JOE BROLLY: Derry, Donegal and Dublin

IT all started with the Derry Board appointing Mickey Harte, which was like putting Vladimir Putin in charge of America.

When Mickey took over we had just won two consecutive Ulster Championships and were beaten at the death by Kerry in the previous year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

After Donegal humiliated us in the first round in Ulster, exposing Mickey’s offside trap with four goals into our empty net, we were in freefall, with Mickey jumping ship to Offaly at the end of the season.

Next up, Tyrone’s Paddy Tally. Under Paddy, we didn’t win a single league game. Paddy said, “We are building for the future.” (We?) Donegal then beat us by 10 points in the first round in Ulster.

It must be a unique achievement to not win a single league or championship game in an entire season, but Paddy didn’t seem to mind. Why would he?

Now, Ciarán Meenagh is the third Tyrone man in a row to manage our senior lads and predictably, he began with a defeat. The Derry Board has sold our soul.

If we have lost ours, Donegal rediscovered theirs after a disastrous flirtation with Armagh’s Aidan O’Rourke (now a proud son of Kildare), another of our travelling band of coaches.

When he stepped down after relegation and a heavy championship defeat to Tyrone, he said, “They are a great bunch of lads, I couldn’t have asked any more of them”, flattery being an essential part of the travelling manager’s repertoire.

When Jimmy returned, the group began by touring the schools of Donegal. Jimmy knows that the crucial component is the “we” that is so falsely bandied about by the outside manager.

In Donegal, the boys know that Jimmy is them and they are Jimmy. Which is why they are prepared to give everything they have in that cause that is impossible to explain to the stranger.

Having decapitated Monaghan in the McKenna Cup final last week, they began in Croke Park as though they would do the same to Dublin, only Con standing between the Dubs and disaster.

Donegal’s workaholism and precision left them 1-9 to 0-6 at half time and it could have been 2-9, big Hugh McFadden driving a volley against the bottom of the post on the hooter.

At the start of the second half, the Dubs mounted a comeback on the back of their demolition of the Donegal kick-out, which was the only thing that kept them in the game.

Six times in that second half they scored from it, building their confidence and pressing pause on Donegal’s momentum. But it was only a pause. Jimmy builds his teams for battlespeed and so they kept sprinting at the Dubs.

In that second half, Dublin played well, at times very well, but there was never any sense that they could win it.

Michael Langan kicked two glorious two pointers. By the 54th minute, Donegal were eight up and my accumulator was safe.

Dublin rallied again, courtesy of the Donegal kick-out, with young Luke Breathnach (he finished with five expertly taken points from play) playing with the efficiency of a genuine predator. By the hooter they had closed it to three.

It was a very good first run out for Ger Brennan, one of Pat Gilroy’s dirty dozen and a true believer.

As for Donegal, they all believe, which is why they will be there or thereabouts again this year.

That’s the thing about winning big. Each man has to believe.

Each man has to be there for the right reason.