'It's a nice change from Division 4, somewhere we’ve been our whole life' - McKinney

It is not lost on Drew McKinney that Naomh Padraig, Uisce Chaoin can achieve something truly great this weekend by becoming only the second Donegal club in history to capture an All-Ireland club title.  

It’s a mountain they perhaps thought they’d never climb, a day they thought they’d never see.  

By the time half-forward Rory Hirrell slotted his penalty to the right of the net, sending Cill Mhuire goalkeeper Jason McDonnell the wrong way in what was the winning kick in their Junior All-Ireland semi-final in Parnell Park, all the wear and tear the Inishowen club had suffered in the past, had finally vanished.   

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When we talk about Donegal club football on a national level, those of an age group could not forget the great days of St Joseph's in the 1960s and 1970s. And in particular winning the All-Ireland Club Championship in 1968, albeit an unofficial tournament at the time, against the powerful Dunmore McHales team containing so many Galway All-Ireland winning stars.    

The difference this time around is that Naomh Padraig will be the first Donegal club to feature in a national decider in Croke Park.  

It's a day in which many from the Inishowen region believed the club would never see despite only being formed in 1989, but former Donegal minor captain and U-20 player McKinney said he’s seen the Naomh Padraig club bravely ascend up the ladder of Donegal football year after year.  

“We’ve come a long way in the last couple of years from never being out of Junior football before,” he told Donegal Live.   

“We’ve always been playing in Division 4 and Division 3 up until this year when we made the step to Division 2 football and that was a big help for us this season.”  

And that’s where the charted story of Naomh Padraig this season began. The ability to tussle with the best in Division 2, considering they were the only Junior Championship team in the division.  

But McKinney points to their opening round tie against Four Masters on April 1, where they sneaked a late draw as an early point in their season where they felt the tides were shifting in their favour.  

From the start of the season, they always had a target on the Junior county title, but in the players’ and manager’s eyes, there was no reason that they couldn’t go further.  

“That day in Four Masters we were down by six points in the first round of the league coming into the last few minutes of the match, and to turn it around that day and get a draw against a good side, it set the bar for us this season,” McKinney said.  

“In the league, we ended up beating teams like Ardara and Cloughaneely, who are big teams and it helped us.”  

But while Naomh Padraig’s chartered history has seen them battle for decades in the basement league in Donegal football, slowly there’s been a crop of underage teams doing battles with the best teams in the county who have now brought that winning spirit to the senior ranks in the club.  

“We take the piss out of the older boys on the team but whenever we were growing up, throughout our underage careers, we were playing those big teams and playing in Division 1,” he said.  

“So, it wasn’t a big difference for us younger players who are used to winning and beating those big teams, but for everyone in the club to do it now, it’s nice, and it’s a change from Division 4, somewhere we’ve been our whole life.  

“It’s hard to set your stall out at the start of the year and you can’t say you want to win an Ulster title being in a club that has never won a county title, but we’ve had that quiet confidence for the full year.”  

For Naomh Padraig and their footballing style, McKinney points to the fact that they are capable of mixing it up and changing systems to handle whatever the opposition throws at them, be it an attacking game or ultra defence style.  

“I think we showed that in the first round of the Ulster championship, we didn’t play well but we got 12 points that day, and a lot of them were very good long-range points, so we showed that day that we can take our points,” the 21-year-old pointed out.  

“In the next game, we had a great defensive performance where we didn’t put up a particularly big score, but we were solid in defence.  

“Then in the Ulster final, we put up a big score, we weren’t great defensively, but I think we showed that we can change our game.”  

Whatever is thrown at them this weekend against An Ceathru Rua, Naomh Padraig are determined to halt anyone from chasing their dream.   

They’ve climbed the mountain. All that remains is to plant the flag at the summit.