Playing hurling for Na Fianna in the ‘90s and 2000s wasn’t a particularly fulfilling pursuit, and among the various low points, one stands out for Declan Feeney in particular. He had been part of a Na Fianna minor team that won a county title in 1981 and the bones of that side reached three county semi-finals in the late ‘80s. But there was nothing coming through and they inevitably dropped down the divisions and out of the senior grade.
In 2007, they played St Jude’s in a senior B final which took three games before there was a winner declared, but Na Fianna, a much more established hurling club despite their flagging fortunes, couldn’t find a way to win. READ MORE: Former Tyrone boss Feargal Logan on his last meeting with Jody Gormley and 'the one challenge that even Jody couldn’t outrun' READ MORE: Former All-Ireland senior champions make huge departure from tradition with new manager “That scared the life out of me,” says Feeney, “because I didn’t know Jude’s, I had never played Jude’s as a senior hurler and all of a sudden, here they were beating us and Danny Sutcliffe would have been part of that Jude’s team that beat us and it was frustration, not being able to get back up to senior 1. “That, for me, would have been my low point.
That particular defeat. Not the style of the defeat, just that we didn’t win.” By then, things were already starting to turn in the club from a hurling viewpoint at least.
But it’s not difficult to get to the .
