Ethan O’Donnell displayed a potent mix of poise and power to pick up the man of the match honours Naomh Conaill swatted Gaoth Dobhair aside in Sunday’s Donegal SFC final.
The elegant wing-back seems to glide effortlessly over the ground and has an ability to deliver telling passes.
O’Donnell set his stamp on the game from the off, winning possession from the throw-in and finding Ciaran Thompson, who was fouled, and John O’Malley pointed the free after just 12 seconds.
That set the tone for a demolition job from Martin Regan’s men and O’Donnell was the seamless link with the attack from his left half-back position.
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He showed that he is truly a team player by passing up a very good chance of getting a goal by setting up Charles McGuinness for the simplest of tap-ins.
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- Naomh Conaill topple Gaoth Dobhair to bag Donegal crown
Speaking after his side’s emphatic 1-16 to 1-8 win, O’Donnell said: “It’s just the best feeling in the world and words can’t really describe it.
“You see all the boys with all their kids and to win our seventh county title and fourth in five years – you see how special it is from top to bottom.
“It’s all about families, brothers, sisters, friends and the whole community and it is such a special day.”
#GAABEO 46 nóim@gaothdobhairclg 0-05@NaomhConaillGAA 1-13
— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) October 22, 2023
Cúl do Naomh Conaill! - Charles McGuinness leis an gcríoch!
Charles McGuinness taps the ball into the back of the net.@officialdonegal
BEO/LIVE ar @TG4TV pic.twitter.com/F7V5G0nmPT
When told that he set the tone with that lightning first point, he said “mentality-wise, we wanted to go at it right from the start.
“Too often we have started slowly and had a bad first half, so we just wanted to prove that we can attack.
“It was horses for courses as we could not press St Eunan’s as Shaun Patton would just land the ball right over you, but we felt today that we could go toe-to-toe with Gaoth Dobhair by pressing up.”
Naomh Conaill’s pace on the break was awesome and O’Donnelll paid particular tribute to Eunan Doherty, who won a lot of possession.
“He won a serious amount of breaking ball.
“It is just about honest work in our team and there are no egos, no out-and-out star player. It is honest effort by 15 starters and then whoever comes off the bench.
“Keelan McGill came on and chipped a point, Seamie Corcoran came in and wee Mark McDevitt came on and it does not change.
“We would not be where we are today if we did not have a great team spirit.
“This is some of our boys seventh county title and it’s also the club’s seventh county title and you are not going to do that if you don’t buy into everything.
“It is also our fourth title in five years and if you had offered me that at 15 and 16 I would have bit your hand off and it is my fifth title as I won my first in 2015.”
And, while O’Donnell is not in Jim McGuinness’s county squad just yet, Sunday’s outstanding display will have done him no harm.
“We will see how that goes but we now have Ulster to prepare for in two weeks’ time,” he said.