“After the county final we went up to Evan’s grave. He’s very much a part of this panel.
“It is difficult, but we don’t hide anything. We talk about Evan all the time, his jersey is up in the dressing room, the number 13 on the lad’s wrists.”
In the days leading into the Donegal Junior final, manager Daniel McAuley made a promise.
Naomh Pádraig of Muff were going to win the Tír Chonaill county title, and Evan Craig was going to be the man to climb the steps and lift the trophy.
In ways they didn’t get that fairytale. In ways they’ve got so much more.
The complexities of such a promise proved out of his control as young Evan Craig, a star of Naomh Pádraig as recently as last year, sadly passed away in early September.
That was the indicator for McAuley if he ever needed it that “there’s so much more to life” than football. That was the message he preached to his players.
But equally this storied Ulster run and the club’s first ever provincial title has been one of healing:
“We made a promise to Evan we would win Donegal, and we made a promise to Joe and Grace (Evan’s parents) that we would win Ulster.”
In Muff, it seems promises are for keeping. At the weekend, the second of those wins came against Craigbane, in some style too.
Caolán McColgan is their cherry on top and concrete at the bottom, the county star that sets the standards. McAuley almost winces for fear of sounding clichéd when speaking of his impact on what is an incredibly young squad.
“Caolán is massive for us. He gives the whole squad a lift.
“He looks after himself so well, he’s at training before every other man, doing his own warm-up.
“He brings a level of professionalism for other boys to follow.”
The semi-final win over Armagh’s Collegeland came a little easier than McAuley had expected. He was impressed by the video work he had seen of them, though accepts they were “a little jaded” after facing extra-time twice on their run to the province’s last four.
In that game, McColgan missed a one-on-one that thankfully mattered little. McAuley’s decision to make him a forward was surely under fire too.
Lads being lads, McColgan was the butt of many jokes in the lead-up to the Ulster decider.
He swore if given the chance, he wouldn’t miss again.
38 seconds into the second-half he buried his side’s second goal.
That’s character.
Something Kevin Lynch has in abundance. The other member of the “little and large” inside line. How fitting it was that the final kickout was fielded by the match-clincher.
He hadn’t played since that Donegal final. And that was a campaign he soldiered through with three broken bones in his foot.
He wasn’t even supposed to play on Sunday, but his manager knows the type of him, “a thick sort of breed” in the best possible way:
“The lineswoman said it was 10 seconds over added time when the ball hit the net (Craigbane’s consolation goal).
“Big Kev caught the kickout and the crowd just poured onto the pitch.
“He only came on at half-time, that was pre-planned. We were holding him back, we knew he didn’t have a full game in the lungs.
“He broke three bones in his foot and played the Donegal county final. He only got the boot off two weeks ago.
“Some of the runs he made were just unreal.”
If it didn’t sink in then, it surely did on the return to east Donegal. The streets lined in the greatest day the village has ever seen:
“When we got back, it was black with people.
“This is your own club, your own village. You’ve seen these lads grow up from they were wains.
“It’s just really special. I want to thank the whole community. The support has been unreal.”
And now from the wee village to the lights of London they go. December 7, Ruislip, the Twinning Town final. The glory days keep coming.
As McAuley puts it:
“You don’t win anything for 35 years and then it all comes along at once.”
Life is like a box of chocolates.