Exclusive: Patience pays off for Donegal All-Star Brendan McCole

‘You have to bide your time, not everyone is a Finnbarr Roarty’

If any Donegal newbie walking through the door in Convoy in two weeks’ time needs to look for an example, the example really, they should hang their kitbag next to Brendan McCole’s.

Ahead of the 2026 season, McCole is an All-Star winning full-back that the 18-fresh-faced trialists Jim McGuinness has elevated to his provisional panel will no doubt look at and wonder just how do you get to that level.

But the St Naul’s man wasn’t any kind of overnight success in the manner that the likes of RDS stage sharers Michael Murphy, Michael Langan and teenager Finnbarr Roarty were.

McCole says he’s delighted to see the Dr McKenna Cup make its return as it’s the competition he debuted in way back in 2017.

But a quick trawl through the record books reveals he didn’t actually make his senior championship bow until two seasons later in an All-Ireland series draw with Kerry at Croke Park.

Even then, that was in off the bench on 63 minutes in place of Odhran McFadden Ferry.

Months prior, having been torched by Michael Newman inside the opening 14 minutes of the Division 2 league final against Meath, Neil McGee was called in off the bench to put out that same fire.

But McCole dug in and stuck it out. Sitting in the middle of the boardroom table at O’Reilly Sports’ brand new state-of-the-art premises in Ballybofey, where he works, sits his All-Star award.

It’s an endorsement of his 2025 efforts, for sure, but it’s much more a reflection of just how far he’s come.

Former Donegal star Martin O’Reilly, who McCole calls boss, has organised a sort of ‘meet and greet’ event to mark both McCole’s achievement and what’s also a new and exciting change of pace for business.

I’ve shown up early to catch a word but so too have plenty of kids and families. McCole makes his way through all of that, stopping for photos and signing jerseys, before finally getting in behind the boardroom door and closing it.

I’d picked up the award as I waited, took a couple of selfies with it for my own and a few others’ amusement. But what was instantly noticeable was the actual weight of the statuette.

For a gangly teen with little to no muscle on that same rangy frame, even the thought of attempting to replace three-time All-Star and All-Ireland winning full-back Neil McGee must also have felt pretty heavy.

So as McCole joins the dots from a cold Wednesday night in Ballybofey, back in 2017, to the bright lights of last Friday night’s All-Stars in Dublin, it’s certainly been quite the journey.

An All-Star is an individual accolade but McCole says it’s been a collective effort to get to this point. And so much of that began back home at Gerard Gallagher Memorial Park, Mountcharles.

“There are definitely a few people at my club St Naul’s, who deserve thanks for all the help so many people gave me along the way.

“We’re very lucky, myself, Peadar Mogan and Gavin Mulreany, that we have come up through the ranks together. We’ve had that same core coaching group.

“The likes of my dad, Peter Mogan, Sean Campbell, Patrick Burke, Eamon Breslin, John Meehan… I could go on and on.

“I saw one of those same club people tweeting the last day, ‘these are the reasons you are there night after night with the cones, and it was a fair enough point.

“I hope all those same people know how grateful I am and I hope they are proud too - my family and my club.

“It will be a nice reflection point to come back to at some stage down the line. Right now, it’s about pushing on again, seeing what it all leads to and hoping it inspires.

“It really is about the younger generation - hoping to see more kids come up through the ranks back home and, even for some of them, to go on and play for Donegal.

“That’s all I ever wanted to do as a kid - play for Donegal. I’m so fortunate that I’ve done that. 2012, as a kid that was the ultimate, the absolute pinnacle.

“I just remember the likes of Stephen Griffin in my own club, Karl Lacey and Paul Durcan just in the road; those homecomings and scenes were so special.

“It just stays with you and it’s one of the reasons you make that effort to make it special for this current generation. I think there is a responsibility there now to do that and it’s a lovely thing”.

St Naul’s now have the proud distinction of producing two All-Star footballers, and those gongs have landed back-to-back after Peadar Mogan’s 2024 success.

“It’s amazing that we have two now, right after each other as well. It’s only when you go through the list of clubs in the county that are fortunate enough to have players who have won these awards, it’s only then that you realise there aren’t that many”.

On the baton finally rested on the edge of the Donegal square by the legendary McGee, McCole says he never approached the task of picking it back up as ever becoming any kind of yardstick.

“I never looked at it like that, I couldn’t. Neil was something special. He brought so much to the table. So to be making any comparisons in my own head, I mean I’d enough to worry about back then.

“I remember just being so nervous in those early days and I think that was to do with wanting to succeed so badly.

“So I ignored it or I didn’t allow myself to see it as the challenge of replacing Neil McGee as that would have been impossible.

“I just focused on establishing myself and being myself, if that makes sense. But I was lucky enough to be a part of the same squad as him and I’m fortunate now he’s still there as part of the backroom team.

“The things you can look at and aspire to be are the things like the way he carried himself, the presence he brought to the field.

“I think Neil McGee was out on his own during the time he played for Donegal. There will never be another Neil”.

Brendan McCole signs autographs for young Donegal supporters 

Superstar

Finnbarr Roarty’s rise to the top feels almost instant and McCole admits he finds it difficult to qualify or quantify just what the Glenties teen has managed to achieve this year.

There is a real contrast to that and his own journey but there is a serious lesson there too for anyone wanting to follow suit.

McCole steers the conversation back towards the return of the McKenna Cup and just how crucial that same competition was in his own development.

League minutes are getting harder to come by while championship ones will also be well beyond reach for so many of the Donegal extended playing panel.

That’s why the next few weeks has the potential to shape so much, in the here and now but, as McCole emphasises, the near future as well.

“Finnbarr, it’s difficult even to begin to describe what he’s done. I was reading he’s Naomh Conaill’s first All-Star too, which is something extra special for him.

“Stepping up to this level, and we’ve all done it, it’s a shock to the system. The speed if it, the physicality, even the nerves of making that jump are things everyone has to deal with.

“But he made it look easy. That’s the best compliment I can give him. His temperament, it’s actually difficult to describe that, how he’s made that transition.

“He doesn’t get phased or rattled. And he was right in the deep end this season. I made my debut in the McKenna Cup. I remember it well, 2017. Up against Jordanstown with Paddy McBrearty and Ryan McHugh in opposition.

“At the time, it meant everything to me. And I wouldn’t have seen many league minutes at all that same season, so the McKenna Cup was a huge chance.

“Physically, at the time, it was challenging. Mentally, as well, it’s a serious jump. But like I said, all I wanted to do at the time was play for Donegal.

“The likes of Patrick and Michael back then, physically, I knew I wasn’t really ready to jump straight in. But I made a promise to myself I’d stick it out.

“I’m glad to see the pre-season competitions back on the table for that same reason. Not everyone is a Finnbarr Roarty or a Michael Murphy. And sometimes at this level, you have to be really patient.

“So the McKenna Cup is an opportunity to get a foot of some sorts in the door. There is no substitute for playing games. And even for supporters, they love getting out early in the new year”.

Moving on

Donegal’s All-Ireland final loss to Kerry is a strange one to even begin to unpack. They didn’t get out of the stall quickly enough and the Kingdom’s win can, in so many ways, be directly tied into that lethargic opening.

McGuinness’ side did get back to within four points on a number of occasions but it was a threshold they just couldn’t breach. And sapped of energy attempting to regain that ground, they’d eventually fall by ten points on a cruel day at Croke Park.

“Like, you have to move on,” McCole says on all of that. “You can stew on it, let your mind wander. But even something like the team holiday, getting back into the gym, and, in the next number of weeks, back onto the training field together; those thoughts start to phase out.

“We’ve never been here before as a group. Michael, Patrick, Ryan and big Hughie have experienced this after 2014. But it’s new for the majority of the rest of us.

“The holiday brought us all back together in a lovely kind of way. And it wasn’t a wet training field, it was somewhere warm and sunny.

“Just chatting, and sort of mentally regrouping, it just means when we hit the actual ground now we hit it running.

“Like, I can tell you that no one has lost any interest or any enthusiasm. We’re all really looking forward to next season.

“And once that kicks in, it’s that frantic now that your attention shifts to what’s immediately in front of you. So it’s exciting now to be turning the page towards all of that.

“There will be fresh faces, fresh competition and the examples are there for anyone over the last two seasons. Look at Ciaran Moore and Finnbarr, that’s the incentive now.

“2026, it’s going to be another one of those seasons where it’s all so competitive. Division 1 now, with the new rules, it asks even more questions. It’s a fantastic competition.

“Ulster, there are new managers in a number of counties. That will lift those teams. It never gets any easier.

“And as soon as that all starts, the serious business, it’s just week to week then and you’re right back in the thick of it”.