Ethan O'Donnell's return a 'massive lift' for Naomh Conaill - Finnbarr Roarty

Naomh Conaill star Finnbarr Roarty praised the importance of the return of Ethan O’Donnell for the club.

O’Donnell has returned from Australia to play for the Glenties-based men in the championship and he was in from the start for his first appearance in the 0-19 to 2-10 win away to Na Dúnaibh on Sunday.

A former Donegal senior county player and the man of the match in the 2023 Donegal SFC final against Gaoth Dobhair, O’Donnell has been living in Australia for the past two years but also came back midway through the championship last season.

With the massive blow of losing Ciarán Thompson after damaging his ACL in the All-Ireland final, it was a boost to the club to get O’Donnell back and county star Roarty feels he has helped raise the team again.

“It’s a massive lift to have Ethan back,” Roarty, who won Man of the Match, told Streamsport after the win.

“Ciaran Thompson, we all know what he’s capable of and it’s a big miss for the club, and the boys are going to have to step up now and Ethan is a good man to have back.

“The energy levels are good, we’re looking forward to the rest of the year and seeing what we can do with the team we have.”

It was a game of two halves in Páirc na nDúnaibh, with the breeze in favour of Naomh Conaill in the first half as they led by 0-14 to 2-0 at the break, despite having 14 men as Jeaic MacCeallabhuí was sent off, but Roarty admitted he didn’t see and had no complaints about.

The hosts hit back in the second half and made it a level game on 58 minutes as Roarty and co missed a number of goal chances while only registering two points.

But they hit three late scores to seal the win, their second win of the championship after losing out to Glenswilly on the first week, with St Michael’s at home next Sunday

“We always knew it was going to be a dogfight at their own pitch on a bad day and they were up for it, definitely.

“We’re happy to get away with the win, but we made it hard for ourselves.

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“We knew in the second half they’d have the wind and we had to up the intensity from the first half and we really dogged it out.”

“(We’ve had) Three massive battles, but it’s not even just for ourselves, the whole championship has been very competitive, big teams losing against teams you would think they’d get a win over so it has been a very competitive championship, and that’s good to see.

“That’ll be a big one and it’s a must-win game so we’ll be targeting another big performance.”