Ross Wherity

Ross Wherity

Personal information
Irish name	Ross Ó Fabhartaigh
Sport	Gaelic football
Position	Left Half Forward
Born	Letterkenny, Ireland
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Club(s)
Years	Club
2006–	St Eunan's
Club titles
Donegal titles	2
Inter-county(ies)
Years	County
2009–2013 2014–	Donegal New York
Inter-county titles
Ulster titles	0
All-Irelands	0
NFL	0
All Stars	0

Ross Wherity
Personal information
Full name	Ross Ó Fabhartaigh [1]
Place of birth	County Donegal, Ireland
Original team(s)	Donegal (Gaelic football)
Club information
Current club	St Eunan's
Playing career
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
?–	St Eunan's

Ross Wherity is an Irish sportsperson. A Gaelic footballer with the St Eunan's club, he has been a member of the Donegal county team at under-21, minor and senior levels.

Known for his tendency not to settle with one team (or even one sport), Wherity has also been in Australia to play Australian rules football, ^{[2] [3]} in Poland as part of an attempt to make it at a major soccer tournament and was last known to be playing Championship football for the New York county team.

Playing career

Club

For his club Wherity has played and scored in the Ulster Senior Club Football Championship, ^{[4] [5]} where his team have progressed as far as the semi-finals. ^[6] His play for his club has been praised by former Armagh manager Joe Kernan. ^[7] He has enjoyed great success with the Letterkenny club with four Donegal Senior Football Championship medals to his name but he was in New York for their most recent victory in 2014. He was missing after going to Poland for UEFA Euro 2012. ^[8]

Inter-county

He scored as Donegal won a first Ulster Minor Football Championship in 10 years at Croke Park in 2006. ^[9] He also impressed for the Donegal U-21 team. ^[10]

He scored a goal for the county senior team in the 2009 Dr McKenna Cup. ^[11] He was also on the 2010 Dr McKenna Cup team. ^[1]

He returned to the Donegal team for the 2013 National Football League, immediately thrown into the starting line-up for the opening game against Kildare at Croke Park due to an injury suffered by Mark McHugh. Fouled in the fifth minute, with captain Michael Murphy popping over the resulting free, he then spent the remainder of the game tripping and falling over a lot on his face. ^[12] He started the next game as well, a home tie against Down, and from the full forward position ended with a final total of one point. ^{[13] [14]} In the third game of Donegal's league campaign, against Tyrone at Healy Park, he tripped and fell over himself in the opposition penalty area shortly before half-time, just before Donegal captain Michael Murphy was sent off. ^[15] Minus Murphy for the second half (meaning he was one of Donegal's main attacking threats left on the field of play), he was through on goal at one point but scuffed a shot wide; Donegal lost. ^[16] In the fourth game of Donegal's league campaign, against Kerry, he was knocked over yet again and another penalty given, which Murphy scored. ^[17]

Move to New York

In 2013, Wherity absconded from Donegal, fled Ireland and took up residence in Big Apple, New York. Despite expectations that he would return for their Championship meeting with Malin, ^[18] Wherity disappointed Naomh Adhamhnáin by failing to make it out of the ranch; the round ended with a shock defeat and knock-out for the Letterkenny men against their more northerly opponents. ^[19]

You are moving to one of the best cities, the craziest cities in the world. You need football there in your life to keep you sane I think. You're out partying and all that kind of stuff, but to get back down to the hard work it's good to be grounded and have the lads around you. It's a great network as well to have, to be able to rely upon all the boys there. Jobs-wise, it's good for that there as well, contacts in the city, there is a lot of influence within the football. It is a great thing to have. ^[20]

Since moving stateside Wherity has become one of the "well-known names on the New York side" that competes in the Connacht Senior Football Championship, according to the Irish Independent . ^[21]

Honours

• Ulster Minor Football Championship: 2006 ^[9]
• Donegal Senior Football Championship: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012

References

1. "Mc Kenna Cup Panel 2010". Sportsmanager.ie. 2 January 2010. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
2. "New rules set to reduce GAA exports Down Under". Irish Examiner . 26 October 2011. Retrieved 26 October 2011. From Flying Start to Titan, McCormack has brought Galway's Ronan Steede and Ross Wherity from Donegal who have been playing for Geelong League club, the Grovedale Tigers.
3. Wade, Nick (9 December 2010). "Irish recruit Ross Wherity lands at Grovedale". Geelong Advertiser . Retrieved 9 December 2010.
4. "Round-up of Sunday's club games". RTÉ Sport. 2 November 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
5. "Clonoe 1–8 2–10 St Eunan's". BBC Sport. 2 November 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
6. "Crossmaglen 0–11 0–8 St Eunan's". BBC Sport. 16 November 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
7. Kernan, Joe (18 November 2008). "Joe Kernan: Lower the prices GAA, that is just the ticket". The Belfast Telegraph . Independent News & Media. Retrieved 18 November 2008. Rangers came back strongly against St Eunan's when they found themselves 0–6 to 0–2 down and eventually secured their passage into the final although I was most impressed with Rory Kavanagh, David McGinley, Ross Wherity, Kevin Rafferty, John Haran and Conal Dunne in the Donegal champions' line-up.
8. "St. Eunan's goals sink Naomh Conaill". Donegal Democrat . 11 June 2012. Retrieved 11 June 2012. Naomh Conaill also lined out without the injured Eoin Waide, John O'Malley and Dominic Bonner while Eunan's were minus Ross Wherity, who is in Poland for Euro 2012.
9. "Second-half surge sees Donegal end long title wait". Irish Independent . 10 July 2006. Retrieved 10 July 2006.
10. "April Fools' date for U21 matches". BBC Sport. 19 March 2009. Retrieved 19 March 2009.
11. "Sunday's Dr McKenna Cup Round-up". RTÉ Sport. 5 January 2009. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
12. "FL1: Kildare tops in absorbing contest". Hogan Stand . 2 February 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2013. Both sides made two changes to their initial line ups as Marty Boyle came in for Paddy McGrath and Ross Wherity replaced Mark McHugh for Donegal and Niall Kelly and Dan Flynn came in for McNally and Eoghan O'Flaherty in the Kildare line up. [...] The sparse crowd had to wait until the fifth minute when Michael Murphy slotted over a free after Ross Wherity was fouled and it was a further four minutes later when the second score of the match came and once again it was from a Murphy free.
13. "Donegal 0–12 Down 0–07". RTÉ Sport. 9 February 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
14. "National Football League: Donegal 0–12 0–7 Down". BBC Sport. 9 February 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
15. "Tyrone 1–13 Donegal 0–12". RTÉ Sport. 3 March 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
16. "Tyrone defeat 13-man Donegal in Omagh". Irish Independent . 3 March 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
17. "National League: Donegal 1–12 0–5 Kerry". BBC Sport. 10 March 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
18. McNulty, Chris (19 August 2013). "Eunan's to fly New York-bound Wherity in for Championship". Donegal News . Retrieved 19 August 2013.
19. Ferry, Ryan (20 September 2013). "SFC: Haran to call time with Eunan's". Donegal News . Retrieved 20 September 2013.
20. Kelly, Niall (3 May 2014). "Donegal's Ross Wherity ready for a different kind of championship in 'crazy' New York: Mayo game is "do or die", says one of the familiar faces on the New York team". The42.ie. Archived from the original on 5 May 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
21. Breheny, Martin; Verney, Michael (6 May 2017). "Sligo on high alert over New York threat". Irish Independent . Retrieved 6 May 2017.

External links

• Ross Wherity at gaainfo.com
• "St Eunan's overcome their 'lost generation' as Maxi Curran's 'new team' win Dr Maguire"