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

6 страница из 35

In 1992, Donegal and ourselves were invited to a civic reception in the Guildhall to celebrate our National League title and their All-Ireland. We were all there, but Donegal sent their sub goalie. Coleman was livid, and viewed it as a deliberate insult. Before we played them in the Ulster Final the following year, he was delivering one of his blistering motivational speeches, not that it was needed. In the middle of it, he roared, ‘That’s how much they think of you. You’re shit under their shoe. They sent the sub goalie to the reception in the Guildhall. Their fucking sub goalie.’ Don Kelly, our sub goalie, put his hand up. ‘What is it, Don?’ ‘I just wanted to say thanks a million, Eamonn.’ The changing room, including Eamonn, exploded into laughter, yet another team meeting ending in confusion.

After we had won the All-Ireland, he invited one of the Biggs brothers into the panel. Gary and Gregory were good dual players and had been making a name for themselves. Biggs arrived for his first session, into this ultra-competitive, seasoned group of All-Ireland winners, led by Henry Downey, who would have intimidated Roy Keane. After the warm-up, we did ten 100m sprints. Then, it was into an A v B game. There was no sign of Biggs. Colm O’Kane, the groundsman, said, ‘He went home after the sprints.’ Coleman called Tohill over and said, ‘Anthony, I think I brought the wrong wan.’