invited Buckley to join his Mayo management team in 2012. He was not there for Mayo's

2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final The 2012 All-Ireland Football Championship final, the 125th event of its kind and the culmination of the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, was played at Croke Park, Dublin, on 23 September 2012. Donegal and Mayo, widely considere ...

defeat to Donegal but spent six seasons there from 2013 until 2018. Buckley maintained his place throughout Horan's first spell as Mayo manager, then the replacement duo, and then the

Stephen Rochford Stephen Rochford (born 10 October 1978) is an Irish Gaelic football coach and former manager and player. He was manager of the senior Mayo county team from 2015 to 2018. Raised in Crossmolina, County Mayo, he won Connacht schools titles for G ...

-led management team. Leadership that led Mayo to over half a decade of qualification for either All-Ireland finals or semi-finals, playing a much admired style of play. According to the ''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...

'', "The technique and not just the ferocity of Mayo's tackling, epitomised by that same first half (of the 2017 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final), is seen as another Buckley trademark." Buckley left Mayo and returned to the Kerry setup after Peter Keane took over as manager at the end of 2018. He parted company with Kerry in 2020. Between 2011 and 2019 (nine seasons) Buckley was the coach of teams that played in five All-Ireland SFC finals (as well as two replays) and seven semi-finals (and two more replays). Buckley joined

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), Monaghan barony. The population of the town as of the 2022 cen ...

ahead of the 2021 season, replacing Conor Laverty after Laverty's appointment as Down under-20 manager. Buckley returned to Mayo in August 2022, upon the announcement of

Kevin McStay Kevin McStay (born 9 May 1962) is an Irish Gaelic football manager, commentator, analyst and former player. Educated at St Jarlath's College in Tuam during the 1970s, McStay played for the school team. In retirement from playing, McStay became ...

's appointment as manager. McStay named him as his head coach and selector.

Style

Buckley's background as

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

County Clare County Clare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern part of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council ...

has been attributed to his approach to coaching. O'Sullivan said in 2019: "Donie looks at football in a different way. He brought a different dimension to it, he brought a mathematical side to it. He used logic to analyse opposition and play to your own strengths. He was a big man for devising smallsided games where players got the opportunity to make decisions for themselves. It's common now but it wasn't then... Donie never stands still, he is pushing back his own concepts of the game the whole time. The game is always evolving so Donie will always evolve and find new ways, new approaches, new creativity. He never repeats anything." He studies American sports such as

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and their own version of football. Buckley himself does not court publicity, the ''

'' describing him as an "enigmatic character."

Honours

Player

: 1985

Coach

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) () is the premier inter-county competition in Gaelic football. County (Gaelic games), County teams compete against each other and the winner is declared All-Ireland Champions. Organised by the ...

runner-up:

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Munster Senior Football Championship The Munster Senior Football Championship, known simply as the Munster Championship and shortened to Munster SFC, is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Munster GAA, Munster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Associatio ...

runner-up: 2009, 2010 *

: 2008 *

: 1990, 1994

Personal life

Married to Áine, the couple holiday in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

each winter and Buckley plays

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckley, Donie 1960s births Living people Castleisland Gaelic footballers Clare county football team non-playing personnel Engineers from County Kerry Gaelic football coaches Gaelic football forwards Gaelic football managers Gaelic football selectors Gaelic games players from County Kerry Galway county football team non-playing personnel Irish civil engineers Kerry county football team non-playing personnel Limerick county football team non-playing personnel Mayo county football team non-playing personnel Monaghan county football team non-playing personnel 20th-century Irish engineers 21st-century Irish engineers Year of birth missing (living people)