THREE YEARS ON, Brendan McDyer remains haunted by a moment that will linger in his memory for eternity.
There were just two minutes left to play in a tense county final under the early-evening glow of the floodlights at Sean MacCumhaill Park.
A greasy, damp and darkening Sunday never really came to life, but Naomh Conaill headed through Glenfin that evening wondering just how they’d left Dr Maguire behind them.
Lee McMonagle netted a scarcely-deserved goal to put St Eunan’s in front, but Naomh Conaill drew level through Daragh Gallagher.
Two minutes remained on the clock when Naomh Conaill were awarded a sideline ball, well inside their own half.
With the shadows lengthening, McDyer attempted to play the ball back to Stephen McGrath, his goalkeeper, only to over-cook his pass.
From the resulting ’45, Mark McGowan converted the match-winning score and McDyer sank to his knees, head in hands, as Robbie O’Donnell’s last blow of the whistle echoed.
“Things like that don’t go away,” he says now, ahead of another county final joust with St Eunan’s, the fourth year these two tribes go to war.
“You always see things like that happening in sport, but you never think that it’ll happen to you, especially when you put a lot of work into it.
“It’s something I have to live with.
“When a new championship came, it was like a fresh start and you’re playing new teams, but it’s always there at the back of the mind.
“People can say whatever they want to you about keeping the head up and forgetting about it, but that stuff doesn’t make one bit of a difference.
“Things like that do make you stronger as a character, too. If I had a penny for every time I heard something about that whispered in my ear… I get reminded about it nearly every day I go out on the pitch. It toughens you up, stuff like that, and it encourages and drives you on.”
The general consensus that year was that it was a case of one that got away for Naomh Conaill. Nowhere was that feeling more prevalent than within their own ranks.
“It was a funny, almost low-key championship after Donegal won the All-Ireland,” says McDyer.
“We were really set up and hungry for the final. We were the better team that day. We were on top, but we didn’t take scores just after half-time and St Eunan’s are the kind of team who will punish you for that.”
McDyer was in the thick of it 10 years ago, in 2005, when Naomh Conaill broke down the barriers to win their first-ever Donegal SFC crown.
Against St Eunan’s, few gave them hope, but McDyer’s free in added time earned them a replay, which they won.
There’ll never be another first for the Glenties men.
“2005 came and went in a flash,” McDyer says.
“We were so used being in underage finals from under-12 right up to senior. It wasn’t a break from the norm for us because we’d been in so many finals.
“It wasn’t until after we’d won it that we realised the size of what we achieved.
“When you’re young, eager and full of confidence, there’s a certain amount of arrogance about you and you’ll try some things you wouldn’t do with experience. “You just keep trying things – and that adds a lot to a team as Eoghan McGettigan and Rory Carr have shown with these two teams this year.
“You don’t feel pressure and you just don’t care what people say about you. If we could have played the replay the next day we’d have done that.”
It took Naomh Conaill four years to get back to a final.
Their title was relinquished at the hands of St Michael’s in 2006 and it was 2009 before they graced the big stage again, when they were beaten by St Eunan’s. A year later and they were kings again as Cathal Corey led them to glory and subsequently to an Ulster final, where they lost to Crossmaglen.
“It was a long number of years for us to get back there and we had a lot of growing up to do,” says McDyer.
“We were at an age where we were out at night trying to juggle everything. We enjoyed ourselves when we could, but when the dust settled we realised we had to settle down and concentrate on the football.”
In the weeks before the 2005 final, Donegal GAA officials made the surprise appointment of Brian McIver to the position of senior football team manager. McIver was taken by that Naomh Conaill squad and McDyer was among those given the call.
Never before had Glenties seen departures like it when county training came around with Anthony Thompson, Leon Thompson and Thomas Donoghue also called up.
“I was only 18 and it was a great experience,” says McDyer, who featured in the 2006 and 2007 Dr McKenna Cups.
“I’m not a big man now, but I was a hell of a lot smaller back then. I was 10 stone at the time, coming up against Adrian Sweeney and Barry Monaghan. I learned a lot about looking after myself from that.”
McDyer has been struggling with injury over the last two months, but feels raring to go ahead of the final having been an unused sub for the semi-final win over Kilcar and an agonising quarter-final win against Termon.
“When you’re there in a tracksuit and runners you don’t really feel a part of it as much,” he says.
“When you’re on the sideline, you’re a bag of nerves, but when you’re in there as a player, strangely, you’re nearly calmer because you can actually do something about it.”
With new manager Martin Regan at the wheel, Naomh Conaill have been useful all season and laid down an early marker when they won the Donegal Comortas Peile na Gaeltachta title in Ardara, defeating Gaoth Dobhair in the final.
The clubs of the county are considering a series of options in relation to the structure of club football in the county, but McDyer doesn’t see the need for drastic action.
“There are a lot of distractions with club football, but you can manage it well,” he says.
“I know we played a lot of starred fixtures and a lot of people give out about them, but we’ve found it very beneficial in that it gave us a chance to blood in a few players.
“There is a seriously-competitive club scene out there and you need to be at yourself every single day you go out in Division 1 of the All-County League. Every League game is like a Championship game. You get your fill of it every day you’re out in the League.”
Tags: