Whirlwind few hours end in glory for Finneran

There was hardly a busy manager across the country on Saturday as Thomas Finneran reflected on a whirlwind few hours in a burgeoning managerial career.

The Four Roads junior ladies’ footballers died with their boots on when they fell just short against Breaffy in their Connacht LGFA quarter-final just a week after becoming county champions.

With his brother-in-law James Kenny at the wheel, Finneran made the journey back up the N60 to cement a second county title under his watch as three first-half goals ultimately proved decisive in procuring a first Junior A championship for St. Aidan’s in 60 years.

With the league (Tansey Cup) and championship double in the bag, the smile across Finneran’s face typified the feel-good factor permeating through Ballyforan, Dysart and Four Roads this week.

“The boys have worked awful hard. Our first training session was on January 5th. We had a great management team behind us — Adrian Martin from my own club in St. Brendan’s, Ballygar, Michael Carty, Robbie Glennon, and a lot of other very good people.

“I felt that we made hard work of it at times. We should have probably scored more but we got the goals at the right time. They made the difference, and the boys saw out the game really well in the last ten minutes.

“The age profile of the side is really good, so I think they’ll be very competitive at intermediate level next year,” was his synopsis of side’s five-point victory.

“There was a bit of luck (in the first goal). Gavin (Meares) was going for a two-pointer that dropped short. Eoin (Fallon) was switched on, and he stuck it in the back of the net. You need a bit of luck to win county finals, and we got it today. But, overall, I felt we were the best team.

“It was all about workrate after that. Playing into the wind, we knew that we’d have to work it in a little bit closer in the second half. What did we score in the second half? Five or six points? We figured that if we didn’t give up a goal that it would be enough to get us over the line.” 

Managing players in a dual club is never straightforward, and Finneran was quick to pay tribute to his Four Roads counterpart, Micheál Kelly, for his role in facilitating this success, which saw two county titles (three with the Four Roads ladies’ football triumph) come to the parish in the space of six days.

“I was really happy. There are around 20 young fellas playing both hurling and football between our first and second teams. It only makes sense that you work together.

“Myself and Micheál worked well this year. We did the dual training sessions right from the get-go. We gave the guys time to recover. For the last two weekends, both the hurlers and now the footballers have performed to the best of their ability. That’s all you can ask for.

“It’s hard to come out here on the Hyde two weekends in a row for these players, it’s a massive pitch. You need plenty of legs out here. But I didn’t think we ran out of them today,” he remarked.

St. Aidan’s have always produced good footballers, and Finneran felt that Roscommon would reap a reward from having the club ply its trade at a higher level.

“There’s a lot of talent coming through. They’re well able to play to a high standard. I feel we have lads that can play for the county. It’s important that clubs like Aidan’s can play at a higher level, which lends itself to Roscommon.

“It has been a great year, a very successful year. It’s very important to celebrate success but all eyes will soon turn to the Mayo county final. We’ll turn up (for the Connacht quarter-final), but we’ll be no long shot whoever it is,” he concluded.