Gaoth Dobhair won their first ever Ulster club title on Sunday.
After going 12 years without a county title, the Donegal club have endured plenty of difficult times but these are the best of times.
Grown men, Kevin Cassidy and Eamon McGee were pinching themselves and wondering when they were going to wake up while youngsters Michael Carroll, Naoise Ó Baoill and co. are living the dream.
That’s what winning with the club does to lads and as Odhran Mac Niallais said in his interview after the game, this win means so much more than winning with the county possibly could.
This is the blood-line, this is all around you all the time and it’s where you grow up and it’s who you grow up with.
Gaoth Dobhair have had many heroes on their road to glory.
Kevin Cassidy has been rolling back the years all the way through, Odhran Mac Niallais’ left foot has become a bigger tourist attraction than Mount Errigal over the last few months, Crossmaglen are still having nightmares about Daire Ó Baoill while Gary McFadden has pockets in his shorts for corner forwards.
But on a dirty Sunday in Omagh when Gaoth Dobhair and Scotstown was delicately poised and both sides needed an edge, the Donegal side’s blades were sharpened by a soldier they’d summoned from the bench.
Seaghan Ó Fearraigh is only 20 years of age and he probably can’t remember the last time Gaoth Dobhair won anything before this year but that only increased his hunger for the battle.
It was a real battle out there and from the minute he replaced Naoise Ó Baoill in the 60th minute of the game, he was ready to go to war.
He didn’t get much of a chance in normal time but it was in extra-time, when Gaoth Dobhair needed him and when the game was there to be won, that he made his mark.
In the 13th minute of extra-time, he made miracles out of a pass that was well behind him to kick what would eventually be the winner for the Gaeltacht men.
Scotstown (Monaghan) v Gaoth Dobhair (Donegal) Full-Time Highlights pic.twitter.com/U6kVDlu5Zt
— The GAA (@officialgaa) December 2, 2018
He ensured it was the winner six minutes later when, with Scotstown on the charge and hunting an equaliser, he dived in at the other end of the field, throwing head, hands, body and all on the line to intercept a Scotstown pass before winning a clutch free for the champions.
CREDIT: TG4 sport
Those are the contributions that win these tight games.
Ó Fearraigh shouldn’t have to buy a pint in Gaoth Dobhair for weeks.
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