St Eunan’s five-time champion Finn ends record-breaking ‘dream’ season

St Eunan’s dual player Cormac Finn has walked where no Donegal man has ever walked before.

Following Sunday’s 2-6 to 1-6 victory over Setanta in the 2021 U21 hurling championship final at a stormy and wet Hibernian Park, Finn and St Eunan’s have completed a memorable season. Some might say he’s Finn-spirational.

The list is an impressive one - senior, senior reserve and U21A football, senior and U21 hurling championships and the Intermediate ladies championship.

Finn captained the U21 hurling side to Sunday’s success and was a member of all five successful panels with the men. He won four of the five on the field - reserve football and U21A football, senior hurling and U21A hurling championships. He was also a member of Rory Kavanagh’s senior championship winning panel.

It is a record never recorded before in Donegal and may well be an achievement never achieved before at national level. But that, for now, is for others to trawl.

“It is a great individual achievement alright but there are 14 other men on the pitch all the time and it is a team effort,” Finn said in the aftermath of Sunday’s final.

“It is what dreams are made of really. When you are out on the pitch playing the whole time the dream is to win. It is a credit to the club for all the coaching that is going on from underage up to senior level.

“A lot of the players are in the 2000 to 2001 age group and the success is down to the coaching and work done by the likes of Eunan O’Donnell and Paddy Flood in hurling and Pauric Ryan in football. All that coaching on a Friday evening and Sunday mornings, teaching the skills of the games is bearing fruit now.”

Reflecting on the latest final success the captain who led from the front when the chips were down admitted he had his moments of doubt in the course of the game against Setanta.

“We wanted to play against the win and have it in our back in the second half,” he said. “But Setanta won the toss and decided they would play against the wind in the first half.” St Eunan’s held a slender two point, 1-4 to 1-2, lead at half-time.

“We were not sure at half-time if two points was not going to be enough and we were really up against in the second half and our backs were against the wall.

“When they scored that goal before half-time to go in just two down at half-time I doubted if we could hold on to win because the wind really picked up in the second half. It was a lot stronger than it was in the first half.

“But fair play to the lads. They dug deep and we may have got a lucky goal and credit to the lads they really stood up and especially the boys at the back like James O’Donnell, Oisin Randles and James Kelly driving the ball out time after time.

“It is testament to the lads that when we went behind they just put their head down and got the next score which if we didn’t I think it would have been a difficult result. It took some balls to go for the goal when he could have tapped over for a lead point. But Paul O’Donnell is a great freetaker.

"He is another man that lives on the pitch every day I’m down. He is there practising and he is getting the benefits of it now. You would back him every time to score and it is a great credit to him.”

It may be the early days of 2022 but the final was the final of 2021 and Sunday’s victory certainly brought down the curtain on year to remember for Cormac and St Eunan's.

“With covid we didn’t know if games would be played at all and then to work out the way it did is great for the club,” Finn added. “It’s great for myself and all the lads involved in all the teams.”