MEMBER of the Irish Defence Forces by day, Odhran McFadden-Ferry has been happy to spend his weekends acting as Gaoth Dobhair’s defensive destroyer-in-chief en route to grabbing the provincial crown in dramatic fashion.
The 20-year-old set about limiting the influence of Naomh Conaill’s Donegal star Leo McLoone in the county final, before being handed the brief of nullifying Scotstown’s Kieran Hughes in Sunday’s Ulster decider.
Monaghan ace Hughes scored Scotstown’s first point of the game early on but, despite roaming between midfield and forward in a bid to escape the attentions of McFadden-Ferry, found himself a peripheral figure for the rest of the afternoon as Gaoth Dobhair’s dog of war nipped at his ankles and denied him any space to wreak havoc.
The man-marking abilities of McFadden-Ferry, who is based at the Irish Army’s Finner camp between Bundoran and Ballyshannon, have seen him become a defensive cornerstone of a year never to be forgotten in west Donegal.
And he admits he is never more comfortable than when handed the task of shackling an opponent by boss Mervyn O’Donnell.
“I’d far rather do a man-marking job,” said McFadden-Ferry in midst of the celebrations that followed Sunday’s 0-13 to 0-12 victory, the winning score coming six minutes before the end of extra-time.
“Crossmaglen played wild open and I was a bit lost, I didn’t know what was going on because I had a free role. I’d far rather be stuck into a man rather than running about doing nothing.
“Mervyn picked out the man marking role for me this year so I’m happy enough doing that.
“But that was a tough, tough game there. Scotstown had their homework down on us because you could see that when we got the ball up there, they had numbers surrounding us so it was hard to get scores off. We worked hard for every single score.
“In the last five minutes you were just wondering what was going to happen - it’s a weird state of mind to be in… I couldn’t even run back, my calves were gone, everything was gone; I could do nothing.
“Thank God the final whistle went and we got over the line.”
In doing so, they become the first club from Donegal since amalgamation outfit St Joseph’s 43 years ago to bring the Seamus McFerran Cup back to the Tir Chonaill county.
Indeed, having waited so long to taste provincial success, supporters travelled from all corners of the county to cheer Gaoth Dobhair to victory as they advance to an All-Ireland semi-final date with reigning champions Corofin next February.
“It’s great to be the first team since the 70s to carry the flag into the All-Ireland - hopefully now we can make a good impact there,” added McFadden-Ferry.
“Everyone you met from other clubs was wishing us well and it’s great for Donegal football that we can get over the line. We’ve made our mark now in Ulster football, people always talked Crossmaglen and all that, so hopefully now they can talk about us and talk about other clubs from Donegal.
“We’ll wind down a bit now before turning our attention to Corofin. You look at them and they’re the main men in Ireland – that’s the team you want to be, so we’ll do our homework now and see how we go on from there.”
