Sean MacCumhaills and St Eunan's to do battle in U21 Hurling final

The Under-21 Hurling championship final takes place this Friday night as Sean MacCumhaills and St Eunan’s meet in the Donegal GAA Centre in Convoy at 7.30pm.

The two teams are at opposite ends of the scale, with Sean MacCumhaills into a first Under-21 final after only getting a team together at this level for the first time this year.

For St Eunan’s, they have been to the last two finals, losing out to Burt, while some of their players in their final year at this grade were part of the 2021 winning team.

For the Twin-Towns men, it’s an impressive achievement to make the final in their first season at this grade but they have plenty of experience at reaching finals.

They already picked up minor and Under-14 titles this season, and have an Under-16 final on Sunday against Carndonagh.

And the majority of this team were part of the minor winning side from July as they won three-in-a-row at that grade, coached by Anthony Patton and Jamesie Donnelly, as they go into the Ulster Minor championship at the beginning of December.

Patton is coach of this side, and he is aware that they are a very youthful side, but they are hungry for further success ahead of Friday.

Former county star Lee Henderson is the manager, while Patton, along with club senior players Dean Hannigan, Gavin Browne and Dylan Laverty.

“We decided we’d take it on because we never had an Under-21s team and it was the first year that we’ve gathered up enough players.

“We’ve been building at underage a bit, and it would be more of a minor team, other than about four players.

“That is positive for us to get to the final with such a young team but it’s great to still be hurling at this time of the year.”

The Twin-Towns men have had tough battles to make the decider, beating Aodh Ruadh by 1-11 to 0-7 in the quarter-finals, before a 4-8 to 3-10 win over three-in-a-row champions Burt in the semi-finals.

“We had a tough quarter-final against Ballyshannon and a really tough semi-final against Burt so it was good to come out of it.

“They had a couple of senior players there and the conditions were difficult in Convoy. It was a real ding-dong battle, but the lads showed good character.

“We’ve got on really well at underage and a lot of experience has been gathered playing against older and more physical players, it’s a big step up for them.

Sean Brady Devenny and Davitt Bradley Flynn are joint captains, while senior club players Jacob Malone and Dan Donnelly, who are still minors, have been hugely impressive but haven’t had perfect preparation.

“Dan is coming back from injury and he was out for a long time. Jacob dislocated his shoulder in a Gaelic match, so they wouldn’t be 100% but hopefully they can play a part.

“Young lads there like Shay Bradley and Dylan Patton, who are only under-17, can hopefully have their say in the final.

“Some of these boys will hopefully look to make the step up to seniors, and this is good for that transition but they’ll be going out with the bit between their teeth, and they won’t be going just to take part.

“We got a bit of a lesson against St Eunan’s seniors this year, and some of their U21 players were playing for them but we have to just focus on getting a performance from our own lads.”

For St Eunan’s, they are more experienced at this level, but will be hoping that it’s third time lucky after back-to-back final defeats to Burt.

John MacIntyre and Sean Halvey managed the team last year and are also in charge again this season, and they have been convincing so far.

They eased to victory in the quarter-final by 3-23 to 0-2 against Setanta and it was similar in the semi-finals as they beat Letterkenny Gaels by 5-14 to 1-7.

“We’re happy enough to get to the final, it would have been great to have a game like MacCumhaills and Burt had, but the Gaels game flattered us a bit, we got two goals before half time and another after the restart but we didn’t score for about 15 minutes then, so we’re not coming in completely undercooked.

“It’s good to be getting into the final again, some of the boys will probably be looking to exercise a few demons, but as long as we can get a good performance, that’s what we want to be able to take away from it and we’ll go from there, once you get into the game they won’t think about the year before.”

With Letterkenny Gaels entering a team this year in the U21s, St Eunan’s lost five players from last year as they moved back to their local club, while James O’Donnell is overage.

“Donal Farrelly, Joseph Patton, Matthew Winters, Ben Winters and Matthew Callaghan were all in last year, and they would have been key players for us.

“That and O’Donnell is who we would have lost from last year. We still have Peter Kelly, John Kealy, and David Horgan, and there is a good core of boys there.

“Peter is the captain, and he’s leading the charge. Brendan Gaffey, who won Intermediate Hurler of the Year, has really upped his game, and John Kealy has also been very good in the forward line. Conal Herron is only Under-17 and he’s going well too.”

Adie Gaffey is also helping out and, as Donegal Under-20 manager, who MacIntyre is part of the backroom team of, they know some of the MacCumhaills threats well.

“They’ve come through two good games, we only beat Aodh Ruadh by a point last year and they beat them by seven and the Burt game was a dogfight, and they came up with the goods.

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“They have a great scoring threat, and they had a few boys who played for the Under-20s, so there is talent all over.

“They have a tradition in winning, and if they win it a lot of them boys will have that underage set done from 14s up.

“It might stand to us that we have a bit more experience and more senior players, but there is no substitute for winning trophies.

“These lads don’t want to leave 21s having lost three finals in a row, so they’ll want to get one over the line. There is hunger there, and it’s important we can channel that into something positive rather than nerves.”