McEniff playing it low key
The county last contested the knockout stages - in Division One - six years ago, when they beat Cork in the quarter-final before losing to eventual winners Offaly.
Brian McEniff achieved a minor miracle when taking over the team early last year, when nobody else appeared to be interested in the job. After a disastrous League campaign and a surprise defeat by Fermanagh (in their only Ulster championship appearance), they won four games in the qualifier competition and pushed champions Armagh all the way in the All-Ireland quarter-final before going under by four points.
"It's nice to be unbeaten and nice to say we have won all our matches, but we have not played well,'' says the popular Donegal manager.
"We have not played consistently in matches. Since we went back after last year, we have played 13 matches and won 12. The only match we lost, we lost heavily in the McKenna Cup to Tyrone. But the team has not been playing well, only for 'half-games'. We have come through the division, but we stole a couple of matches.''
In general, they had to "battle" in every match. Contrary to what people may think, there's no such thing as an easy match in Division Two. Clare put it up to them, while Roscommon and Monaghan "had them on the ropes". These were games they could have lost, he points out.
In last year's League - when they competed in Division 1A, they did lose games, all but one in fact, after they defeated Roscommon in the last round. They might have won the game before, away to Cork, except that they "didn't go for it", resting some players and not using any of their under-21 squad players.
"We were relegated after the first five matches, but we had no preparation,'' McEniff says. "And we started with Galway in Galway, then we played Armagh, who were flying at the time, Tyrone and then Kerry. For a team that had no training done, we were scuttled after five matches. But we had an inordinate number of injuries, the spine of the team was out - from full-back to full-forward.''
If the form to date concerns him, McEniff is still very positive, obviously pleased to be heading the division.
He also points to the fact that they have had a lot of injuries and that 13 of the squad are third level students.
After concentrating on building up stamina, he's confident the longer evenings will enable them to improve sharpness and "bring focus to their play".
As a prominent GAA administrator, he approves of the system whereby the teams in the first and second divisions play off for separate trophies. By and large, he feels it's a better way.
"It's very hard to win a National League out of Division Two, but it's only a few years since Armagh and Kerry were down and they went on to contest the All-Ireland final.''
Looking over his shoulder, McEniff feels that dual champions Tyrone are still the team to beat.
"Looking at where they are coming from, Tyrone for me would be the team up on a plateau. Underneath, you'd have Kerry, Cork and Galway - in spite of their results - possibly Laois and maybe the Dubs. And below that, ourselves, Armagh, Limerick, Mayo, Meath, Kildare, Roscommon, Derry, Down and Monaghan.''
It makes for an interesting season ahead.
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