I STARTED with Mickey Moran last week in my review of my Donegal managers, and today I move onto my second boss.

After a well-documented fall out after our All-Ireland quarter-final drawn game with Dublin when the majority of the squad decided to stay for pints rather than travel home, Mickey’s time was effectively at an end.

Dublin beat us in the replay and the backlash from that decision was ferocious. Mickey walked and our squad at that time was viewed as toxic and no one would touch it.

The Brian McEniff Years

Brian McEniff was county chairman at the time so he led up a sub-committee to try and find a manager.

Long story short, no one would touch the job so with the love that Brian had for his county he wasn’t going to let that happen so he stepped up to the plate.

At that time Donegal were painted as the party boys of the county football scene but in all honestly it wasn’t like that. We had a seriously talented squad with the likes of Damien Diver, John Gildea Micheal Hegarty, Adrian Sweeney, who at that time was untouchable, Brendan Devenney. Then you had the influx of young lads myself, Christy Toye and Colm McFadden.

We trained extremely hard but at times we would perhaps lose the run of ourselves. Our problem was that although other teams were doing it, they hid it better. I remember one particular case when the lads went to Letterkenny for a day session after the league finished and it ended up being the talking point for two hours on a local radio station the next morning.

When Brian came in things went pretty well for us and we all took to him, especially the younger lads. He looked after his players very well off the pitch securing jobs, etc for them and making sure that their heads were right.

He looked after the younger lads well. Christy Toye, Éamonn McGee and I shared a house in Sligo at the time for college. Brian would ring us up and ask “did you three get your training runs done this evening?” Yeah we did Brian.” “Well head down to the Great Southern and get yourselves a good steak.” We were the best-fed students in Ireland courtesy of the McEniff Hotel Group.

On the football pitch Armagh were at their peak having just won Sam the year before. We lost to Fermanagh in our first outing and it looked like the wheels were going to come off the wagon but credit to Brian he stabilised things and we went on an almighty run that year through the Qualifiers.

We drew with Galway in Croke Park in the quarter-final and the replay was fixed for Castlebar. As players we honestly didn’t mind where the game was played but this annoyed Brian as he felt Galway had an unfair advantage.

He went to work on the media like a well-polished politician and before we knew it this had tuned into a mighty uproar. Before we left the hotel he spoke and he said how hurt he was that the GAA would make families from Donegal travel this far to see the game. “We are on a pilgrimage lads and by f**k we are not going home defeated.” Donegal supporters outnumbered Galway three to one that day and we managed to get the win to set up an All-Ireland semi-finals with old rivals Armagh.

At that time a lot was being made about the physical shape Armagh were in and again Brian being Brian he used this to spur us on. In the build up to the game every night in the huddle he would pick one of us out “Cass stand out there. Are you a proud Gweedore man?” “I am Brian, why?” “Well in all my time playing this game I’ve yet to see a soft Gweedore man who would lie down to anyone so are you going to be the first?” I honestly would have tried to take Kieran McGeeney’s head off if he were on that pitch beside me that night.

He did this with all of our players, touching on the pace of some and the height of others so by game time we were well up for it.

Back then, unlike Armagh, we did no gym work, no tactics, no match-ups – we used to just play football and even with all of those disadvantages I feel that we left that game behind us.

Christy Toye scored a goal that day and we were all on our way until our full-back Raymond Sweeney got sent off. Armagh came back and pipped us at the post. Looking back if we got our match-ups right and were a little more clued in tactically then we would have won.

Of course we had the odd stumble under Brian. There were a few during his time but the funniest one was one day after Armagh had beaten us in the Ulster final up in Croke Park.

After the game and after the last episode in Dublin with Mickey Moran, it was announced that everyone was to go home win, lose or draw.

Colm McFadden and I had other ideas and the pair of us headed for Quinn’s. At that time my brother Stephen was on the panel so after the first pint my phone starts to ring. The bus had already departed but they soon realised we were still in Dublin so Brian got Stephen to pass the message onto me. Basically the bus was stopping in Cavan for food and if we didn’t make it down before the bus left we would never play for Donegal again.

Colm rang his father who was at the game and he drove the pair of us to Cavan. When we landed in the boys had a few pints in them by then and the place erupted. McEniff simply came over to me hit me a wee dig in the ribs and said “you’re not as stupid as you look.” He smiled, walked away and all was good again.

As we headed for home we all got a carry out for the bus. By the time we landed in Donegal the bus was rocking. Johnny McCafferty from Termon had a camcorder with him and he was recording the whole thing. Just outside Donegal town I went up to the front to have a word with Brian. Now anyone that knows me will know that after a few beers I tend to put people in headlocks if I am having a football heart-to-heart with them.

So with Brian in a headlock I take the mic and start to address the bus. “Lads we were defeated today but we will rise again, we will come back stronger and more determined.” It was like a scene out of Braveheart and after every line the lads would burst into an almighty roar, banging the roof as if they were getting ready for war. That video never did appear thankfully as God only knows what else is on it.

From a footballing sense Brian was terribly unlucky not to win anything with us at that time. Armagh and Tyrone were ahead of everyone at that stage with their strength and conditioning and tactics while the rest of us were still just going out to play.

I am still very close to Brian to this day and I have great admiration for him as a person. He will ring me every Christmas Day to ask how the family is. He is and always will be Mr Donegal.

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