Odhran Mac Niallais has won plenty with Donegal.
He lifted an Ulster championship in 2014 and he won another one on a sunny summer afternoon this year too. Never in his life, however, has he had a day like this dirty Sunday up in Omagh and never in his life has he been on a journey like this one with Gaoth Dobhair.
It all started in the wind and in the rain of a January slog. But this January slog had a different feel for it for Gaoth Dobhair, as their midfielder, Daire Ó Baoil told us earlier this week.
“Mervyn O’Donnell came in, he came in and he took a job that was very hard to take with Gaoth Dobhair the way things were. He told us starting off, it was going to be a team of honesty, there was going to be no bullshit, between anyone.”
Club legend Kevin Cassidy had come out of retirement. Youngsters who’d been playing with Donegal all the way up along were primed for it, they were ready.
We’re talking about Michael Carroll, Cian Mulligan, Odhran Ó Fearraigh, Ó Baoill himself and Gary McFadden. These were just lads on a job, for themselves and for Gaoth Dobhair, who last won a county title way back in 2006.
That’s too long for a club of their stature of their status, and so they got to work.
They beat Glenties, so often their bogey team, early on in the Donegal championship but the wins kept on coming.
Of course, Glenties again in the county final. Gaoth Dobhair, so buoyed and so energised by their bubbly youth and so canny and so cute by their hardened experience – we’re talking about Neil and Eamon McGee and that man Cassidy – made light work of them.
Onto Cargin and past Crossmaglen, another pair of giants slayed and another glorious sprinkling of attacking football.
Next up was Scotstown in the Ulster final and though the weather was crap and the pitch boggy, Gaoth Dobhair proved once again that they were down for a dogfight and they were up for a challenge.
Mac Niallais, their most talented player was the man-of-the-match by the end of it all with his golden gun of a left foot responsible for four of the finest points on a day when points were harder to come by than Japanese men who’ve won Ulster finals.
https://twitter.com/EamonMcGee/status/1064219928205684736
Their centre forward Naoise Ó Baoill, raised in Japan for a while and in Australia, playing a key part in their triumph on Sunday. Thank God he came back to Gaoth Dobhair.
One to 15 and down through the subs – Seaghan Ferry kicked the winning point after his late introduction – they played a key role but that man Mac Niallais, summed it all up afterwards during a powerful interview on TG4 after he was named Laoch na hImeartha.
Agallamh le Laoch na hImearthha @OdhranMac101 ó @gaothdobhairclg
@officialdonegal pic.twitter.com/YSS1cBQdmk
— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) December 2, 2018
“Amhairc ar sin,” he said to Micheal Ó Domhnaill, encouraging him to look at the celebrations behind him, “Tá sé dochreidthe (Unbelievable)”
When asked if this was as good as anything he’s experienced with the county, Mac Niallais was emphatic.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq5HTcKB4E_/
“Tá sé seo i bhfad níos fearr (This is way better), Níl mé in ann an lá seo a mholadh (I can’t come close to explaining this day)
“Mo cheantar féin (own area), mo leaids (my teammates), mo thaeghlach (my family), aww, it’s unbelievable,” he said.
That’s what it’s all about.
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