IN EARLY MARCH, A month after the Stormont Assembly was restored, an announcement came from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.
It began; ‘The new Chief Veterinary Officer would be a Mr Brian Dooher (MRCVS).’
Among his duties as Head of Veterinary Service and Animal Health Group, he would lead a team of over 650 staff working across field, operational, policy and administrative functions.
A few days before, Dooher was on the sideline as Tyrone manager as they went down to a narrow defeat to Kerry in Killarney. He had been fulfilling that role for a month by himself after his joint-manager, Feargal Logan, took ill prior to the Derry game on 4 February. It’s unlikely that Logan will be anywhere near the Ulster quarter-final this Sunday when Tyrone travel to Breffni Park to take on Cavan.
Logan is a practising solicitor in his co-owned legal firm in Omagh in his own right. If you look around the array of inter-county managers, it’s clear that these two stand out as having occupations with extreme responsibilities.
“I suppose we are, and that’s our choice,” says Dooher.
“We know it’s tough and I suppose everything suffers a bit for it but we enjoy it and we have the opportunity to work with a good group of players as well. All those parts feed into it – everybody is doing a lot of things to make it work and that’s the real key here, it’s everybody else, it’s not Feargal or myself, it’s the people around us – they are the people who are often forgotten but I couldn’t speak highly enough of the people we have.
“Then you have the players too – they come to training with a bounce in their step no matter what. They’re willing to learn, willing to push on and they could probably give you a bit of energy.”
If you knew anything about him – and by God he has done his best to hide his considerable light under the biggest bushel he could find – this is not a man that does things by half.
As a hobby, just for kicks like, he breeds pedigree cattle. In June 2018, he won the supreme championship at the Northern Ireland Simmental Club’s evening show and sale in Ballymena.
He also has bred Texel Sheep. Wanna know how much a pedigree Texel ram could set you back? Anything up to £5,000.
He’s a keen runner. In October 2022, he ran the Dublin Marathon in 3 hours 20 minutes before hopping in the car to watch the Tyrone county final.
All through his football career, Brian Dooher did his best not to let too much away. You couldn’t call him shy. Rather, we refer to how the former LA Lakers coach Pat Riley felt about any level of celebrity; ‘The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.’
Yet, this is the most decorated Tyrone GAA figure. Ever. He has three All Ireland titles as a player, and one as joint manager with Feargal Logan to go with the U21 title in 2015 that they won with Logan as manager and Dooher as selector.
He also gave Tyrone fans one of the most identifiable moments through their celebrated decade of the ‘00s, to sit alongside the swarm of Kerry forwards, Mugsy’s goal against Dublin and Canavan’s slide-rule pass to the net in the 2005 final against Kerry.
That was of course his sheer belligerence in the 24th minute of the 2008 All-Ireland final in running 80 metres, evading three tackles and pointing with the outside of his boot.
Brian Dooher grabbing an All-Ireland by the scruff of the neck
— All-Star Sports (@AllStarSports0) April 24, 2021
⭐️ Name a better point at HQ#GAA #AllStarSports #GetAGrip pic.twitter.com/S7lULkSVWQ
So when you ask about the expectation levels in Tyrone, and how his side have been in deep transition and therefore not met those expectations, he has a very simple way of simplifying it.
“When you’re playing for Tyrone everybody expects you to go out there every day and win and that hasn’t been the case,” he says.
“We all go out every day and expect to win and so do the players but it doesn’t happen that way and whenever you are trying to bring new players in as well and with that bit of change it does bring risks with it but I’d be happy enough with the young fellas. I think they’ve done really well.”
In seeking to find where that expectation comes from, there’s nobody better placed to answer it than Dooher.
A few weeks prior to his own wedding to Mary, he underwent surgery on an ankle injury. He could have had it after his honeymoon. But that would have meant missing a couple of rounds of the National League.
So instead, he went down the aisle on crutches and in a moon boot.
So you wonder what he makes of the modern-day player and the assumptions and characterisations out there?
“The players generally are well-balanced, well-rounded. They know what’s important to them and they know that the group important to them and their own people at home. They know what’s most important to them.
“That doesn’t take away from the fact that they have a responsibility to go out and perform – once they are privileged to wear the Tyrone jersey they know it comes with accountability and responsibility to leave it back in a better place than you got it. That’s the challenge you have every day you go out.
“Some days it works for you and some days it doesn’t and every day they go out to give their best and some days it doesn’t fall their way, same as we go to work every day and we make mess-ups. They (the players) are well-intentioned and they give their best and that’s all we ask for.”
He could hardly complain about winning an All-Ireland in his first year in charge. But with so many subsequent retirements, injuries and natural wastage, it might have felt different if Sam Maguire arrived in year three than year one.
But according to Dooher, nothing changes.
This Sunday he goes out for the first time as the Tyrone manager in sole charge. He played from 1996 to 2011 and gave three years to the U-21s. With this season and the two more to follow, it will round it up to a solid quarter century in the service of Tyrone football.
They are not making any more Brian Doohers.
“It wouldn’t matter if we won it or not – there’ll always be that expectation of when’s the next one. That’s what you hope yourself for – everybody has that desire to be the best they can be and there’s nobody in here any different, everybody has that aspiration,” he says.
“It’s far away out there, it’s a vision of where you want to get to but there are a lot of steps and we need to get on them steps before we worry about what’s in the future.
“But that’s the dream and everybody has that dream no matter whether you’re that height there (child’s height) and you’ll probably have it until you’re not here anymore.”
