Do Donegal championships need change after disappointing Ulster results?

Donegal representatives in the Ulster club senior and intermediate championships at the weekend were soundly defeated and there were questions raised in the aftermath about the structure of the Donegal championships and how competitive they are.

Naomh Conaill lost out to Scotstown after being blitzed in the opening half while Naomh Columba were even more soundly defeated by Carrickmacross in the Intermediate championship.

At intercounty level Donegal defeated Monaghan twice in the championship in 2025, so why is there a gap between the counties at club level?

One ex-player and now a well-known analyst, Brendan Kilcoyne, has arguably seen more club championship games in Donegal in 2025 than anyone and he says there is a sense that change is needed in the club structures in the county.

He feels that the change has to include the leagues and the championships with the league having no excitement, especially without the county players.

“It is concerning. You would have thought that Naomh Conaill would be strong going up there. Was the four week break too much for them? Was it Ciaran Thompson being missing? But then Conor McCarthy was missing for Scotstown too.”

The clubs representing Donegal at the weekend had played their county finals four and five weeks ago and this is something that Kilcoyne believes needs changing.

“Another thing that could be looked at too was the county final ending in a draw four weeks out from the Ulster club. Every other county around the place was playing replays. You look at Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo playing a replay.

“There was plenty of time for it so we need to take a look at these kind of things to give teams the best opportunity going into it.”

Speaking on Ocean FM on Sunday while commentating on the Naomh Conaill-Scotstown game, former Donegal star Martin McHugh wondered if Donegal had 16 teams worthy of playing in the senior championship.

“I have been arguing for a long time that that needs to be cut to 10 or 12 senior teams,” said Kilcoyne.

“I genuinely believe that the league in its current form has too many games and too many of them are totally insignificant.

“How you structure that around a 10 or 12 game championship is something to look at. We have to  make the league games more competitive and get the county players in for two or three league games towards the end of the season.

“There might be a bit more jeopardy involved in the league then,” said Kilcoyne, who added that league finals in other counties are played after championships.

“I remember playing in the league final at this time of year back in ‘07 against Ardara, and we were lucky to win it. There’s nothing wrong with playing a league final this time of year.”

The former St Eunan’s player feels that there needs to be a root and branch look at the structures. He also feels strong leadership will be needed as clubs will be reluctant to change, especially if it means that they might have to drop out of different grades.

“It needs to be pulled apart and looked at, the way it’s played out,” said Kilcoyne, who agreed there would be more jeopardy if the number of teams were reduced in the different championships.

“The championship structure needs to be looked at. It was fine for a while and we did get some decent games this year, but you always felt that it was irrelevant. You saw Glenties playing Ardara and Ardara nearly beat them. They (Glenties) weren’t at full tilt at all, they were holding back,” said Kilcoyne, who feels the jeopardy of defeat would make games more competitive.

“I always liked the home and away. I felt that was a good structure at the time. The heads have to come together and come up with a different structure.

“It has been a poor year when you look at Naomh Conaill getting well beaten and Naomh Columba getting well beaten. But if you go back to last year, St Eunan’s got beaten by Errigal Ciaran and they went all the way to the All-Ireland final.

“Sometimes we can over-react on these things but that doesn’t take away from the point that it does need to be looked at. I was disappointed by the margins of defeat at the weekend but I don’t think that happens regularly.

“Tyrone are a standout the way they play their championship, all knock-out. I was in at the semi-final between Loughmacrory and Carrickmore, the crowd and the buzz, everything about it was great. It is old school and I like that. I’m not saying that is the answer.

Earlier this year Radio na Gaeltachta’s Ownie McGarvey was another who favoured a return to the home and away and he had the eight first round losers playing a relegation battle with two teams being relegated, replaced by the Intermediate finalists. He even had the schedule for those games from August to October with a free weekend between any play-offs and quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals.

Brendan Kilcoyne agrees with the jeopardy of two teams being relegated from the senior championship.

“Everyone I have been talking to feels that the whole structure needs to be looked at. And it would spice it up again. People become complacent with the same structure year after year. 

“There is a great opportunity now to try something new with the new rules.

“We got to see a lot of games this year and I enjoyed it. But there was always an air of inevitability that you had Naomh Conaill and St Eunan’s and Gaoth Dobhair and the likelihood of another team pulling through was sparse.

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“Yes, we had Dungloe coming through last year and it was brilliant. But it is getting more and more difficult for those types of teams to come through,” said Kilcoyne, who agrees that Four Masters and Termon are pushing.

“You would wonder where St Eunan’s are at after this year. They were very disappointing and there’s not a whole pile coming through. They have enough for the next two or three years, but after that there is a bit of a void.

“MacCumhaills, you would think, would have enough to be pushing for the top four, five also.”


Brendan Kilcoyne