At this stage, Hazel Finn’s car could probably find its own way from Kiltimagh to Leixlip, the commute having become a very regular one for the basketball international since she joined Liffey Celtics for the current season.
And thanks to her form for the Kildare club, that journey has become an even more familiar one, the 21-year-old breaking into the Irish senior squad last November.
It’s been a whirlwind of a spell for Finn since then, an exhausting enough one too. She was barely off the court at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght last Sunday after Ireland’s narrow defeat to Latvia when she was heading west again – there were lectures to attend next morning in NUIG, where she’s in the final year of a geography and sociology degree.
And this weekend and next she’ll be on the go again, heading to Cork for two Super League games.
You need a private jet, Hazel.
“I do,” she laughs, “it would cut down on the travel a bit alright.”
She has no complaints, though. “It is a big commitment, and it can be tough when you’re getting home late at night from training, around 11.30 if I’m staying in Galway, or after midnight if I’m going to Mayo. But as long as you’re enjoying it, having fun and you have a smile on your face, it’s not as tiring as you might think. And I’ve been loving it.”
Two moments in particular this season made it all feel worthwhile. First, her senior international debut in November’s defeat by Latvia in Riga, when she was Ireland’s joint top scorer with 13 points, and then last month’s Paudie O’Connor National Cup triumph with Liffey Celtics. And to top it all, she was named the game’s MVP.
“I was absolutely delighted to get to wear that Irish jersey, to make my family and friends proud. And then to win the cup, and to get that MVP was amazing. A lot of people asked me after if it made the move worth it, and I said ’100 per cent'.”
“It was hard leaving NUIG Mystics because I loved playing with them, but it was a brilliant opportunity for me to join Liffey Celtics – and I honestly believe if I hadn’t made that step I wouldn’t be where I am now, playing senior for Ireland and getting the MVP in the cup final. I just had to switch it up, and I definitely feel like it’s paid off.”
The switch to her new club was made considerably easier by the fact they are coached by Karl Kilbride, Finn’s coach at every underage level for Ireland, and any nervousness about the move was allayed by her older sister Dayna, who had played with several of the Liffey Celtic players. “So I knew going up that they were lovely,” she says.
Cup final day in Tallaght proved to be a bit lovely too, Finn coming off the bench to have that MVP impact on the game, scoring 13 points, chipping in with eight rebounds and producing a tigerish defensive display that helped her side to a 65-53 win over Killester.
Still, when her number was called out as the MVP winner, she checked the back of her shirt to make she sure it was her. It was, after all, the first time she had won the award as a senior player.
“I’m not just being nice saying this, but all the team were MVPs that day. Everyone did their job and that’s how we won the game. The young girls coming on too, they put everything on the court, this is just a really talented team. Days like that don’t come around very often, so you have to take it all in and celebrate them as much as you can.”
It was her first cup final medal, by her calculation “my sister has about seven”, so her march to catch up with Dayna has begun. Mind you, Dayna’s focus has been on other sporting matters since 2023, when she moved to Australia to play for Carlton in the AFLW.
Hazel, so far, has chosen a different route, turning her focus to basketball once her days of playing minor football for Mayo were done. That made her a bit of an outlier in the family. “Definitely, we’re more of a football family, Mam [Bernie] and Dad [John] both played for Mayo back in the day, they didn’t play basketball at all.”
“I’d love to be playing football now, I plan on going back to it in the summer, all going well, but you do get to the point when you have to choose – when you’re playing at a high level in basketball I suppose you can’t risk getting injured and picking up niggles.”
“And I felt, too, that basketball offered more opportunities, obviously the international angle. Dayna and myself have been all around the world, I couldn’t even tell you half the countries we’ve been to, so we got to have experiences we never thought we’d have in our lives. But now Dayna is over in Australia and experiencing a totally new type of football, and she’s absolutely loving it.”
Is she tempted to follow her path? “No doubt if it came across me on the way ... but right now I’m really, really enjoying my basketball with Ireland and Liffey Celtics. As of now, I feel like I am leaning more towards playing basketball here and finishing my education, but I’m only 21, so I’m still young. You never know what will happen.”
