IT IS approaching six years now since Patrick McBrearty was handed his first Donegal senior appearance.
The Kilcar man is still only 23, but has long since become a first choice fixture in the Donegal attack and has 76 Donegal appearances to his name already.
He was just 17 when Jim McGuinness introduced him as a substitute in Donegal’s Ulster SFC win over Antrim in 2011 – having played for the county minors earlier that day.
McBrearty was still at school in Colaiste na Carraige at the time and he wasn’t long out of secondary education when he won the All-Ireland SFC with Donegal in 2012.
McBrearty talks of himself now of donning a ‘leadership’ role and he dismisses talk of Donegal being in transition.
“People on the outside might say that and not think before they speak, but as players we’re very confident the way things are going,” he says ahead of Sunday’s opening Allianz League game against Kerry.
“We’ve been in the last six Ulster finals in a row. Success breeds success and you become even hungrier. We’re really happy with where we’re at at the minute.
As a squad we’re all united and want to prove to each other we’re in this together. We have Kerry, Dublin, Monaghan and Tyrone all at home in the Allianz League so there’ll be big crowds and hopefully we can get momentum behind us. It’s exciting times to be honest.
“One win over a big team and people will have a different view of Donegal.”
Donegal take on Kerry in Letterkenny this weekend. While Rory Gallagher admits that it could be a ‘very young’ Donegal team that lines out agianst the Kingdom, McBrearty is hopeful for the future.
“It’s a breath of fresh air to see them coming in and it’s great to see they have no fear,” says the Ulster University student.
“They want to challenge the older lads and pressure us, and that’s better for the whole squad. The majority of leaders are still there in Michael (Murphy), Karl (Lacey) and Frank (McGlynn) and we’ve already achieved our first goal for the season, which was integrating the young lads.”
McBrearty hit seven points for UU on Tuesday as they defeated Garda College in the Sigerson Cup.
There is a big Donegal contingent at UU, with Martin McHugh managing and the likes of McBrearty, Ryan McHugh, Eoin McHugh, Lorcan Connor and John Fitzgerald on the squad.
Last year, Donegal and Kerry were involved in an ugly contest in Tralee. Leo McLoone and Alan Fitzgerald were sent off that day, Neil McGee was retrospectively punished while the two counties were fined €5,000 for their part.
McBrearty says: “I don’t get involved in scuffles but I did that day and I don’t know why. We didn’t go out to set that tone but from the first 10 seconds there was a schmozzle.
“I was involved in an incident with Aidan O’Mahony underneath the stand. I was probably lucky enough to get away with it. It was soon forgotten. I can’t see it happening again.”
Tags: