COMING TO THE BOYLE
Donegal’s 1992 hero believes Bonner’s men can do damage
ACOUPLE of years ago, Manus Boyle was flicking through a newspaper when an advert caught his eye. It was for a post-graduate course in Applied Health and Wellness at NUI, Galway. Going back to study had been in the back of his mind for some time.
He had gone straight to work on the fishing boats from school. ‘Then life and football took over,’ explains Donegal’s hero of 1992. But this was an opportunity he was looking for. He could help people by using his experiences of being a top-level sportsman.
Enlisting the help of the GPA, he enrolled for a place on the course. It hasn’t been easy, applying himself to study at this stage of life. But it has been very rewarding — and he is hoping it will open up an avenue to help people.
‘It is a bit of a change to make at 50 years of age, alright,’ the Tír Chonaill legend, who also makes goal nets for a living, says with a laugh, ‘But it is something that always interested me, trying to help people solve their problems. If I can take what I have learnt from the sporting lifestyle, and the determination and discipline that goes with being a county player, and help some people through that, it will be worth it.’
Boyle hopes to work with men from their mid-40s to mid-60s who might be going through a difficult time. He remembers his early days as a Donegal footballer when people helped him. And he often wonders about players who depart the county scene, that there should be more support structures in place for them.
‘It has always been something in my mind, that these GAA players spend their whole life playing for their county and there is nothing at the end of it. The structure, where training sessions and everything else is organised for 10 or 12 years, is taken away. That can be tough for players.
‘Don’t get me wrong. Football is what people always want to talk to me about. And I was fortunate to be successful in my career and I find it very humbling that people still want to talk about what I did on a football field. But it might be more difficult for others.’
Boyle only stopped playing himself a few years ago — he was still kicking points for Killybegs well into his 40s. ‘I would still try to be kicking them now, if my body would let me,’ he chuckles.
The high point of his career was undoubtedly the 1992 All-Ireland final when he kicked nine points, half of Donegal’s total against Dublin. Brian McEniff only told him he was starting the final a couple of days beforehand. And Boyle ended up with the Sunday Game man of the match award on his county’s greatest day.
‘I was kicking the ball well off the ground and I got a few opportunities from play. It was just one of those days when everything went over. I wasn’t keeping count, I was just getting the job done, that’s the type of person I am.
‘But I will never forget the first free that I had to kick into the Hill that day. There was about 15 minutes gone. I remember Paul Curran was standing a couple of yards away from me, waving his arms. I hit it off the ground and it sailed over. It gave me great confidence, just being able to drive a free into the Hill like that.’
McEniff, like most of Donegal, knew that Boyle was a character who thrived on the biggest days. He had been man of the match in an All-Ireland final before, when Donegal Under 21s beat Kerry in a replay back in 1987.
To Boyle, whose mother came from Ringsend and who had grown up worshipping the forwards on Kevin Heffernan’s great team, the idea of playing Dublin in an All-Ireland final in Croke Park was the pinnacle.
‘Maybe because part of me is from Dublin, but I have never had too much abuse from the Dubs about what I did that day. And the thing is, playing them in an All-Ireland final is where you wanted to be.
‘Growing up, I remember watching that Dublin team. The likes of Jimmy Keaveaney and then Barney Rock and Ciaran Duff, those were the guys I would have looked up to. And that is why you play Gaelic football, it is to play the likes of Dublin and Kerry in an All-Ireland final. That is why you work so hard at your game, to play in days like this.’
He has been thrilled by the job his former team-mate Declan Bonner has done with Donegal this year, playing a vibrant brand of attacking football.
‘When Bonner had those minor and U21 teams, they got so far, to All-Ireland finals and semi-finals, but they were playing quite defensively and didn’t score enough to win the biggest games. He has learnt from that,’ Boyle reckons.
This evening will be the biggest test yet for the young Donegal players. Even though the likes of Michael Langan and Jamie Brennan have played in Croke Park as minors — and against Dublin in this year’s League — it will be a different experience tonight with the Hill in full voice.
‘It is a whole different ball game when you run out onto the pitch and you look up at the Hill and it is completely blue,’ the Killybegs native says.
‘But it is why you play the game, why you work at your game, to get the opportunity to play Dublin in Croke Park.’
Boyle feels that Paddy McBrearty’s injury has left a gaping hole in the Donegal attack that they won’t be able to fill this evening but, no matter what the result against Dublin, he has pinpointed next week’s trip to Dr Hyde Park as the most critical of Donegal’s Super 8s campaign.
‘If we manage to beat Dublin and then lose to Roscommon, we will be in the same position if we had lost to Dublin and beaten Roscommon. But the thing is that teams might react differently to those defeats.
‘Dublin would be expected to beat us while we would be expected to win next week, even though the Hyde is a tough place to go.
‘That’s the thing with this concept. Teams and managers have to look at the three games and wonder if they are going to specifically target certain ones, ones that might be easier to win.
‘But the thing is that it is going favour the teams with deeper squads.
‘You saw what happened in the hurling. By the third game, squads were being stretched and it is no surprise that Galway and Cork were the two teams that came through, because they had the stronger squads, they were able to bring on better substitutes. The same thing is going to happen in the Super 8s.’
Boyle admits the whole concept behind the Super 8s will favour teams like Dublin and Kerry but he is excited by what three toplevel games will do for this young
Donegal team. And he does see a chink in the Dublin armour.
Last September, the ‘92 Donegal team sat together with their wives for the Dublin-Mayo game as they were announced to the crowd before the match.
Boyle felt that the appearance of Diarmuid Connolly changed the entire complexion of that game.
‘Not so much for what he did, although he did kick a vital point and did win the free that won them the game, but just his presence. It unnerved Mayo and it calmed Dublin players down.
‘You could see that from the stand. He just assured all the Dublin players. And it had an effect on the crowd too, Mayo supporters were coming back to their seats after half-time, thinking that Dublin were in trouble and next thing, they saw Connolly coming on.
‘But he’s not here this year and it might be a bigger loss as the season goes on.’
They had the craic that weekend, the heroes of ’92, so much so that Boyle and Barry McGowan are hoping to entice a few of them to another reunion in a couple of weeks at Killybegs for a charity match in support of the Opt-for-Life campaign.
It is scheduled for the Friday of the August Bank Holiday weekend, two days before Tyrone come to Ballybofey for a game which may be effectively an All-Ireland semi-final eliminator.
‘The banter should be good, if nothing else,’ Boyle says with a laugh.