'That’s the one word I would use to describe Louth boss Gavin Devlin: charismatic'

Devlin's Louth are just 70 minutes away from a place in this year’s All-Ireland final.

CHARISMATIC: Louth manager Gavin Devlin during a media event at Cullen Autoparts Louth GAA Training Centre in Darver, Louth. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

IT was one of those rare GAA interviews blissfully lacking in subtlety or choreography. Just in case there was any ambiguity about Gavin Devlin’s on or off-the-record broadside aimed at Sean Cavanagh in May 2018, he said at the end of the interview, ‘And you can quote all of that.’

The season before Cavanagh had announced his inter-county retirement from Tyrone and was making his way in the world of GAA punditry.

In an interview, Cavanagh described his former manager Mickey Harte as "autocratic" and felt Tyrone’s style of play was stifling many of the team’s attackers.

“The way Tyrone has played this past three or four years, we haven't really played with any structure in the forward unit,” said Cavanagh.

“Ronan O'Neill, Darren McCurry, Kyle Coney who came through way back in 2009, 2010, Niall McKenna, there's been a flood of guys who probably have suffered because we haven't played with six attackers…” 

Cavanagh and Harte’s relationship always had a couple of sharp edges to it. But for Devlin, who was Harte’s right-hand man since 2012, Cavanagh’s blunt assessment overstepped the mark.

In response to Cavanagh's interview, Devlin didn’t sugar-coat anything and openly questioned his former team-mate’s captaincy of the Red Hands.

“If Sean thought something wasn’t right, as captain, why didn’t he come and have a conversation with us rather than saying it in an RTÉ studio?” Devlin said.

“I’ve had a number of conversations with Sean and he never mentioned anything about styles of play or what we should and shouldn’t do.

“We’ve been very, very close in recent years and we didn’t get over the line to win an All-Ireland. Maybe that’s what was missing - that calibre of captaincy.”

While Devlin was stung by Cavanagh’s comments, the Ardboe man was also fiercely loyal to Harte.

“I’d follow him to the ends of the earth,” Devlin said of Harte in 2021. “I’ve been with him since ’98 with the Tyrone minors and he’s been a big part of my football life and I suppose I’m realistic to know he’s not going to be around forever.

“I feel blessed every day we go out onto the field.” And yet, Devlin's own inter-county career stuttered to an unsatisfactory conclusion under the man he ended up partnering on the sidelines for 13 years.

Harte was in awe of Devlin’s “dancing feet”. While he wasn’t the quickest of players, Devlin played the defensive sweeper’s role to a tee and was elemental to Tyrone’s first All-Ireland success in 2003.

“I played in the 2003 All-Ireland final and I think I kick-passed the ball once," Devlin remarked.

“I was a really good kick passer. But you didn’t need to kick pass the ball when you had Philip Jordan flying off your shoulder, or Ryan McMenamin, or Cormac McAnallen. The wise thing to do was throw to them and get the transition going from back to front. We were so good at it.” 

By ’05, Devlin wasn't as effective, and change was coming. He was dropped from the Tyrone starting line-up ahead of the All-Ireland quarter-final replay with Dublin, and didn't feature much after that.

The Tyrone defence was recalibrated with Conor Gormley effectively taking over Devlin's role in the team.

“I knew there was a better balance and shape to the team,” Devlin reflected in 2016. “I knew my role had to be different. I was disappointed. Of course, I was disappointed. My family were disappointed. But I couldn’t be an energy-sapper - I had to be an energy-giver."

Brian McGuigan, the great playmaker of the early-to-mid Noughties, played with Devlin at Ardboe from the youth ranks right through to senior at both club and county. As kids, every day of summer was spent on the field behind McGuigan’s house kicking ball.

“If somebody had said to me that one of us was going to be a manager of a county team in later life, you would have picked Gavin,” McGuigan says.

“He would talk you through matches, conducting things. He was a leader from a young age.” 

As he prepares the Louth footballers for Saturday's All-Ireland semi-final showdown with Mayo, Devlin’s coaching career is vast at this stage.

Alongside Harte at Tyrone, Louth and Derry, the 46-year-old’s coaching CV includes spells with his native Ardboe, Newbridge, Bellaghy and Slaughtneil and Magherafelt.

Between 2012 and 2020, Harte and Devlin oversaw the changing of the guard in Tyrone and phased in the cream of the 2015 U21 All-Ireland team.

Despite some gallant attempts, the pair couldn’t deliver a fourth All-Ireland crown.

When they were moved out of post, Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher won the Sam Maguire at the first attempt, in 2021.

By that time, Harte and Devlin were starting a revolution in Louth.

Sam Mulroy was immediately blown away by Devlin’s football IQ, describing him as “the best coach I’ve ever seen”.

“Gavin is my dream coach/manager,” Mulroy said. “His attitude is absolutely infectious. I could spend all day on the training pitch with him.” After a couple of league promotions and some serious progress being made, the Louth footballers were left reeling by the news of Harte and Devlin's departure to Derry at the end of the 2023 season.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner in May of this year, Devlin explained his reasons for going to Derry, which lasted just one season before he returned as Academy head in the 'Wee' County.

“I was hesitant about it, not because I didn’t want to get involved with Derry but because I had a connection with Louth.

“The reason I went is I didn’t want Mickey going on his own and if it had worked out as it did, I would have felt guilty. It was the right thing to do in that moment - and for large parts of the season some of Derry’s performances were excellent.” 

Devlin's links with Slaughtneil during COVID only reasserted the notion in the wider Derry GAA community that they had landed the perfect managerial partnership to take them to the All-Ireland title.

“It was Paul Bradley’s first year as Slaughtneil’s senior football manager,” says Emmets dual player and Derry's All-Star defender Chrissy McKaigue.

“Paul was asking me who would be a good trainer for us. I don’t know how his name came up but Paul being fairly innovative said, ‘I’m gonna ring Gavin Devlin.’ 

At that time, I’d never come across Gavin and, lo and behold, Paul rang me back later that evening and said, ‘Gavin Devlin is going to come in with me.’ 

“Gavin was a massive coup for us. When he joined in that COVID year I just developed a really good relationship with him. He then became the Ardboe manager and I went in with him for a couple of months after Derry had finished. So, I was delighted when he became part of the Derry set-up [in July 2023].

The Derry footballers were deemed All-Ireland contenders entering the 2024 season and the arrival of Harte and Devlin didn’t dispel that notion either when they claimed the Division One title.

With home advantage and Derry on an upward trajectory, they were strongly fancied to take down Jim McGuinness’s Donegal team in the opening round of Ulster.

During a Championship media launch at Belfast's Ulster University, Harte gave Devlin the biggest imaginable build-up, describing his assistant as the best coach he’d ever seen.

“He’s the most creative coach that you could imagine,” said Harte. “On every aspect of the game, he’s on top of it.” 

A couple of weeks later, Derry malfunctioned badly in the Championship showdown and Donegal cantered to victory.

Although Derry were neck and neck with Kerry after the hour mark of their All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park, momentum towards an All-Ireland title was lost.

“It was a big thing to say for Mickey [about Devlin],” McKaigue says, “and he has the credibility to say it because that’s what he believes.

“I suppose as I get older and become more experienced in sport, you realise that in the GAA we pump up the winners to be something that they’re not and we denigrate the losers to be something that they’re not either.

“There is very little middle ground. You can still be a fantastic coach and it just takes time to win something…"

After three fruitful years under Ger Brennan, which yielded a Leinster title last season, Devlin relinquished the Louth Academy reins to get involved with the senior footballers for a second time.

They are just 70 minutes away from a place in this year’s All-Ireland final.

McKaigue adds: “I wish it had been different for all of us in Derry because I knew when Mickey and Gavin were going to step away that was probably enough for me.

“I was really disappointed and I did feel the personal side of it because I was so friendly with Gavin. But how delighted am I to see Gavin bounce back with Louth and getting the plaudits that he deserves now.

“You go to any player in Derry or Tyrone who has worked with him – club or county – people only have good things to say about him and are full of praise about his football IQ and what type of person he is because he really is a joy to be around.

“One of the most understated strengths managing and coaching and leading people is charisma. That’s the one word I would use to describe Gavin: charismatic.

“And yet, he’s the most down-to-earth person you could meet. His kindness is unbelievable. If you needed help badly, he’d be the first person to take the shirt off his back for you.

“Even in tough times and tough results in football he’s always the one picking others up around him. He’s a really decent, good man – and that’s before we talk about his football brain and his ability to see and coach things…

“When Louth went down to 14 men against Monaghan in their quarter-final and they were down a couple of points, the players bit down on their gumshield and played for Gavin Devlin. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be a lot more complicated than that.”