‘It was like the Alex Ferguson thing’
‘He just pulls the strings. He reminds me of Molby in his pomp in his Liverpool days, he can just control the play,’ said Devenney.
‘I know he hasn’t had a goal in Championship since the 2012 All-Ireland final, which is a mad stat, but he hasn’t had goal chances. He’s not missing them. His role has become more withdrawn.’
Not only does he feel Murphy is the best pound-for-pound No 14 out there, he feels he is the best in any position from midfield up, given his r oving r ole in t he Donegal set-up.
‘I’ve always been his biggest fan, no matter what. I thought he could play the top eight positions, and be the best in any of those positions. I’ve always said that.
‘He’s hitting points now that are nearly from hurling range. He’s that far out, it’s ridiculous.’
After enduring so many dark days at the hands of Armagh, Devenney couldn’t believe how tamely they capitulated the last day, especially after nearly beating Donegal in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final.
‘The first thing I was expecting was Armagh to be in your face. For Armagh to get into the game they had to disrupt our play.
‘If both teams just let each other play we were going to win. So I t hought Armagh would be disrupting everything, causing problems, like they did last year.
‘It was a horrible game last year. I heard some people saying it was a great game — it wasn’t, it was a shocking game. All of the pulling and dragging that was going on, it was a bit sickening, even the doctor got hopped.
‘I’m just wondering about the first-year thing. Geezer [Kieran McGeeney] comes in, obviously you are going to respond to him, but maybe they got the big kick last year. Maybe last year was the lift and was the kick.’
Devenney played from 1998 for over a decade but was left to curse the fact that his career coincided with a provincial drought that ran from 1992 until 2011. Being part of Donegal’s historic National Leaguewinning side was some consolation though.
‘Armagh came with the tight jer-
seys and all that mentality. Donegal were like people’s second team because of the way we played, but when it came to beating Armagh we couldn’t do it.
‘We were going in saying, “Ah, we’ll just play our own way”. So we kept crashing on that bloody rock. Armagh were just solid, had us completely figured out.’
He picks out the 1998 Ulster final against Derry as the one that truly got away.
‘The Brolly goal in 1998… the b**tard!’ he laughed, apologising for the language as he went.
‘I could have won an Ulster and put it to bed. I was actually man of the match in that game — and on the losing team.
‘You talk about regrets. I went through in the second half for a goal chance and I should have just ripped it. I fisted it across to Tony Boyle who was off balance and he fisted it over the bar.
‘We kept getting into the finals, we just couldn’t f*****g win the thing. As I said to someone recently, “why couldn’t Armagh play like that when we played them?”’
Devenney’s quick wit and sharp mind has made him a regular analyst, not to mention eircom ambassador, and worryingly for Derry he doesn’t give them much hope of upsetting the odds against Donegal in Clones in Saturday night’s Ulster semi-final.
‘Mark Lynch and Eoin Bradley will ask questions, but because they’re the two main men Donegal will put Neil McGee on Bradley. Lynch is an awesome player but he needs that bit of room. Donegal won’t allow that.
‘Imagine the Derry players sitting at home watching that Donegal performance, in Armagh’s home patch.
‘It’s difficult to get your mind around then that you’re going to beat them.’
‘I was man of the match against Derry — and on the losing team’