Preview: Naomh Pádraig v An Cheathrú Rua – the biggest day of all

All-Ireland Club JFC Final

Naomh Pádraig Uisce Chaoin
v An Cheathrú Rua

Saturday, Croke Park, 3.10pm

By MIchael McMullan

TWELVE championship steps later and Naomh Pádraig are still living the dream. Saturday will be the biggest of all.

Before even mentioning Croke Park, they’ll almost have to pinch themselves but it’s important to set the scene.

The club was only founded in 1989 after Michael McMenamin and the late Sean Lynch toyed with the idea of forming an u-12 team.

And there it was, Naomh Pádraig Uisce Chaoin was born. The players got older and moved towards minor until they had an adult team.

Two Donegal junior finals came and went with the Muff men on the wrong side of the result.

They never won a championship until this year. Now, they are champions of Ulster, have had two trips to London and won a dramatic penalty shoot-out in Parnell Park.

Now it’s real. They’re going to Croke Park. In the week before their All-Ireland semi-final, there were only four things prominent in Muff – snow, flags, bunting and total football chat.

Kevin Lynch and Caolan McColgan have scored 15 goals between them but they’ve not always been in tandem due to injury.

After leading the scoring charge in Donegal, it took until Lynch came on half time in their Ulster final over Craigbane before they were twinned again.

A goal each shot their way to an Ulster title with captain Dermot Keaveney accepting the cup before reciting a poem in memory of Evan Craig.

Illness took their teammate and friend too soon. Far too soon. But they didn’t forget him.

His number 13 jersey hangs in every dressing room and they maintain he had some sort of say in their penalty shoot-out win over Kilmurray.

Their Donegal final win over Carndonagh and the Ulster showdown almost seem like another season. Well, it was last year, but they’ve progressed so much.

With Jonathan Toye, Eunan Mullan and Cormac McColgan forming their triangle around midfield, they have a heartbeat.

Joe McCauley – wearing 18 instead of Craig’s number 13 – plays as their sweeper. Oisin McIntyre covers the ground and links play between front and back. Kevin Doherty the same.

In Rory Hirrell, they have a flier on the wing and his imprint against Kilmurry was so much more than his winning penalty in the shoot-out.

The injury that kept him on the bench against Tara in London hasn’t totally cleared. Manager Daniel McCauley didn’t want to use him in the semi-final but needed to.

They will be hoping the hamstring injury that forced Jonathan Toye out of the semi-final will heal enough in the two weeks in between.

McCauley hopes so too. For two reasons. Toye is important to the team but he deserves to play in Croke Park. In the dark days, he was like he is now – a leader.

All-Irelands aren’t easy won. If they were, everybody would have walked up the Hogan Stand steps at some point.

Galway side An Cheathrú Rua stand between Uisce Chaoin and absolute dreamland.

They were the first Gaeltacht side to win the Galway senior title, back in 1996. The Naomh Pádraig club was only seven years old back then, the same year Donegal’s youngest club – Letterkenny Gaels – were founded.

The Galway team built by the late John O’Mahony had two famous suns of An Cheathrú Rua – speedster Seán Óg de Paor and man mountain Seán Ó Domhnaill.

A look at the current team and they have a half back line in de Paor’s mould. Ball carriers. They have two giants –Micheál and Stiofáin Ó Briain.

In Maitiú Ó Domhnaill and Éanna Mac Cormaic, they had forwards that need looking after.

As a club, they dropped from senior to junior in two successive seasons before making the immediate climb back to intermediate for 2025.

They’ll not worry about that now. Like Uisce Chaoin, that’s all for another day, far beyond Saturday.

A look at their win over Ballinagar and you see enough about An Cheathrú Rua’s quality. When the dust settled on their own semi-final win, Daniel McCauley began sifting through footage of Saturday’s final opponents. He won’t want his side hit for three points in as many minutes like Ballingar were.

The Galway champions will have seen enough about Naomh Pádraig to know they are in for a tough day at headquarters.

If McCauley’s supporting cast get enough ball to Lynch and McColgan, they’ll be a handful for anyone.

That’s where Drew McKinney, Rory Hirrell and Ronan Hoy come up. Lynch might be needed for shifts around midfield and it’s about making sure everything ticks along if they change it.

In terms of challenges, Saturday is the biggest one yet for Naomh Pádraig – a club that has been around the block.

This time last year, McCauley was getting the show back on the road after a penalty shootout defeat at the hands of Moville. They had a championship blank on their roll of honour.

That was then. This is now. They stood shoulder to shoulder in the loss of Evan Craig and celebrate their glories in his memory.

They have tasted success. And they like it. They want more.

Days after Craig’s funeral, McCauley asked his players to go to the well in their semi-final against Naomh Bríd. Do the work of two men. Even three.

That’s the type of performance they need now on the club’s biggest ever day.

They are now on the map. The club championship told their story. A winning ending would top everything. Imagine.