The words of Martin Regan, four months on, are still chiming in Mervyn O’Donnell’s mind as he leads Gaoth Dobhair into their biggest hour.
Gaoth Dobhair face Corofin, the defending champions, in Saturday’s All-Ireland club semi-final in Carrick-on-Shannon – their maiden voyage into All-Ireland territory.
In October, Gaoth Dobhair ended a 12-year wait to be crowned kings of Donegal again, but overcame Naomh Conaill to clasp their hands on Dr Maguire for a 15th time.
Regan ventured along the stand-side touchline at Sean MacCumhaill Park.
‘Enjoy the moment; they’re so difficult to come by,’ were the Naomh Conaill manager’s words to O’Donnell as they shook hands.
O’Donnell still remembers them.
“It’s so true,” O’Donnell says.
“Even after this year, we don’t know where we’ll be.
“It comes down to emigration, you don’t know who might go away, and you get unlucky with injuries, like Kilcar with Patrick McBrearty and Ryan McHugh. It only takes something like that to get back to reality.”
It is 11 weeks now since Gaoth Dobhair overcame Scotstown after extra time in a gripping Ulster final.
Their journey has taken them through some bright lights: The return of the Donegal SFC title; the bonfires torched again for a first ever Ulster crown.
Gaoth Dobhair celebrate winning the Ulster final
The intervening weeks have been darkened.
The Gaoth Dobhair manager lost his mother, Anne, to cancer in early December.
Last month, the clouds blackened over the west of the county, four young men dead in a horrific road traffic accident. One of them, Micheál Roarty, had trained with Gaoth Dobhair the previous day.
The mental resolve has been tested as Gaoth Dobhair prepare for a game of football.
“Everybody keeps themselves conditioned physically, but it’s the mental thing,” O’Donnell says.
When O’Donnell went for the Gaoth Dobhair job, the landscape was bleak.
“I came down to take the job and was asked about my backroom team – I had to make up fictional names to get the job,” he says.
“The thing was I couldn’t get anyone else! I said to Martin Coll that I’d throw his name in and to go along with it. I had John ‘Bosco’ (Gallagher) at that stage, I spoke to Eamon McGee and he said he’d help out. That’s how it started, the four of us got together. It was impossible to get anyone.
“The backroom has gone from four or five to 11 or 12. All these things have been so important.
“We had everyone from the start this year. That was a big thing: We had everybody at the start of the year. In 2017, we struggled to stay up and we finished with 15 points.
“We didn’t have the players and we struggled because we didn’t have 100 per cent buy-in.”
Cruciate victim Kieran Gillespie is a ‘huge loss’, O’Donnell admits and there will be no hiding places around Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada when Joe McQuillan, the referee, throws the ball in at 1.30pm tomorrow.
Kieran Gillespie
Gaoth Dobhair have been bonded by so much over the last couple of years. Theirs, now, is an unshakable belief.
“We feel like we can win any game,” O’Donnell says.
“You have to feel like that. You need to believe in yourself. We do believe in ourselves as a team that we’re good enough to beat anybody.
“We know the task ahead is massive. Corofin are the Rolls Royce of club football, let’s be honest. It’s going to be a massive task for us on the day.”
Listen to the full interview below …
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