Читать книгу The Boys of '93. Derry’s All-Ireland Kings онлайн

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At university level, St Mary’s, Queen’s and Jordanstown had got their hands on the Sigerson in ’89, ’90 and ’91 and the success of the county minors of ’89 had yet to be built upon.

As for me, I was ready to do the job. I felt I had something to prove, not to Gary as his da or manager or to anybody else for that matter. I only had to prove I was good enough to myself and I felt I was.

Starting with the minors had allowed me to learn and develop away from the pressure of attention. I’d say we were in the All-Ireland Final before we’d seen a county official at training so that had given us time to grow and learn together, the way we wanted, the way I wanted.

Now I had a belief in myself and the players; if that hadn’t have been there, then I wouldn’t have been there. If I hadn’t thought I could do it better than everyone else that was there before me, I wouldn’t have taken the job.

Even if I wasn’t better than everybody else, I had to believe I was.

I came home out of England in February 1991 and things weren’t very rosy. Mickey Moran had been looking after the training and, with my two selectors Dinny McKeever and Harry Gribben, operated from October until the first three matches of the National League of 1991.