BY DECLAN BOGUE

d.bogue@gaeliclife.com

YOU COULD be forgiven for thinking that Brendan Devenney doesn't enjoy playing football all that much. A few choice quotes, highlighted and flagged up in the interests of sensationalism tend to have that effect. When Devenney once dared to mention the sometimes poisonous atmosphere in Ulster football, he was only giving voice to a long-held belief. His concerns were for the game at large, and not a wholly personal belief, but still...

This is a macho sphere in which he operates, and the come back is predictable - Can't handle the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen. Doesn't matter if you secretly agree with what he is saying, by letting his guard down he became fair game for the snipers. Despite all that, here he is, preparing for his 13th year in the inter-county game, training away. The torn stomach muscle is now repaired after it hampered him throughout last year's Donegal championship, a series of games that helped him fall in love with playing football all over again.

In the first round, the Donegal championship is played on a home and away basis, and Devenney's club St Eunan's lost heavily away to Glenties, conceding five goals and shipping a tremendous amount of abuse. There was a return fixture to atone for their mistakes. "We had a glut of injuries, I think we had ten injured players, we had to pull in young Doherty, a lad of sixteen who played fantastic for us - we had to go up and beg his Dad to let him, his Dad didn't want him to play, he was too young, but we were completely stretched.

"I remember the dressing room, you could have just cut the atmosphere, there was lads in tears before the game. We beat Glenties by twelve points after they beat us by eleven, a twenty-three point turnaround.

"The atmosphere was there y'know, it was unbelievable, I never enjoyed anything as much, absolutely loved it, I'll never forget that game."

They went on to capture the Donegal championship after losing the two previous finals, and came back from seven points down to Ballyshannon and severe pressure from Glenfin in subsequent rounds. If there was a hard way to win a trophy, St Eunan's, and Devenney's close friend, their manager Brendan Kilcoyne, mastered it. The club means a lot to him, and that shines through when he says his toughest opponent is a Eunan's man, Barry 'The Ram' McDermott. "Make sure you put 'The Ram' in. Letterkenny is a big town, and Barry comes from outside it, he's old school GAA. Rough and ready."

It put the Letterkenny man in mind of 1992. When Anthony Molloy proclaimed "Sam's for the Hills!" he was a fresh-faced 16-year-old standing in the Canal End, of an age to enjoy it, and see the rewards on offer.

Four summers later, he was working in Northampton, playing his football for Sons of Erin in the Warwickshire league, gracing Pairc Na hEireann in Birmingham. He has a lot of family in that green county of the English midlands, and was born there, while his father, Patrick, togged out for the county side. A few months later Declan Bonner handed him his county debut against Longford in the National League. "It was very exciting. I got some rap in the ribs from the Longford corner-back, he cracked my ribs, and we had Derry two weeks later. I was that desperate to play I took painkillers and togged out. I wouldn't dream of it now, but I was just so keen to play.

"There was much more enjoyment back then. Every year the crap in football goes up, and the enjoyment goes down. Things like that don't bother me, I'm a happy man, but I would be more concerned for the young players; young Michael Murphy is coming in, only eighteen, and he could potentially play a record number of games for Donegal, but he might be put off by a lot of the stuff that's going on around it, what happens in the sport."

When he looks back at his career, the Devenney of today has learned to live with the irritations that can mount up for a forward concerned with being a ball-player. In 2004 it came to a head in a back-door game against neighbours Fermanagh in Clones. A spite-filled encounter, he had to put up with his jersey being constantly grabbed, and when he was shown the line for retaliation, enough was enough. He shoved referee Joe McQuillan. "I shouldn't have done that, I apologised to McQuillan after. Now, you couldn't wind me up, but back then I was a bit pissed-off. In that game, there was a tremendous amount of pulling and dragging, someone went to block me making a tackle, and I pulled him over my foot, not to hurt him, like. I nearly had the shirt ripped off me, and thought 'I can't be arsed with this anymore.' I just needed some time away."

For a man that likes to gain different experiences, the soccer scouts have never been far from his trail, and he has turned down numerous contracts to give his commitment to the GAA. 2006 was his one year out, the lure of UEFA cup football with Portadown winning out. Come 2007, he was re-invigorated for Donegal's league campaign.

"It was nice to make history, it was a real special time for Donegal. When you're involved in teams like that the whole buzz of the camp lifts, there is a lot of hype about the team, with jerseys flying everywhere. It was nice for Donegal people to make the trip to Croke Park that day and not come home empty-handed."

After the euphoria, came the deadening thud of their championship campaign. A victory over Armagh gave way to claims of a new order in Ulster, though Devenney could sense that the best days of 2007 were already behind them. "There is two ways of looking at it. You look at it as in 'we underperformed in the championship', or you look at it as 'we won the league and beat Armagh', which we thought we couldn't do. The only thing about beating Armagh was that it gave Donegal people hope that the team was coming, when actually, the team had dropped off. By the time we played Tyrone we were as flat as a pancake.

"When we met Tyrone in Healy Park in the league, that's when we were going well, firing on all cylinders. The buzz was there then, when it should have been there in the championship. It was a strange year for us."

As ever, the rumours were never far behind, and the team came in for the usual accusations of partying and carousing. In an amateur sport, the followers can be hyper-critical when everything does not fall into their lap. "There have been one or two incidents after we lost big games, and here's the problem. If you win things, nobody minds what you do. If you lose games, well, Highland Radio is like a court. There's people texting and ringing in anonymously, and as soon as any kind of rumour appears, people say, 'well, that's them again', and everything gets brought up."

Donegal are taking a more softly-softly approach to the league now, searching for a more gradual build-up to the height of the summer. They have done so without their inspirational figurehead in the full-forward line, with the troublesome stomach hampering his game.

Frustrated with the disruption, Devenney took to researching his injury, reading up on recovery and nutrition in health magazines and books. His desperation led him to have injections before the club championship games, and he reflects on the wear and tear it caused. "I was injured from the league final and in hindsight I shouldn't have played in the championship. As the weeks went on I couldn't train. But someone hands you a Donegal jersey, you want to take it, and as I played on, the injury couldn't heal.

"After the Westmeath game I was in bits, and against Monaghan my legs weren't there. We had lost the last two county finals and I didn't care what it took. I had a complete rest for November and December, and started to do core strengthening around the area in January. That's why I was late coming back, I'm down the gym five times a week. I'm strengthening up the area so I can take what's coming to me."

If anything was to get him back to something approaching championship sharpness, a derby with Derry this weekend would be the ticket. "I would say I'm ahead of my fitness. I got the pre-season in with the club (Devenney is now the club captain of St. Eunan's for 2008), had one wee set-back, but I'm alright now, would just need some sharp sprints work, but all the stuff I done after Christmas has helped me to no end.

"Derry's going fairly well, and it's interesting with us meeting them in the first round of the championship. I just need to get in, work hard and get ready for the Championship. Hopefully the sun will start to shine soon!"

It's looking like a good summer ahead for a fully-fit Brendan Devenney. Watch out backs.

SIDEBAR

COMEBACK KINGS

Muhammed Ali

The ultimate comeback. Forced out of boxing due to his religious beliefs and opposition to the war in Vietnam, Ali was stripped of his titles in 1967. A full seven years later, the Louisville Lip lay on the ropes in Zaire, with George Foreman pounding him for all he was worth. A quick-fire combination later and Ali was king of the ring once more.

Jack Nicklaus

A golf prodigy, Nicklaus was setting records long before Tiger was even a glint in Earl Woods' eye. After impressive displays in his youth, he dipped down the ranking in the late sixties and found himself without a championship for three years. He came back to claim the 1970 British Open, and flung his putter high in the air in celebration.

Roy of the Rovers

On numerous occasions, an injured Roy Race would be sprung from the Melchester bench with three minutes left and Rovers two goals down, and would save the day with an authentic left-foot, right-foot, header, hat-trick. Not even a plane crash stopped his involvement with the club he loved.