Gaoth Dobhair made history on Sunday as they became the first Donegal side to ever win the U-21 Ulster final.
The Magheragallon men proved much too strong for the Derry champions Lavey defeating them 4-7 to 0-6. The result was as impressive as it can get in an Ulster final, much praise deserves to be given to Tom ‘Beag’ Gillespie for the work and commitment he has put into the side over the years.
This particular age group of Gaoth Dobhair players didn’t lose a championship match in Donegal from U-16 level onwards. Few teams have achieved such success in the county over the years.
Eamonn Collum suffered a difficult start to the season with a knee-injury but the St. Pats student bagged the first goal for his side on Sunday. The corner-forward admits he felt total jubilation at the final whistle.
“The feeling was unreal, the fact that we won with a special team of men who all grew up together is unreal. Once the final whistle went I went straight up to Odhran Ferry and Conor McCafferty. There was a huge roar from the crowd which made it even better,” Collum said.
The young side is well used to tasting victories and Gaoth Dobhair will be hoping to transform that mentality to senior level in the next few seasons. “Yeah we’re extremely successful but it’s not only the team, the work and effort by Tom and his back room team was phenomenal from under 12 upwards,” he said.
Collum admits that the future does look positive for the parish going forward. “Yeah to be honest you could see that there is a difference in the senior setup already as we made it to the semi-final last year which hasn’t happened in a while. The senior setup had more than 10 boys from Tom’s upbringing, so hopefully now we can push on,” he said.
Much of the success of the side started from the levels of work that was put in all down the years starting as far back as U-12 level. “From an early age we were brought up by Tom but also in the setup were Martin Kelly and Brendan Boyle. They had a huge impact on the team. The work that we done wasn’t anything special we always stuck by the boys words and Tom’s usual statement was ‘to do the basics right’, Collum admitted”
The side rarely got the opportunity to slacken up the commitment levels under wise guidance. “We just did the simple things and trained three times a week. Tom’s heart is in the GAA and it’s easily spotted, when we weren’t training he would have me and some of the boys down kicking points with him. So we went and did all we were told and the success just kept coming,” he said.
Collum also puts a lot of the success of the side down to how close-knit the parish around them is. “The team isn’t strong because of the big names or the county boys. It’s the commitment of each player and the want to win attitude we all have. Every player knows each other well as we grew up together, went to school together, trained together and socialised together. We know each other inside out and this helps a lot,” he claimed
The team have had an incredibly long season, but with the start of the senior league campaign not far away, Collum is hungry for more football. “It’s most definitely an advantage for the 21s anyway to get going again soon. We see the seniors getting dogged at training, it’s especially enjoyable watching Noel Kelly struggling with the runs,” he joked. “The 21s are in a good place and the fact that we’re all fit and ready for the start of the league allows the manger to try different players in different places,” he added.
Although it will be very difficult to improve on the year that the U-21 side had, the Gaoth Dobhair men know there is room for improvements. “It will be possible to top that season if we all now stick together, work as a team and lift it up a gear. We need to take last year’s defeat in the semi-final as a learning curve as we did with the 21s in ulster,” Collum concluded.
