Patrick McBrearty gives timely reminder of his importance to Donegal

Michael Murphy’s return understandably grabbed most of the headlines last Sunday but the significance of Paddy McBrearty’s performance can’t be ignored. 

The Football Review Committee’s (FRC) rejigging of the rules, which Murphy had a significant hand in will, we are told, suit the 2012 All-Ireland winning captain now that he’s back. 

But from the evidence of the weekend’s victory over Armagh, McBrearty also intends to make the most of that extra space. 

While Murphy’s licence has always allowed him to wander and be involved, most of McBrearty’s senior career has involved keeping or holding a high line. 

And one of his strengths in that same time was still somehow finding small pockets to swing that sweetest of left pegs. But it must have so often been a frustrating and lonely brief. 

Having been named on the bench for both of Donegal’s opening two NFL encounters, at home to Dublin and the rescheduled away trek to Kerry,  some speculated on the exact role McGuinness might be ear-marking for the Kilcar man this term. 

An early injury to Michael Langan meant he was sprung after just five minutes in Killarney and on his first start of the new season against the All-Ireland champions, he was simply superb as he pinged 0-6, with five of those points crucially coming from play. 

McBrearty revealed after that he’d had a knee procedure back in December and that he’d only returned to full training the Tuesday night prior to the Dublin clash in Ballybofey. 

McBrearty, by his own admission in the past, makes a bad patient but he probably makes an even worse substitute. 

But for a player that is still only 32-years-old, this season looks like it could be one of real possibility. 

There’s real possibility in the collective with Donegal, for sure, but there is also real opportunity now for the individual streak in McBrearty. 

Speaking back at the outset of the new term, and pressed on the scope of the new rules and what they might represent for players like him, McBrearty hinted that he liked what he was seeing. 

And his revelation at the weekend, the one on that knee scope which curtailed him for six weeks, it was just that “seeing”. 

But having got back into full training in the last number of weeks, he must surely be sensing that 2025 might just be there for the grabbing. 

Jim McGuinness was the one who handed McBrearty his intercounty debut way back in 2011 against Antrim in MacCumhaill Park. 

As a raw 17-year-old, McBrearty’s directness and demanding of the ball made him so exciting to watch. But the walls closed in on Gaelic football soon enough as players of his ilk were forced to fend on scraps. 

Football has opened up once again but not in any ‘throw back’ kind of way. The three up hasn’t encouraged kicking deliveries so far and we’re not getting the individual contests we might have anticipated. 

But on that quick transition, as Donegal ran the ball in the 12 versus 11, McBrearty used all his experience last weekend to ghost into positions that allowed him to do maximum damage. 

And no one does that better. He had it down to an art under the old rules so football’s new landscape has to feel that much looser. 

On the eve of a fourth NFL outing, this time away to All-Ireland semi-final foes from last term Galway, he’s a player that will want and probably feel that he needs minutes. 

So it’s going to be interesting from this point on to see if McGuinness believes Donegal’s league objective has now been achieved having reached the so-called ‘safe’ marker of six points right away. 

Manus Boyle certainly feels that McBrearty is targeting a big 2025 and that the extra scope, the time and space that will now present itself in the final third, will suit that lurking and predatory style of his. 

“I thought Patrick McBrearty was the best player on the pitch for Donegal on Sunday,” said the 1992 legend. “He showed all the trademark abilities that have set him apart throughout his career. 

“He was popping up on the left, like he likes to do, and he was also so consistent in making sure that he always took the right option with his passes too. 

“Personally, I’m delighted for him. I had an opportunity to speak to him after the Galway semi-final loss last season and he was so disappointed. 

“In the back of his mind he was probably thinking it was such an opportunity. And at this stage of his career he knows they won’t come around as often. 

“And it wasn’t a selfish thought because he talked about the team, the group and the progress they’d made. 

“So I’m delighted to see him back, back in such good shape and on the evidence of Armagh he’s absolutely flying. 

“And the reintroduction of Michael Murphy, that’s only going to help Paddy, especially under the new rules”. 

The other notable thing about McBrearty on his first start last time out was that he also had the captain’s armband on. He inherited it when Murphy first stepped away two seasons ago and it now looks like he’s keeping it. 

It’s a small thing but it’s another endorsement, if it was needed, that McGuinness is counting on him.