SPOILER: BRIAN MCENIFF thinks Donegal will win this Sunday’s All-Ireland senior football final, but he is still very impressed by the job Eamonn Fitzmaurice has done with Kerry, particularly in light of Colm Cooper’s injury and the retirements of some key players.
“Eamonn Fitzmaurice has taken an average Kerry team to an All-Ireland final, that’s an incredible achievement,” McEniff told TheScore.ie.
“At the start of the year, I don’t think anybody saw them reaching an All-Ireland final considering the players they lost – Cooper, Ó Sé, Brosnan – but Kerry have this ability to pull lads out of a ditch and turn them into super footballers and that’s what Eamonn has done.”
Unsurprisingly, the former Donegal boss is equally impressed with the job being done by the current incumbent, Jim McGuinness, a man McEniff believes could turn his hand to anything.
“We’re very lucky to have Jim.
“To be honest, I think he could do anything he wants in sport, business, whatever.
“He’s a very well grounded, very well qualified man. He schooled himself well and while it took him a good while to get through it because of his other commitments he showed glimpses of the manager he would become by the way he managed himself and his time.”
Like many modern footballers, McEniff knows the commitment needed to mix work and playing amateur sport at a high level having been involved in running a very successful hotel business from a young age.
The 1992 All-Ireland winning manager was born into the tourist industry and has lived in or around hotels his entire adult life. However, it means he didn’t necessarily have a similar experience as his team-mates growing up.
“I was born into it but I’ve stayed with it because I like dealing with people. That said, I’m not sure I’d have survived the early years if it wasn’t for the assistance of my mother and wife as they gave me the ability to play football and work.
“My social life was football. Whereas the lads could go out after training on a Sunday, I had to go straight back to work. The two ladies had done the work in the morning so it was only fair I finished off the shift after the game or after training.”
McEniff, however, does not believe that too much should be read into Jim McGuinness taking his players away in the lead up to the game as it’s something inter-county teams have been doing for decades.
“People are talking about Jim taking the team away as an innovation. But if you look back at the likes of Cavan and Kerry in the 40s, they were doing it then, so it’s nothing new.
“When I was in charge, we didn’t have that level of money available in Donegal, in 2003 for example, so it’s only now things are improving.
“Before the semi-final that year I took them out to our hotel in Rosses Point so I covered the cost of the beds and the county board covered the dinner and breakfast, that’s the way it was back then.”
Back in the present, and McEniff only sees one winner.
“Hype doesn’t begin to describe what it’s like up here. It’s unreal from both young and old. It’s a super time for the people of Donegal and you can see the flags and bunting everywhere, even in neighbouring counties.
“It’ll be a close game – all our games are close games – but I think Donegal will win by four or five points and Jim will have his second title.
Brian McEniff was speaking as part of PwC’s ‘Off the Pitch‘ series of interviews. PwC is proud sponsor of the GAA and GPA, for more information and interviews go to www.playerpulse.ie.
