Brendan Devenney: 'I always played with freedom and felt at home with St Eunan's'

When it comes to giving an opinion of where St Eunan’s senior team currently stands and where they should be, Brendan Devenney is never afraid to express his view on the matter.  

In fact, on county final week, when usually the need for discretion is highest, the former Donegal forward and current St Eunan’s mentor was on hand during the press night in Convoy, willing to add more depth to the slightly tortured brand of usual conversation.  

For Devenney, there was always an itching feeling that sooner or later he was going to return to the St Eunan’s sideline, 12 years after guiding his club to the Dr Maguire Cup in 2012.  

He’s now back as part of Barry Meehan’s management team, and while he acknowledges how the game has certainly changed over the past decade at club senior level, the ability to win championship titles has stayed the same.  

He’s always been open about his philosophy of attacking football, the exact philosophy which resulted in a record-breaking 14 points in the Donegal County final 25 years ago this year.   

He knows modern football is far from reaching those statistics these days, but it doesn’t stop him from trying to get the very best out of the players he works with.  

“I think if one of the teams scores 14 points this weekend I’d be happy, never mind one of the players,” he joked at the press night in Convoy.  

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“I felt the last few seasons, St Eunan’s weren’t getting to the levels that they were probably capable of. I think club level now, it takes a hell of a lot of work, both in terms of commitment and in terms of how we want to play.  

“In St Eunan’s, we like to kick the ball and move it fast, but sometimes we can’t do that in the modern game and you have to change your gameplan in the hope of finding a way to help your team win.”  

With only two championships won since Devenney was last involved 12 years ago, he felt the timing was right to return, citing it as something ‘he just couldn’t turn his back on’, as he builds on the idea of trust and closely-forged bonds within a team.  

“When I was involved as manager back in 2012, preparation was done via small-sided games and trying to sort out certain match-ups,” he told Donegal Live.   

“But now, it’s a total team focus, where everyone is defending and everyone is attacking. So, the amount of work it takes to get everybody to do that without being generic or without being rigid takes a lot of work in terms of planning.  

“I want the boys to be creative as players, and I trust them to do the right thing and that’s a massive thing for me, it’s about trust in a squad and believing in the players you have.  

“I like to think I’m a real purist when it comes to football, and I think the way it’s played today is opposite to how I like it played, and that’s fine because our end goal is still the same in St Eunan’s, which is we try to win every match first and foremost.”  

Having dined at the top table consistently for 25 years, two county titles has been deemed unacceptable in the Cathedral Town, which is only part of the reason for Devenney’s return.   

One certain element is to see his team play with the enthusiasm and freedom that allowed his side to dominate the club scene throughout his time involved, while the other was to return the favour to a club that has given him so much.  

“The club has been so good to me; it took me in when I had nothing back when I was 16 and made me the individual I became,” he said. “I had a few great years at minor before moving into the senior side where I had a great career then.  

“My love for Eunan’s is always there and I’m always reinforcing the importance of this club to the players. I never really look back at the past, but I do think this club is important in terms of the values and the history it instills, but really other than that, it’s about moving forward and getting back as the top team in Donegal. Our goal every season in Eunan’s is to win the championship, we’re one phase away now.  

“I think when people talk about 25 years since we won the championship in 1999, I always remember playing with freedom and being at home in those games.   

“I think that’s part of the reason I wanted to come back as a coach because I was looking at players over the past few seasons and I thought they weren’t getting the best out of themselves.  

“I had that much more for when I played for Donegal than with St Eunan’s where I didn’t feel at home on the field, and that resulted in me not playing well, and I look back at that now I realise that I always felt at home with Eunan’s.”