I've been blessed to come through what I came through

CROKE Park has a way of holding memories.

- BY GARRY DOYLE

RED HAND HEROICS Logan with Brian Dooher four years ago after they guided Tyrone to Sam

For Feargal Logan, standing there again yesterday, it carries the echoes of triumph and pain, of days when the roar of the crowd made the impossible feel inevitable.

He leans back slightly in the press room, the late autumn sun slicing through the windows, and talks in a voice that is both measured and candid.

He is 57 now, a few years removed from the intensity of inter-county management, a stroke behind him, and yet here he is, back in the game the Sigerson Cup, to be precise-coaching Queen's University, where he once lifted the very same trophy as captain 35 years ago.

"I had a fairly tough event 18 months ago," Logan says of his life-changing stroke.

"Work has worked out for me. My Law Practice has merged and I'm in a different, less intense role.

"It's probably more at my own pace which is helpful.

"I was handed the Sigerson Cup earlier and it brought back a lot of memories.

"I've been blessed to come through what I came through, so why not have a pop at a bit of football?"

He speaks with the clarity of someone who has wrestled with mortality.

Names slip into conversation - Collie McGurk, Patsy O'Donnell, Jody Gormley - men now gone from this world.

"Football remains the most important of the least important things," he says, and the line lingers, a quiet philosophy borne of experience.

As joint manager of Queen's alongside Dan McCartan, Logan has returned not as a conqueror but as a guide.

He downplays the allure of titles, the cult of the modern-day manager.