By Matthew Wilson
St Eunan’s star Cathal O’Brien stated that they face a massive challenge this Saturday evening when they meet Setanta in the Senior Hurling Championship Final.
St Eunan’s have enjoyed a superb 2026 campaign to date, already securing silverware in the form of the Senior Hurling League title.
They have maintained that momentum since, progressing through the group stage of the championship in third place.
The Letterkenny men shared the spoils with Setanta on the final day of the group phase, having suffered defeat to Burt a week earlier.
On that occasion, the Hibernian Park residents ran out convincing 11-point winners over St Eunan’s on their home patch.
However, Chris McAuley’s charges had the chance to redeem themselves in the semi-finals as they met the Inishowen outfit once again.
This time, St Eunan’s produced a fine performance to record a comprehensive win over Enda McDermott’s side to book their spot in the competition’s showpiece.
Given the nature of their first encounter, St Eunan’s will have been especially pleased to get the better of Burt when the sides met again.
Speaking to the Donegal News, Cathal O’Brien reflected on that initial defeat, admitting that it was a reality check for the group.
“There was a lot of soul searching and a lot of talk amongst ourselves about what did go wrong and why it went wrong (after the first Burt game).
“Any day you can go out and have a bad game hurling-wise but it’s the attitude that we were disappointed with.
‘There was no work rate, they won every break and they seemed to walk straight through the defence. I was full-forward that day and the ball that came up to the forward line, we didn’t work hard enough to keep it in and it got cleared out straight away.
“There was definitely a lot of soul searching. We know ourselves that we’ve great hurlers, we’ve around ten on the county team and a couple of boys there that are just as good.
“We’ve the players but it’s just about if we can click and if we can match that work rate too.”
This Saturday will be a great occasion for members of the St Eunan’s club as they have sides competing for both Junior and Senior honours on finals day.
The St Eunan’s B outfit will open proceedings in the first of three deciders at O’Donnell Park when they take on their neighbours Letterkenny Gaels.
The club’s two hurling sides have been training together since the season got underway, and sessions will have been particularly competitive of late, with both teams now striving for success this weekend.
They’ll have been pushing each other on ahead of an important weekend, and O’Brien said that has made for a great training environment.
“Of course, if it was only the seniors then you’d be having 20 or 22 boys down at training. You’ve the juniors there too so you’re getting 30 or 35 lads there.
“Every player there knows that they’ve a game coming on Saturday so there’s a bite there. We’d a challenge match among ourselves on Saturday and it was nearly as good as a championship game.
“We know ourselves that it’ll be hard enough to pick a starting 15 but you’re guaranteed to have five subs flying on too.”
The O’Donnell Park outfit will have been gearing towards this Saturday’s Senior Hurling Championship Final against Setanta in recent times.
As mentioned, the pair shared the spoils when they faced-off in the group phase of the competition following an enthralling encounter in Letterkenny.
This weekend’s contest is a repeat of last year’s showpiece where Mark Marley’s line clinched the cup courtesy of a five-point victory.
The two sides have plenty of recent history, in fact, having met in six of the last nine Senior Hurling Championship Finals.
The men from the Cross have come out on top in five of those encounters, with the Letterkenny men prevailing in 2021.
Speaking ahead of the decider, O’Brien is fully aware of the task that awaits them this weekend, but he is hopeful they can get their hands on the Munster Cup.
“Setanta are the standard bearers, they’re the county champions and they fully deserved it after last year.
“The county final was nip and tuck the whole way through but they pipped it, I think they got two goals near the end and they’re always dangerous for those goals.
“We’re definitely looking forward to it, there’s big expectations to put in a performance but we know that it’s going to be a massive challenge.
“They’ve some of the best hurlers in the county, have massive experience and they’ve been there and done that.”
“There’s a lot of us that don’t have a senior championship medal and there’s Setanta players with probably six or seven medals.
“We’re just hoping to put in a performance, have the work rate up and after that you’re hoping that the result looks after itself but we’re certainly up against it.”