Four Masters set for first U-21 championship final in 23 years

It might raise a few eyebrows if you were to tell the average Joe that none of the Four Masters U-21 players were born the last time the club appeared in a county final in that age category.   

That was back in 2001, 8,505 days to be exact, when the Donegal Town team landed the club’s second U-21 club title after beating Cloughaneely, backboned by future county players such as Barry Dunnion, Paul Durcan, and Michael Doherty, to name a few, with Karl Lacey also being a member of that team but missed to final as he was on holiday.   

In more recent times, whatever rhythm of revolution that has taken place across their club’s underage structure that has yielded unprecedented success, it’s hard to escape the belief that this is the same club that had their senior team in Division 3 a little over three seasons ago.   

For an older generation around the Four Masters, these seem like oddly serene days to the ones from the last decade that had residual ambivalence, where the adult teams couldn’t escape the environment of defeat.   

“I think the work done at underage has been noted over the past few years, that’s where it’s coming from,” said joint-manager Aaron McCrea, who is in his first year as manager, alongside Patrick Reid and long-time senior coach John Kennedy.    

“That underage success doesn’t always reap the rewards but you could see the amount of work put in in our club.    

“I think it was actually at this age group where the underage success began. We have five players from this age group playing with us; Conor Reid, Senan Quinn, Josh McCrea, Ross O’Keeney, and Ethan McNulty, they all started winning at U-12s, and then the teams that came after them followed suit and won numerous county championships.”   

The key to change has been two-fold. For context, the club can start with three county minor titles in-a-row and a historic Ulster minor club championship last January. That alone was followed by an All-Ireland B title at school level with the Abbey Vocational School for several Four Masters players, while a Division 2 senior league title was also achieved last summer.   

 On Tuesday, McCrea was asked about his side’s capacity to cope with the expectation of now being a club constantly aiming for success.   

“I don’t think there’s been any pressure on us. We’ve had a few good minor campaigns but we’ve had next to no history at U-21 level. I can’t even remember the last time we were in a semi-final before,” he said.   

“We haven’t got to meet up that much because the players are all balancing a lot between county teams, school football, club minors, and the rest of the panel are all in college, so for us it’s about creating an environment where they want to come and play because they’re getting their minutes of football in everywhere else.   

“I don’t think we as a management can claim any responsibility for any of these players and what they’ve achieved. They’ve had great coaching through the years and even some of them have gained inter-county experience and senior club experience along the way too.   

“Myself, Patrick Reid, and John Kennedy are very much a trio. John is the coach first and foremost but we’re a trio of managers and we’re learning a lot from John’s experience on the sideline. As I said, there’s really no managing in these players, and we just try to bring a positive atmosphere and communication in place which has worked.”   

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The story of a club building from the ground up is a nice tale, but one the team doesn’t think to delve too much into. For the players and the management, their sole focus is on Sunday when they face the one side that got the better of them so far in this campaign.   

“We came off a big win against Dungloe the first day out and we were feeling confident going up to Glenswilly the following week, we ended up kicking 1-6 but to be honest we didn’t even deserve that,” the Four Masters man added.    

“I think Glenswilly could’ve beaten us by more that day. They had a lot of wides, they were very physical, and that was something they very much imposed on us too.   

“This is a Glenswilly team with great experience. They won the U-21 B championship two seasons ago and then got to the A final last season, so they’re a really strong team with solid ball players who have great quality.  

“They have a lot of good players too, the likes of Donal Gallagher has had a lot of senior experience, Daithi Gildea has had a good senior and U-21 campaign, and even last week, the likes of Mark Bonner, Reid Kelly, and Shane Tinney all stood up, so they have good quality all across the pitch.”   

At Tir Conaill Park there is no talk of history being made; the sole focus is merely doing a job this Sunday in Ballyshannon against a Glenswilly side hungry to right some wrongs from last year’s U-21 final loss to Gaoth Dobhair.   

However, sometimes history is hard to ignore. The simple fact is that Four Masters’ two previous county U-21 wins in 1979 and 2001 were the go-to points that created the club’s senior success in the early 1980s and their last title in the senior championship in 2003.   

“We’ve won nothing yet, but we’re happy where we’re at,” McCrea added.   

“I think if you look at the past, 16 of the last 17 years, the U-21 championship has been won by four teams and they are the only four teams to have won the senior championship since 2013, so that speaks volumes.”