donoghue was drafted in by eamon o'shea to help out with a variety of coaching and statistics roles with the tipperary senior hurling team in 2014. in his second and final season with the team tipperary suffered a 0-26 to 3-16 defeat by galway in the all-ireland semi-final. donoghue later said: "it was hard, very hard but like any job when you are asked to do something you just focus on the job that you are given. i suppose if you were going to get beaten then galway were going to be the team you wanted to succeed and push on."