The bigger picture: Skipper leads Donegal’s benchmark

Patrick McBrearty played in Donegal’s 2012 All-Ireland winning team as a teenager. He will lead the county onto the Croke Park sod on Sunday as captain. Michael McMullan writes….

IT’S all about Donegal for Patrick McBrearty. Yeah, he’d love to be a guaranteed starter, but it’s not as easy or as simple as that.

McBrearty was electric in the league game against Armagh in Ballybofey. Michael Murphy’s comeback game.

Six points. Five from play. One a gem that summed up Donegal’s back to front game.

It left a mark on this writer. Pace on the counter. Explosive. McBrearty pulled the trigger with a sniff of goal.

Three games. Three wins. It would take a car crash for relegation to enter the debate.

By the time, they were battling their way through a Salthill storm, McBrearty was on the outside looking in. Injured again.

Donegal’s eyes were on one game. Derry in Ballybofey. Ulster matters and McBrearty broke clear. Stretching his tally to seven points hammered away any hopes of an Oakleaf comeback.

There was a point against Monaghan before Jamie Brenan replaced him to kick two scores to help sink the Oriel men.

McBrearty’s 1-4 ended Down’s semi-final hopes. His goal, a timed run, knowing Michael Langan would see him across the Roslea end of St Tiernach’s Park.

His ice cool composure in the finalsteered over three points to edge Armagh in a game of the finest margins. Big days call for big players.

Experience matters. On the flip for attacking play, McBrearty knew when to slow up the play too. Experience matters.

The Kilcar man, playing in his 15th season, has started one game since. That was the win over Cavan in Breffni, replaced by Oisín Gallen who kicked three points.

Jim McGuinness made two consistent changes for the All-Ireland series. Eoghan Bán Gallagher and Caolan McColgan slotted in. McBrearty and Dáire Ó Baoill are now part of a potent plan B.

“I think every player wants to start but obviously you’ve got to see the bigger picture,” said a relaxed McBrearty at Donegal’s press evening in Convoy.

He kicked three points against Meath and made another three. When they needed to dig deep against Monaghan, he arrowed over another two points.

Speaking calmly and thoughtfully, he uses the example of Armagh and their 2024 cavalry.

“Everyone knows about Stefan Campbell coming in,” he said. “Armagh’s squad probably won them the All-Ireland last year. There’s really, really good players in the Donegal set-up that can’t get into the 26, never mind the first 15.

“Then there’s players in the 26 that want to get into the first 15.”

McBrearty can see the cards in Jim McGuinness’s hand. Conor O’Donnell’s 3-33, with all but one from play, wasn’t there last year. There is a certain Michael Murphy who tops the scoring charts.

Gallen, an All-Star last year, is joint fifth with Dáire Ó Baoill who can’t get in after tearing it up all season.

“There’s massive, massive competition for places. I’m up against Oisín, Michael and Conor,” said McBrearty, who has burled 1-35, a point more than Gallen.

“It’s tough for positions there at the minute. I have my role when I come in, the other boys as well. Caolan McGonagle, Jason McGee, Odhrán McFadden Ferry come in the last day. Dáire Ó Baoill can’t get in.”

With every word that comes, there is a measured delivery. As one of the players who door-stepped Jim McGuinness after a disappointing 2023, it’s all about Donegal for McBrearty.

“That’s what I think is really, really good about this group. They’re willing to see the bigger picture,” he said.

Bind it all together and there is a balance few counties have. Even Kerry. While Seán O’Shea, Joe O’Connor, David and Paudie Clifford are dynamite, Jack O’Connor has a wider spread of flames to douse on Sunday.

So, what’s it like to be a sub? Someone like McBrearty who knows he is going to see game time.

Patrick McBrearty in action against Kerry during the league.

“I don’t probably warm up as much as I should,” he said, referring to how subs take turns to limber up along the sideline in threes.

It’s more important to know what landscape he is going into. He takes in what Shaun Patton is doing on kick-outs. How are Donegal squeezing the opposition goalkeeper.

There is a glance at the defensive shape he will be trying to hack into.

“Obviously, you’re trying, as a forward, to see if we can switch the play this way. Are we going to get in the far side? What’s working? Obviously, studying the game like that can reap benefits as well.”

SAM MAGUIRE

In 2012, he carried Sam Maguire into Kilcar with Mark McHugh, with a sea of fans coming behind. A pinch yourself moment.

Should they get the job done on Sunday, he’ll lift the most cherished piece of silver as captain.

He has had a taste already. Two Ulster finals in Clones, two epic games, two thrusts of the Anglo Celt Cup into the sky and two acceptance speeches in front of throngs of fans below.

“I never thought I would be captain of Donegal, I probably thought Michael would be around all the time and that he’d be captain,” he said.

While grateful at being given the honour of leading his county, 2023 was a disappointing season. Winning an Ulster title wasn’t on the radar. Down pushed them through the exit door in Páirc Esler.

“Winning it back-to-back now was brilliant, obviously they are days you remember for the rest of your life.

“It was great to win them as a player but to be captain was special, they are days to look back on.

“I remember at the time it was a massive thing personally,” McBrearty said of being named as captain. An honour for his family. And the parish.

“I don’t think anyone from Kilcar had captained the team before. I think there were a couple of lads who captained the county in a one-off game.

“It’s obviously a massive honour. I didn’t think I would ever be in the position to be here now in the third year.

“It’s a great honour. They’re all mature lads,” he said of the Donegal group he leads out on the season’s biggest Sunday.

“Jim’s the main man and everyone follows after that. He’s the voice in the room basically and everyone just follows him behind, but the lads, they’re great lads. There’s no managing in them.”

Donegal go into Sunday on the back of a ten-game championship crusade. It will be their 18th game of the season in total.

Kerry swatted Tyrone aside to dominate the narrative.

Donegal’s 20-point win over Meath swung it back.

The two best teams are the ones still standing.

“We didn’t expect that,” McBrearty said of their semi-final winning margin.

Meath’s wins over Dublin, Kerry and Galway earned everyone’s respect. Donegal included.

“You don’t beat those three teams by a fluke,” he added. “We got to that seven or eight-point margin and we just seemed to kick on.

“They had a few wides and, obviously, the goals were probably the killer. Oisín’s goal probably really put the dagger in. We were really ruthless, but that was probably the most positive thing,” he said about going for the jugular.

“It’s great to win the semi-finals, but to go on and win the final now is another thing.”

If not in from the start on Sunday, whatever stage Jim McGuinness gives him the call, Patrick McBrearty’s 1-35 this season will give Donegal fans solace.

He wants to start. So did Stefan Campbell. McBrearty knows Armagh didn’t land Sam without quality coming in off the bench.

For the man who stood at Jim McGuinness’ door, hoping he’d say yes, it’s about one thing, and one thing only – Donegal.

POD: Sean O’Sullivan gives us the Kerry view and we chat to Donegal’s Ryan McHugh