A late introduction to inter-county career Ex-Sligo great Paddy Christy could fairly read a game. Was one of his county's best ever footballers and knew a good 'un on the field when he saw one. So when Strandhill native Brendan McCauley crossed his path in 1958, rounded him and generally put him in the shade to the delight of the Saint Monica's faithful, the London-based veteran sure as hell took notice of the new boy on the block. Paddy Christy was a loyal servant of Sligo football for many years and regularly commuted home from London to play with his home county. After his run-in with the strapping McCauley, there was only one extra-hand he wanted accompanying the Sligo loyalists on their next trip home to Countess Markievitz Park. Brendan McCauley the non-aligned quality midfielder, was soon to be Sligo property. Fellow commuters Jim Killoran, Brendan O'Boyle and Frank Gaffney couldn't wait to make room on the plane. At 22 years of age, McCauley was a relative late comer to Senior inter-county service but Garda John McCauley's son was no slow couch when it came to being early to the ball and first in to the tackle. Ironically, he might never have experienced the rigours of Sligo football had his father not been hoisted from Belturbet, Co. Cavan circa 1949 by the powers that be of that time. For it looked high and dry that the galloping gasun was on course to be a Breffini Blue as his Underage days in Cavan promised. Football gurus in the local De la Salle school and Belturbet Tech. must surely have recognised that talents like those of the Belturbet Under 14 starlet would not reappear on the local deciduous trees the following Spring. Belturbet and Cavan's loss would be Coolooney and Sligo's gain. A banker, insurance clerk, a builder's labourer and a glistening gael, while mixing it with the rest of his countrymen in England's capital, Brendan McCauley's inter-county experience prior to signing up with the Yeats County was zero principally because at an early age, Brendan's entrance in to the Christian Brothers Order saw him invariably reside in Moate, Baldoyle, Bray and Booterstown. As such, it wasn't until 1957 that he first experienced livewire competitive football, though such was the quality of his early play with his adopted Sligo that one would hardly have believed it. Leaving the Christian Brothers to take the boat to London at the age of 22 was seen to be the watershed in the construction of Brendan McCauley's football career. From 'Monica's in Shoreditch to Coolooney Harps was not to prove the massive leap that one might have envisaged however. Toiling in London with some quality footballers such as Sean Hendry of Monaghan, Offaly's Sean Ryan and Derry's Tommy Stephenson (Brendan's long-time midfield partner), 'Monica's Cavan import helped himself to a County Championship medal in London in 1960 and engineered a first ever, prestigious Tipperary Cup triumph for his club. An outing with a Nace O'Dowd powered Sligo side in New York would follow in 1961. Cycling some thirteen miles to Heathrow Airport after finishing work on the buildings at lunch time before flying home to link up with Sligo team manager and Chairman Peter Laffey, sadly from 1957 to 1960, Sligo's new boy on the block failed to appear on a winning county side in the Connacht Championship. Still the London experience provided the best of preparation grounds for the soon to be hailed Sligo star. "I hadn't any county minor or Under 21 experience but you couldn't have got it any tougher than it was in London plus the fact that there were a lot of quality footballers playing there at the time. The physical and skill element was there in abundance so it was no great step up in class for me when I decided to take up the invitation to join Sligo. I remember making the adjustment quite easily and if anything I was surprised that the standard in Connacht wasn't higher". Exuding a passion for the game that few in the modern era could readily appreciate, Brendan returned to Sligo on a permanent basis in 1962 to manage a plastics factory and in doing so, linked up with some of the cream of Sligo's crop of footballers. Brendan went on to enjoy the best of times with his adopted Coolooney Harps team mates. In a star-studded club side, players like Mayo's John Morley (later to partner Brendan at midfield for Connacht in the '64 Railway Cup), Bill Shannon (Sligo and Mayo) and Vincent Nally (Mayo) all combined to extract the best of stuff from McCauley on the field of play. With a side that, at one point in time, incorporated in their ranks six county players including three Railway Cup stars, there was always going to be medal on the sideboard for the Sligo-born and Cavan reared rising star and his new acquaintances. Despite the best claims for supremacy in Sligo as offered by a Mickey Kearins led St. Pat's side and that of Ballisadare, there was no stopping the Harps as they romped to three county Senior Championship and as many League titles. Most pleased that a proposal from the floor of the 1960 County Convention calling for Sligo to drop down Junior fell flat on it's face, Brendan McCauley unashamedly stands by his theory that Sligo's misfortunes in the sixties didn't adequately reflect the worth of successive Yeats County sides during the early part of the decade. "We were unlucky at county level to come up against good Galway and Mayo teams. We had the footballers, but we just didn't get the breaks", recalled the Chief Executive of Strandhill-based Western Contract Cleaning and father of eight children. The close of the swinging sixties swung the Strandhill businessman into a new department of Sligo Football Incorporated. 1970 saw Brendan elected Chairman of Sligo County Board and simultaneously the Senior team's trainer in association with Bill Shannon. The move was to have obvious adverse implications on his relationship with Sligo as a tour de force on the playing side of things. Being Chairman and team manager seemed to compromise the vastly experienced, six foot, twelve stone three pounds midfielders. Predictably, he felt obliged to make do with a place on the bench as Sligo fell to in the 1970 Connacht Championship quarter final. As player-manger and Chairman of Sligo in 1970. Brendan McCauley made little of his lack of administrative experience to do a solid job at the helm, but was it wise move or, indeed, a successful one? "In hindsight, I didn't succeed in what I tried to do and, perhaps, maybe I should have concentrated on working with the team Being Chairman, I thought I'd have been able to start a social centre at the Markievitz Park but it never came to be". Chairman 'till 1973 and team manager in '70 and '71, the unity of purpose which Brendan sought in juggling with both job responsibilities left him admitting that, perhaps, he had fallen between two stools. Whatever about his tumble between aforementioned furniture, the fall couldn't have hurt more than his team's 3-10 to 1-17 Connacht final replay defeat in 1971. "We had great character and plenty of skill but maybe we needed more time but we should have done better between 1971 and '75 when we had men like Mickey Kearins, Barnes Murphy Tom Colleary plus David Pugh, Gerry Mitchell and Tony Fagan of the younger crew later on". A Railway Cup stalwart for five consecutive years, '63-68, Brendan's next assignment in his post playing days was as Sligo's representative in 1973 on the Central Council, but became disillusioned with the lack of influence he felt he could bring on proceeding there. Still, Brendan McCauley has never lost his passion for the game he excelled at for so long. His interest in the welfare of his county's football exploits remains keen even to this day. Sadly, he still sees some of Sligo's innate problems rearing their ugly head as Messrs. Laffey and Stenson bid valiantly to pluck their side out of the mundane. "There is still very much a lack of self belief about current Sligo teams and a lack of ability among defenders to stop a man without fouling him. The talent is there, I've no doubt, but as in my day when Mickey Kearins did most of the scoring, there are problems in the scoring department. In last year's League match against Dublin, the only difference between the sides was in the ability of the Dubs to score much more easily than us." But there's plenty of hope on the horizon, according to the former County boss. "Football is not as bad in Sligo as other people in other counties perceive it to be. We are producing some fine young players but we're playing them too young. I don't think they should be blooded until they've come out of Under 21 ranks", offered the affable McCauley. The very antithesis of your watery, half-hearted Sligo supporter, Brendan McCauley still sees everything appropriately enough, in black and white. "Sligo have great potential if only they can get the basics right," he says. "There's too much 'beachball' type football in vogue, and not enough traditional catch and kick return, the kind of stuff that makes the turnstiles click", Brendan suggests. A fair point from a fair footballer who was known to be responsible for making a few turnstiles click in his day. Written by Hogan Stand Magazine 04/06/93 Tweet

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