McEniff returned as Donegal manager in 1989, succeeding Tom Conaghan. He led the county to another Ulster SFC in 1990, restoring players that Conaghan had thrown by the wayside, such as Declan Bonner, Manus Boyle, Matt Gallagher, Barry McGowan and Sylvester Maguire. McEniff's success in Gaelic games culminated when he led his native Donegal team to glory over Dublin at Croke Park in the 1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final. It was shortly before this match that McEniff was informed that the brother of one of his players Joyce McMullan, had died from cancer. He chose not to inform McMullan or anyone else on the team until after the match. McEniff later described it as follows: "Everything had gone so smoothly but when I heard that I was knocked for six. Luckily, the lads were outside watching a bit of the minor match. I stamped up and down before deciding that Gerard would have wanted Joyce to play. When the team came back, they could see something was wrong with me, but I managed to hold it together". It later emerged that there had been a miscommunication, and that McMullan's brother had not died. He did so a year later.