Daire Ó Baoill describes atmosphere around Gaoth Dobhair ahead of Ulster final
Thursday 29 November 2018 16:31, UK
Daire Ó Baoill describes the atmosphere around Gaoth Dobhair ahead of the Ulster final, the team's blend of youth and experience, along with Kevin Cassidy's age-defying form.
As the Donegal club prepare for Sunday's Ulster final against Scotstown, the Gaeltacht area is going football-mad as they hope to become the first Tír Chonaill side since 1975 to win the Ulster club championship.
For county star Ó Baoill, the excitement and hype is impossible to avoid.
"There are flags and banners up the last few weeks," Ó Baoill said of the area. "All the talk is down around the town, I work in Cassidy's bar myself, so all the old men in there would be my number one critics. So I'd know all about it then, what I did right and wrong, but it's all football chat going around, even at mass, in the shops, it's football, football, football."
While the customers in the bar are the first to let him know whether he had a good or a bad game, Ó Baoill knows it's all in good spirit.
"It's all a bit of craic with them. They just want the inside gossip. You'd tell one lad one thing and the next something else, next thing they're fighting about what's right and what's wrong!
"They'd be at all the games. They know all of the players for years - most of them would be down watching training. It's a bit of craic.
"[Winning Ulster] would be mad, Cassidy's place will be hopping!"
While some of the marquee names are Donegal stalwarts such as Kevin Cassidy, Eamon and Neil McGee, this is largely a youthful side who are quickly adapting to senior football.
"It's funny how things worked out," reflects Ó Baoill. "Things started to click, game-wise, tactics-wise, things were going right for us. We got the hop of the ball maybe in a few games.
"There was enough pressure put on us in the last 10 or 12 years to get out of the county so once we won the county the burden was lifted off the chest. We're taking it game by game now, if you talk about the experienced lads, Cassidy and the McGees, it was their first time, so we're all just taking it game by game and enjoying it as we go on."
The hat-trick hero against Crossmaglen is part of a young generation that have enjoyed success all the way up through the ranks, and that winning mentality is standing to them.
"That's what the older boys say, we only know how to go winning," Ó Baoill opined. "Maybe going into games with cool heads, the older boys maybe do all the nerves for us, all the shaking and thinking, they can't get over how laid back, and kind of the craic going up on the bus. You look up and maybe Cassidy would be sitting up at the front with the headphones on and maybe Neil sitting quietly at the back through the lads. But that's just the way it is, it's a nice blend."
That blend is standing to the side, and the experienced group are guiding the younger contingent through some of the new experiences.
"When you were younger, it was all about Kevin Cassidy, Neil McGee and things like that. You were always looking up watching them on TV. They were the big dogs. When you were younger you wouldn't really think you'd get the chance to play with them. It's brilliant going into games with them. When they switch on for games, that's when you switch on too.
"Watching how they go about things, big crowds, the media and things like that, they know how to go about things so we look up to them for stuff like that and they guide us through."
Ó Baoill is in awe of Cassidy right now, as the veteran is showing the form of his career.
"The man is hard to touch at the minute with the two feet on him. People are out there asking me that, we've bets at home if he's left-footed or right footed!
"It's mad, it's just how professional he is. Even his lifestyle at home, he'd have a good routine. He started his own company now, it's all about the diet for him now at that age group. At training, he might not do as much running as us but what he does he'll do 110 per cent and that's what all them other boys do."
They'll be hoping that they can go to the well once more against Scotstown on Sunday and claim the club's first ever provincial title. If so, it would be a winter to remember in Cassidy's bar.
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