FEATURE: Quickly making his ‘Eoin’ mark

Eoin McEvoy was called into the Derry senior squad while still in school and within a year had two Ulster medals in his pocket. He sat down with Michael McMullan…

AIDAN McEvoy’s car never cooled. Work commitments were juggled when he could. Whether it was Michael, Orla or Eoin pulling on a pair of boots, he’d rarely miss a game.

That’s Eoin’s early memories of sport, away with his father. In a sporting household, he looked on as Michael played at centre back on the day Derry ended a 13-year wait for an Ulster Minor title.

He followed in his big brother’s shoes six years later, adding an All-Ireland after the lifting of the Covid lockdown.

“Dad would literally go to every game he could,” Eoin recalls, seated in the plush new Ulster University campus where he ebbs though his final year of a Mechanical Engineering degree.

“Orla could be playing a game in Derry City; I would be down in Galway for a Sigerson game or Michael playing a game somewhere else.”

There was the noteworthy 2022 McKenna Cup game when Eoin came on to replace Michael for his senior debut on a night Ethan Doherty’s late score earned a draw with Monaghan.

By March, McEvoy captained St Mary’s, Magherafelt to their second ever MacRory Cup despite silverware eluding his year group down the school years.

It was a career that began with Magherafelt’s ‘Rossa Óg’ Sunday morning coaching that steered him in the early stages.

A leader since a young age, there was success in the form of Féile, u-14 and u-16 championship medals. A minor title eluded him before picking up an u-18.5 championship when Derry CCC changed the age groups back.

The An Riocht tournament in Kilkeel remains a highlight. Parents at the front of the bus, kids at the back. Matches, finals and banter, topped off with a stop at McDonalds on the way home. Underage at its best.

“Everyone remembers it because it was such a big day out and the only time you’d have a bus journey to a tournament,” McEvoy said.

“Bellaghy had their tournament too and we obviously had our own in memory of Brigid Heavron.”

Away from GAA, there was a single year of soccer with Magherafelt Sky Blues at the Foyle Cup. Their mother Geraldine was a big advocate of swimming.

“She would have pushed all of us into it and then me, I’d just be getting competitive,” McEvoy added with a smile.

He represented Mid Ulster Swimming Club at Ulster galas and in Dublin’s National Aquatic Centre, alongside his friend Simon Matterson.

Dan Higgins and Connor Shields, also 2020 All-Ireland minor winners, swam as well.

Swimming helped with both breathing and overall coordination but it was eventually squeezed out of the schedule by exams and football.

McEvoy’s October birthday was a bad football birthday. The u-12 team was back-boned by the older players, leaving him off Broadway, at corner-back.

Things changed in the first year of u-14 when Damian Donnelly and Kevin Purvis stationed him at wing forward.

“I was probably there to get up and down, just trying to give the shooters a bit of energy, a bit of running,” he said with another grin.

Enda Quinn was manager the following year, slotting him in at centre back with the licence to get forward. He’s held a central role since.

At county level, he was “in and out” of a successful group, playing in the u-15 Brian McLernon Cup winning team before missing out the following year when the Oakleafers added the Buncrana Cup.

Minor manager Martin Boyle called him in in his first year, a fractured season when Covid-19 stopped the world in its tracks.

“Covid is probably one of the better things that happened to me,” he pointed out.

“I actually put on a bit of size, a bit of muscle, and I obviously grew as well.”

The Derry minor squad followed a strength and conditioning programme, still unsure if they’d have any football at all.

MINOR TIME…Eoin McEvoy breaks a tackle from Meath’s Ciaran Caulfield in the 2020 All-Ireland minor semi-final

The league started up before another halt after their opening round win in the championship over Armagh. With a longer span on the competition, it galvanised the group.

“Marty (Boyle) even had a nutritionist doing a cooking class over Zoom,” McEvoy pointed out.

“You had your energy square bars or something to try and cook. It was funny but he was just trying his best to keep everyone together.

“At home, I’d eat whatever was going, me and my brother both have a good appetite,” he added.

“It’s a running joke on the senior team just how much I would eat and Mum would have been a good cook when we were growing up.”

Winning a minor All-Ireland was special but the media attention around the MacRory Cup ramped it up, helped by the entire school community pouring in to support their title bid.

“It was the first eye-opener to the other side off football,” he said, referring to interviews, of fans making banners and rehearsing chants.

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As soon as Patrick McBrearty’s last-gasp winner knocked Derry out of the 2021 Ulster Championship, Rory Gallagher was already planning ahead.

Seven days later McEvoy was starring in the sun as the Oakleafers’ delayed minor season ended in style with the Tom Markham Cup.

Within weeks, McEvoy’s phone lit up. It was Gallagher with an invitation to the Derry senior squad.

They came to an agreement. MacRory would take the focus during the week and he’d row in with Derry at the weekend.

“I just picked up a bit of injury after the MacRory campaign and never really got going that year,” McEvoy said of 2022.

He looked on as Derry won the Ulster title but it wasn’t the same away from the white heat.

It was a mammoth campaign with wins over Tyrone, Monaghan and after extra-time against Donegal in the final. After 24 years, the Anglo Celt Cup was back in Derry.

In McEvoy’s eyes, the Monaghan game changed everything. On the outside, Derry fans became giddy with excitement. Inside the camp, progress was no surprise. They expected to beat Tyrone, given their level of preparation.

Looking on at celebrations, McEvoy was part of it but there was still a hint of envy. He wanted to be inside the white lines.

“That was the motivation for the year after, to push on,” he said. “After that, everything fell into place.”

Magherafelt ran Glen close who went all the way to the All-Ireland final. McEvoy was happy with his form and how pre-season went. Then came another word in his ear.

“Rory was looking to play Brendan (Rogers) in the middle of the field. He said that there’ll be space there and if I wanted it, I would have to go and take it,” McEvoy said, referring to the full-back position.

He was promised a run in the McKenna Cup and it was up to him to perform. Gallagher kept his promise and McEvoy kept the jersey.

“With the season being so condensed, it was a tough time because it was four games in three weeks in the McKenna Cup,” he said.

SEAT OF LEARNING…Eoin McEvoy (left) was awarded a Ulster University GAA performance scholarship on Friday by Professor Cathy Gormley Heenan, Ulster University Provost, pictured with Eoin McElholm, Conor Cush and Callum Daly. Photo: Mark Marlow

There was also a fresher competition to fit in with Ulster University and the league was only around the corner.

Wins over Louth and Limerick took Derry into the break before they also saw off Meath and Kildare.

Then came another yardstick in McEvoy’s progress, the visit of Dublin when Rogers completed a storming comeback by thumping over the winning point. It was more than a game. More than a win.

“That was probably the first baptism of fire that I got in the senior set-up,” McEvoy said. “It was probably the first time I’d saw Celtic Park packed.

“Every turnover, every tackle we got, there was just a big roar and you’re like, ‘you’re here’.

“In the Ulster Championship after that, I wasn’t too fazed about who we were playing and I think that was more because of the Dublin game.”

It was another championship run, all the way to an All-Ireland semi-final. With games coming every two weeks. Training camps on the other weekends galvanised the squad.

The Ulster final week was dominated by the headlines surrounding Rory Gallagher stepping down as manager, following a well-documented allegation on social media by his estranged wife Nicola.

On the field Derry had a title to defend. Eyes on the prize. For McEvoy, it was more than that. This was when he left the newcomer tag behind him.

“I was marking Andrew Murnin; he is a top player and I did decently well,” he said, of coming through a tight championship game after accounting for Fermanagh and Monaghan easily.

“That’s probably the game that changed it, getting over that line and having that experience of playing an Ulster final.”

Playing against a consistent team like Armagh added to the confidence. He felt he belonged.

Getting hands on the first ball and showing for a few early kick-outs was important. The nerves were gone. It was then a case of playing the game as it fell.

Another factor as a rookie was playing alongside Conor McCluskey and Chrissy McKaigue in the same defensive unit.

“They probably took more of the attention away from me as well,” McEvoy pointed out.

“Me and ‘Clucky’ (McCluskey) live five doors away from each other and we had always car-shared.

“He would have had the experience from the year before and I’d have been talking to him.”

Watching McKaigue was worth more than words, observing how to deal with a forward cutting in the back door or learning when to commit to a forward or to stand off.

“I’d watch ‘Clucky’ as well,” he added. “The way he carried the ball at pace and maybe create an opportunity for someone. You watch them, how they do things.”

After a quarter-final win over Cork, Derry were back into the last four and pushed Kerry to the pin of their collar before the Kingdom eked out a victory in the closing minutes.

CROKER OAKER…Eoin McEvoy gets away from Kerry’s Seanie O’Shea in the 2023 All-Ireland semi-final

“It’s ifs, buts and maybes,” McEvoy said of being able to see an All-Ireland final without actually making the final step.

“We fully believed that we could and felt the big plus was they’d never played us (in 2023).

“They wouldn’t really know what we would have brought and we felt we could maybe get at them in different ways.

“I think they played a sweeper, so we knew we’d have a man extra somewhere that we could attack them.”

It was a swashbuckling performance that had the Kerry management almost reaching for the rosary beads.

At one point, Jack O’Connor sat down, saying minutes later in an interview he was just hoping Kerry could get the marginal grip they eventually got.

“Maybe it was just a bit of inexperience from our part,” McEvoy said. “That was probably the biggest regret we had, that we couldn’t see it out and get to the final.”

The defeat cut deep but there was still belief from matching the best and having Kerry at tipping point.

The narrative from the previous season was Derry not being able to play expansive football, coming from their low scoring tally in defeat to Galway. And that Croke Park didn’t suit them.

“That was probably a big motivating factor for that (2023) Kerry game as well,” he added.

“We just took that bit of momentum into the (Division One) league the following year.

“It didn’t really kick in until maybe after we got beat by Kerry that it actually happened, I played in the All-Ireland semi-final and won an Ulster Championship.”

McEvoy was the star man as Derry won the 2024 league final but before a downward spiral of Derry injuries, tough championship defeats, relegation and close calls.

The Oakleafers begin next season in Division Two with a Croke Park date with Meath jumping out.

For now, McEvoy has final year studies and Ulster University’s Sigerson Cup bid to balance as well. Last Friday he was one of a host players awarded scholarships.

He’ll share a dressing room with Tyrone players Ruairi Canavan, Eoin McElholm and Ciarán Daly. Finnbarr Roarty and Louis Kelly will also be team-mates. It will be different during the county season but they’ll share a common goal for now.

A groin injury kept McEvoy out of UU’s Sigerson win two seasons ago and there is another chance to win a medal on the field of play.

“It’s cool being in the city with the new campus here,” he said. “You’re right in the city centre, so you can go for a coffee and meet up with a few boys.

“There’s a couple of gyms around here as well and if you had a couple of free hours, you can get a session done so you don’t have to do it in the evening.

“Most of your games were either Dublin, Galway, Cork or Newry, so you’re always getting a bus somewhere.

“Everyone’s just chatting, getting to know each other and that’s where you kind of get your friendships.”

Whatever bus it is, his father Aidan’s car won’t be far away. Watching his son play is still important.

It’s not underage anymore, but in a few short years, Eoin McEvoy has gone from club starlet to one of the first names on any team sheet.