25 years on: Skipper Eamon Doherty reflects on Ardara's seismic SFC upset of 2000

Eamon Doherty says it was the special bond between boss Johnny D Earley and his on-field general Damian Diver that forged belief as Ardara lifted the first SFC title of the new millennium. 

25 years has now passed since the Pearse Memorial Park residents tore up the script and upset overwhelming favourites St Eunan’s.

And that same group of players will once again stand shoulder to shoulder on county final day as they are paraded to the crowd at half-time in Letterkenny on Sunday. 

Doherty skippered the south west outfit that afternoon and his shackling of Brendan Devenney, reducing the Black and Amber scoring machine to just two points from play, was crucial in taking the wind out of the then reigning champions’ sails.

The now infamous Democrat Jury was completely tipped in St Eunan’s favour when Peter Campbell rang his twelfth and final man. 

Manus Boyle was the only one to go against the grain but Doherty reveals that same page of paper was present in Pearse Park when the squad got together for their last field session on the Friday night. 

“People made a really big deal of that - the Democrat Jury and how it was so heavily tipped in their favour,” he said.  

“But we were delighted to see it. It was another thing for Johnny D and his management team to latch onto.”

Doherty was into his fifth season as a senior footballer and, in that same timeframe, Ardara had already built up quite the litany of near misses and ‘hard luck’ stories. 

Early had come on board as new senior team boss in January 2000 but Doherty had already sensed that wheels were turning towards that appointment months in advance. 

“Johnny and Damian were always huddled up whenever you seen them. They were in a quiet corner in the cafe, in the supermarket, in the front of a bus that was often going nowhere at times. But always chatting football. 

“And once it was confirmed Johnny was the new manager in 2000, Diver was vocal right away. I mean people talk about Jim McGuinness now and his ways, but 25 years ago Johnny D was at much of the same stuff.

“I mean the psychology of it all. Johnny soon had us eating out of the palm of his hand. Anything he asked, we did it. And with the likes of John Boyle in beside him, Anthony Harkin as trainer, that was a pretty formidable sideline.  

“Like I said, Diver was firmly on board in terms of relying stuff to the dressing room. And, the nicest way to probably put it is that once Diver was on board, the rest of us were almost afraid not to be. 

“But with the young fellas coming in as well, lads with minor and U-16 titles in their pockets from the years before, they were easily led, in a good way I mean. They didn’t have to be dragged. 

“Again, in terms of comparisons, like Alex Ferguson had Roy Keane, McGuinness had Michael Murphy and Johnny D had Diver. 

“And the rest of us fed off that and bought into it”. 

Ardara senior football team boss from 2000, Johnny D Earley 

He added: “We now had a side full of lads that had plenty of underage county titles. A little like Four Masters now, Naomh Conaill at a certain stage, you were wondering if and when all that might come together at senior level.

“We had won back-to-back U-21 championships in 1994 and ‘95. We had an U-16 championship title in 1996 and, the very next season in 1997, the minors also got over the line. 

“So all of that was coming together nicely. And Johnny D had his fingerprints on much of that. All of our lads at that stage would had already played under Johnny D. 

“But the thing about Johnny D, and what made him such a special manager, was that you played for him.  He had this way about him and the way he went about business. 

“We’d had a few near misses too with the great Naomh Columba, Killybegs and Aodh Ruadh sides just about getting by us at certain stages in the seasons before. 

“In 1998, we’d won the All-Ireland Comórtas and we ended up meeting Aodh Ruadh in the semi-final in Donegal Town. 

“We got off to a bad start but once we got going, we were so good, much the better team. We got three goals but left as many behind us. In the end, it finished 1-12 to 3-5. That one stung as they went on to win it again. 

“They had the experience, the know-how to grind it out. And you seen that with Naomh Conaill this season as well. 

“Termon and Four Masters will feel they could have got over the line but in those tight moments, that’s when experience really kicks in.

“Johnny came on board in 2000. Again, we’d ran St Eunan’s really close in a quarter-final in 1999 and much like the years before that, they’d inevitably go on to win it. So that had kind of become a bit of a trend”.

Harkin barking 

Doherty says Johnny D held court in the dressing room, in the pre-match and half-time team huddles with Diver “sometimes foaming at the mouth” whenever a point needed to be emphasised or rammed home. 

But when it came to training, that was very much Anthony Harkin’s arena. And that arena wasn’t always the football field. 

His 1992 sessions and how that All-Ireland squad was eventually whipped into shape remains the stuff of legend. 

And Doherty is in no doubt that much of Ardara’s 2000 pre-season work was plucked out of the same playbook. 

“It was still a time when you could get that extra edge on the training field. Like, that side of things has changed so much as every player in modern football, even at club, is at a real level 12 months of the year now. 

“It never dips but back then, Anthony Harkin pushed us to the brink. Like I remember being up and down the dunes on Narin Beach. 

“Then there was that line in the dark, where we’d run out to the rocks at the very end of the strand and then turn and come back. 

“And we took great comfort that few, if anyone else really, went through that kind of dogging.  There is no other word for it.

“When the going gets tough or it’s right there in the melting pot, back then it came down to those small margins. 

“Like I mentioned, we didn’t have the experience to get over the line in big games, at that time. But Johnny D turned all that on its head and the drum he beat was that the decisive moments in big games came down to legs. 

“And there are plenty that will know, even at inter-county level, when Diver is the man setting the pace to all of that, that’s going to have some impact. 

“And that was the beauty of how Johnny managed; he planted lovely little seeds like that”.

When the team sheet eventually went up on the Friday night all four Doherry brothers, Eamon, as well as Conal, Michael and Joe were listed on the starting XV. 

Trawling the pages of Fr Sean’s book of stats, it’s a pretty rare, almost unique feat. By his recollection, the only other household to have experienced that is over the road, in Glenties. 

All four Thompson boys - Anthony, Leon, Ciaran and Aaron, also opened for Naomh Conaill in 2015 as they edged St Eunan’s. 

Doherty admits that pre-match build-ups back at home often bordered on pantomime territory as what were four very different characters looked to set about their own individual routines. 

“That was a funny dynamic. Because the four of us were all still at home at the time, we were all still in close proximity to each other down in the kitchen in the bar. 

“The night before… back then you grew up with it. The noise up the front was still going. Conal wouldn’t have cared; he was straight up in the middle of it, chatting and laughing.  

“Michael would have been the complete opposite, looking for a quiet corner somewhere just to relax and zone out. Not a word out of him for close to 48 hours. 

“Joe… I don’t know where he was but I could still hear him! He was probably up with Conal, pulling pints behind the bar like normal and just chatting football. 

“I do remember I always liked to stick on the tunes on the morning of the game. But you’d only be at the toaster and Michael would be down turning it back off! 

“It didn’t seem like that big a deal at the time but, looking back, it was something nice and special I suppose to have four brothers starting on county final day and even winning it”.

Eamon Doherty is presented with the Dr Maguire by fellow Ardara man John McConnell 

Upset 

On a damp afternoon by the Finn, Ardara opened like they meant business. 

But they accumulated a number of poor wides and at 0-4 each at the break, many thought they’d already left their opportunity behind them. 

But Johnny D centred in on one early incident and Doherty says that was the bedrock upon which he built another one of those famous half-time team talks around. 

“We worked the ball into a number of very good positions but just snatched at the chances. But probably close to ten mintues in, I just remember Peter McHugh going flat out into Mark Corssan and turning over the ball. 

“It was worked along to Fergal and he did that sort of shape to shoot thing of his but bounced the ball to progress on and kick the point. 

It took two St Eunan’s defenders out of it and it just set the tone. Like Crossan was one of the top players in the county at the time. 

“Peter looked wee but, really, he was a wee ball of muscle. And that was the first thing Johnny D centred in on at half-time. 

“It was level and we were about to zone in on the misses as we really should have been three or four up.  But Johnny went after that turnover of Peter’s. 

“So we really came out with a head of steam and when Boyler goaled, it was around the three-quarter hour mark, and that just tipped the momentum completely in our direction.

“The scenes at the end, the days that followed, it was just something that we’ll never see the likes of again. We went all over the parish, to all four corners. 

“Even the presentation, John McConnell was county chairman at the time and he was obviously very emotional handing the Dr Maguire over. 

“It’s going to be great to be back in the same room, back on the same bus even, together, on Sunday. You see everyone at different stages over the years but there’s rarely, if ever, been a time where we’ve met up like this. 

“I’m sure everyone will slip back into that same dynamic, the same craic and the same slagging. It should be a really special day”. 

Ardara 1-9 St Eunan’s 0-7

Ardara Scorers: Michael Doherty 0-4; Jonathon Boyle 1-2; Don Earley, Conal Doherty and Fergal Heena 0-01 each. 

St Eunan’s Scorers: Brendan Devenney 0-4, 2f; Kevin Rafferty 0-2; Shane O’Donnell 0-1.

Ardara: Conor Curran; Sean Whyte, Eamon Doherty, Joseph Doherty, Martin McShane, Brendan Boyle, Kevin Byrne, Damian Diver, Francis Diver, Fergal Heena, Peter McHugh, Conal Doherty, Don Earley, Jonathon Boyle, Michael Doherty.

Subs: Aodh Brennan for Martin McShane (41 mins), Patrick Gallagher for Jonathon Boyle, Ted Breslin for Joseph Doherty and Jimmy Brennan for Francis Diver (all 58 mins).

St Eunan’s: Tony Blake; Brendan Roache, Maurice McGeehan, Jonathon Scanlon, Damien Daly, Terence Gallaghehr, John Haran, Shane O’Donnell, Vernon Gallagher, Kevin Winston, Rory Kavanagh, Brendan Kilcoyne, Kevin Rafferty, Brendan Devenney.

Subs: Brian McDermott for Shane O’Donnell, Conal Dunne for Vernon Gallagher both 51 mins, Paul Crampsie for John Haran (58 mins).

Referee:  Seamus McGonigle (Aodh Ruadh).