But by September 2017, Bonner was back in charge and he didn’t appear of a mind to give too many plaudits to the previous regime, when giving his mission statement about what he wanted to achieve second-time round with Donegal.
“The future in Donegal is bright but a lot of things need to change,” said Bonner on the evening he was officially unveiled, which came a few months after he had guided the county’s under-21s to an Ulster title, further building on the managerial stock of his minor side’s provincial triumph in 2014.
“We have taken a step or two back in the past couple of seasons and we have to take a look at that. We have to adapt.
“We have become too one-dimensional and too predictable and that will take work on the training field.”
Gerry McLaughlin cautions that we could be in danger of reading too much into Bonner’s seemingly critical verdict on Gallagher’s reign.
“Bonner was a new manager coming in and he certainly wanted to put his stamp on things,” says Gerry, whose status as one of the GAA’s true Renaissance men was only further emphasised by his recent publication of a book of poetry entitled ‘The Breed of Me’ which details his love of family, the GAA, his locality and the written word.
“Rory Gallagher had a stellar reputation. In many people’s eyes, he was the guy who did the nuts and bolts of bringing Donegal to that All-Ireland title. Now things went a wee bit bad for him, especially in 2017.