One man’s name has seemed to trip off the Gaoth Dobhair tongues with greater regularity – but Michael Boyle shunned the limelight during the history-making season.
There was little fanfare about the recruitment of the Termon man as Gaoth Dobhair’s coach for the 2018 season.
A meeting with Mervyn O’Donnell and Eamon McGee planted the seeds and Boyle’s work has been obvious as Gaoth Dobhair ended a 12-year wait for a Donegal SFC.
New heights were scaled yesterday when Gaoth Dobhair defeated Scotstown to win the Ulster Championship – bringing the title to Donegal for the first time in 43 years.
“We got them together at the start of the year and the first goal was to win the county championship,” Boyle, in his first interview of 2018, told Donegal Daily/Donegal Sport Hub at the homecoming in Magheragallon last night.
“It’s been a game-by-game approach in Ulster. It’s felt like bonus territory.”
Many had tried and most had failed to succeed with Gaoth Dobhair in the last decade, but the fires burned this year brighter than ever at the foot of Errigal.
Boyle says: “Gaoth Dobhair have a good squad of players. We brought the team together.
“The players are top quality. A lot goes on the buy-in of the players and we saw the results. I’m just delighted to be involved with these lads.
“Mervyn always says to me: ‘I have to live down here’ so I was the bad cop!
“I knew it was a great opportunity for me as well. Obviously, the quality of the footballer was here. It wasn’t going right for them, but Mervyn has to take serious credit. He’s the general and the man who has kept it going.”
Listen to the full interview below …
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