Paddy J McGinley wants Naomh Columba’s present to catch up with its past

The GAA in Glen is “fite fuaite” in the community-forged by years of proud tradition - those are the words of Naomh Columba manager Paddy J McGinley as he hopes to lead his young charges to glory and end a long famine.

“The GAA and the community are one, and there is not a family in the parish that does not have a connection with the club and it is a great day for us when we have two teams in county finals,” he said, referencing the reserve team’s date with St
Mary’s Convoy, which will be the curtain-raiser on Saturday in Letterkenny.

After a succession of losing semi-final appearances, this year these free-wheeling Naomh Columba have gone one better and have hit 15 goals en route to the decider which will surely cause Dessie Gallagher and Dungloe pause for thought.

That is a stunning stat - but it does not surprise the vastly experienced McGinley,who rates this squad as as good a group he has ever worked with - very conscious of the great tradition when they contested six finals in the 1990s.

“These lads are reminded of it a lot and are hopefully inspired by it,” the manager said. “Gaelic football is the main topic in the homes in Glen. I have been with this squad almost for the past 13 years and we have been so close. I have been involved with teams for 50 years and this is as talented and diligent as I have been involved.

“Some of them have been coming home to Glen for the past ten years and they do it willingly for the pride of the club and the parish and this is an immensely talented team. Maybe they are not as big as previous Glen teams but supremely gifted and athletic and totally dedicated”.

They meet an equally well prepared Dungloe side, who beat them on the way to the final this time last year, according to the canny McGinley.

“What stands to Dungloe is that they have been senior up to two years ago,” he said. “They came down senior two years ago and reached the Intermediate final last year and now they are back again. I would say there is no team, senior or any grade, that trains harder than them. They are very well conditioned and are a great example for anyone”.

Because of those hard yards being put in by the Rosses side, McGinley, unsurprisingly makes them ever so slight favourites to win on Saturday.

“Maybe they are favourites and rightly so, but I think it will be a 50/50 game,” McGinley added. “We work on the assumption that if you have ten shots at goal and you have a 60 per cent return going for points, if you get 30 percent of a return with goals so you get nine points so it is pretty mathematical.

“You look at other teams and look at what their strengths are and what their weaknesses are. We are still putting up double scores in points. But some of these goals are coming in the last seven or eight minutes when teams are chasing the match and things open up”.

“We can't pretend to be any different than anyone else. The first 20 minutes is about containment and keeping what you have. And then try and get a few points ahead and the opposition has to come out so maybe things will open up. This is a very young team but maybe we could be a bit more hardened to achieve what we want to achieve but our corner-back is as skillful as our corner-forward. And that is right through the team. Whether we are ready or not will be revealed on Saturday”.