Patrick McBrearty played pivotal part in bringing back special days
Patrick McBrearty of Donegal during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-final match between Meath and Donegal at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
He may not be a starting captain, but if Patrick McBrearty gets to lift the Sam Maguire on Sunday evening there will be little doubt about how profound his impact will have been on getting Donegal over the All-Ireland line.
It is not so much what he has done coming from the bench - he has nailed 0-5 from play in his last two appearances against Monaghan and Meath - but it is also his off the ball and off-the-pitch work that has brought them to this point.
On the day after Donegal limped out of the 2023 championship after an entirely expected preliminary quarter-final defeat to Tyrone, he led a player-delegation - it was also understood to have included Eoghan Bán Gallagher, Hugh McFadden and Ryan McHugh - that knocked on Jim McGuinness’ door in Creeslough.
"We didn't really know what to expect to be honest," admits McBrearty.
"We knew Jim was either going to welcome us with two arms or there was going to be another response. When you doorstep someone, and if it was me, I probably would have told him to clear.
"We hadn't seen each other in a long time and had a good chat about things. Obviously where Donegal football was at and stuff, but he never said no, which kept the thing alive.
"Obviously if he said no, that would have been fine. It wasn't just one conversation, there were a few conversations obviously and kept the pressure on.
"There were a lot of leaks around Donegal at the time and you're trying to keep it as tight as possible to be honest.
"I'd say three people did know really at the time. You tried to keep it amongst those people that you trusted, basically.
"You knew that it wouldn't get out and it didn't really get out until a few days before he was coming back.
"Thankfully he did come back, because God knows where the whole thing would be at the minute if he didn't."
Where Donegal football is at the minute is right back to when McBrearty was a wide-eyed teenager still playing minor when Jim McGuinness brought him in in 2011, winning back-to-back Ulster titles before going on to win the All-Ireland in 2012.
Along with Michael Murphy, the 31-year-old Kilcar man is the only playing survivor from that time, and he concedes that it is not just time he has bridged, but a generation.
"After the semi-finals in ‘11, ‘12, ‘14, you would go to the Abbey Hotel for a few drinks.
"Our boys now are just glad to get a 99 ice cream. It's just a different group. They're just totally different," says McBrearty, who fingers that youthful fearlessness as the tipping point in their season.
In their final group game against Mayo - opposition that had developed into a bogey side in the aftermath of the 2012 All-Ireland final - they had done enough to secure second place with a draw as the game entered its final play in Dr Hyde Park, but instead they used that moment to reveal a ruthless edge as Ciaran Moore surged up field to kick the score that would dump the Connacht men out.
"It was a big moment, it probably showed a bit of ruthlessness from our boys. I think if that game was maybe five or six years ago, we wouldn't have won that game.
"Obviously, we didn't know the result at the time of the Cavan/Tyrone game, but Ciarán just had no fear.
"That's one of the positives of being a young fella, he had no mental scars. He just took the ball on as a young fella and tried to go up the field and score. Whereas if that was an experienced player, he'd probably recycle the ball and get into an established attack.
"Whereas Ciarán Moore just took it upon himself to run 80 metres down the field and kick the ball over the bar.
"I suppose there was a bit of a hoodoo over Mayo, we hadn't beaten Mayo in a championship game in 13 years. That was a big one for us as well, especially for the older players to beat one of the bigger teams.
"We've just been on a roll since.’ And it has taken him to the point where he now gets a shot at knocking at another door.
"I never thought I would be captain of Donegal, I probably thought Michael would be around all the time and that he’d be captain.
"I was lucky to get the nod when he left.
"In 2023, we were in a bad enough place and we weren’t talking about winning Ulsters. Winning it back to back now was brilliant, obviously they are days you remember for the rest of your life.
"It was great to win them as a player but to be captain was so special."
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