[3] His state representative debut for New South Wales came in the 1973 senior men's eight which contested the King's Cup at the Interstate Regatta within the Australian Rowing Championships.
[5][6] Donnelly, along with the coach and seven members of the victorious 1974 NSW King's Cup crew were selected as the Australian men's eight to compete at the 1974 World Rowing Championships in Lucerne.
[8] An accountant, Donnelly spent much of his career as Bursar, Financial Controller and Business Manager at the Kinross Wolaroi School in Orange, New South Wales.
[9] Donnelly started to coach and assist the Vietnam national rowing team in 2010 following a chance encounter with Vietnamese rowers when he was holidaying in the country in 2009.
[12] During the following Olympiad Donnelly assisted in the development of a national training program, enabling a Vietnamese women's lightweight double scull rowed by Tạ Thanh Huyền and Hồ Thị Lý to qualify and compete at Rio 2016.