Na Fianna go in quest of unfinished business

Na Fianna have become the latest battalion of hurlers dispatched to Parnell Park on county final day to try suppress the rise of the south.

Since 2007, the Dublin senior hurling champions have come from south of the Liffey – Ballyboden (7), Cuala (5) and Kilmacud Crokes (3) carving up the last 15 titles between them.

Craobh Chiaráin, in 2006, were the most recent northside club to win a Dublin SHC but there has been a growing expectation Na Fianna will be the team to eventually wrestle the silverware back across the river.

Whether that will be this weekend or not remains to be seen, but Na Fianna are unlikely to drift away anytime soon. They claimed four Dublin minor hurling championships in succession between 2014-17. The Mobhi Road outfit also won three Dublin under-21 championships in-a-row between 2016-18. The next natural step is to make a breakthrough at senior level.

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Sunday’s final against Kilmacud Crokes is not only a mirror of last week’s football decider, but it is also a repeat of last year’s county hurling final, which Na Fianna lost in heartbreaking circumstances.

The first-time finalists led by nine points with just 10 minutes left, only for Crokes to stage an incredible comeback in which Ronan Hayes fired home an injury-time goal to send the match to extra-time. Crokes had all the momentum at that stage. Na Fianna were cooked, and by the end they were beaten by seven.

“It was a tough loss obviously last year,” says Donal Burke, the Na Fianna captain.

“We took our learnings from it, we had to move on, we can’t be lingering in the past. This is a new year, a new challenge. It was a tough loss, but Crokes are a great team, there’s no shame in losing to them. We’re just delighted to be back in the same spot and still in the running for the championship.”

If Na Fianna do make history this weekend then it is probable a large chunk of their scores will come from Burke, whose placed-ball striking is among the most accurate of any hurler in the country.

And yet the Dublin player, who received an All Star nomination this season, was something of an accidental free-taker.

“I kind of fell into it when I first joined the team. We were out playing a Walsh Cup game or something, our free-taker went off and there was nobody else to take them so I just hit them in that game. It actually went well so I started hitting them after that.

“I started hitting them when I was 18 or 19. I was a late starter, it definitely took me a couple of years to, I wouldn’t say master the art, but kind of get comfortable with it and get consistent.”

The Go Ahead Dublin SHC final between Kilmacud Crokes and Na Fianna takes place on Sunday at Parnell Park, 2.30