Dublin's Sinead Finnegan determined to banish personal All-Ireland final woes

By Cliona Foley

Sinead Finnegan could be forgiven for thinking that she is jinxed when it comes to All-Ireland football finals.

Last year’s senior decider was only 19 minutes old when the Fingallians defender, who was detailed to mark Cora Staunton, had to limp off.

She’d torn a calf muscle in training a week beforehand so the build-up was a hectic repair job and it wasn’t a huge surprise.

“I trained on the Friday night but sadly it was soon apparent that I wasn’t going to be able to last a whole game but it wasn’t about me on the day at all, it was about everyone.

“Dee Murphy came on and had an absolute stormer and while I was gutted for myself I was chuffed for her as she had been struggling with injuries earlier in the year.”

Finnegan and Murphy actually share the same birthdate, “three days before the match!” That somehow confirms the sense of sisterhood that this Dublin team have developed, which was so well illustrated by the subsequent

Blues Sisters documentary.

After losing three finals in a row to Cork, the Jackies finally got their fairytale ending but for Finnegan it must have been bittersweet.

A famously tenacious tackler and marker, the Fingallians full-back had missed out when Dublin won their maiden Brendan Martin in 2010.

She actually got called up, by current manager Mick Bohan, in 2003 when she was only 15 but was “too young, didn’t really enjoy the commitment and only half-arsed” about it for a few years.

She’d become serious about football by 2007 but then walked away from the elite level after her father Jarlath, who was so central to her GAA development, died suddenly to a heart attack in May of that year.

She actually won an All-Ireland with Dublin in 2010 but it was a Senior B ‘Aisling McGing’ title.

Having missed the ‘A’ final, it made 2017 particularly special so watching from the sidelines must surely have been agony?

“I was like a possessed woman and actually felt sick,” she laughs.

“With three minutes to go we were 13 points up or something and somebody on the bench kind of started to celebrate and I was like ‘what are you doing? The match isn’t over!’

“They turned and said to me, ‘Finno, we’re up by 13 points! I know Cora and Mayo are good but they’re not going to score 13 points in that time!’ I was completely on edge.”

Memories of Dublin’s 10-point collapse to Cork in 2013 surely didn’t help her nerves either.

She had also broken her hand, and then her thumb, during 2017 so it was a rollercoaster season.

“I have an ongoing problem with my Achilles so maybe I should just retire! Someone should just put me down,” the 30-year-old grins.

Yet, like Sinead Goldrick, the bubbly defender remains pivotal to Dublin’s tigerish defence.

Both, coincidentally, also work in sports public relations, or rather Finnegan did until two weeks ago.

She’s just started a two-year teaching post-grad in DCU and is already on placement in the Dominican Convent in Cabra: “My subjects are Business Studies and Irish.”

But why leave the glamorous world of sports PR, the sort of job so many sports fans would kill for?

“I honestly loved my time at Teneo PSG,” she says, adding that a gang of her old workmates will be cheering, as usual, from the stands tomorrow.

“I just wanted a change. I’d been there for five years and I just decided I’d like to do something a little bit different. I’m really passionate about the Irish language.

“When you’re in school, your love of Irish is determined by your teacher. I thought ‘I love Irish’ so I’d love to be able to help (other) people love Irish as well.”

Her time with one of the country’s top sports agencies leaves her particularly well informed on women’s sport and its fight for coverage, funding and sponsorship.

“It has grown immensely recently,” she observes.

“As well as the (All-Ireland) crowd last year (a record 46,286) we’ve noticed small things, like being recognised walking down the street.

Blues Sisters probably played a very big part in that.

“I know the attendance at our National League and regular championship games isn’t huge but there has been an increase this year.

“Obviously there is a lot more room for improvement in terms of the coverage that women’s sport gets but, look at the hockey team for example. The whole country was captivated by them. Things are going in the right direction.”

Gaelic football fans should be equally captivated by tomorrow’s fascinating rematch of these two Gaelic football empires. Expect Finnegan to be right in the eye of the storm.