Barry Dunnion content to continue to build at steady pace with emerging Four Masters

Barry Dunnion says Four Masters are looking to progress at their own pace as they set about their All-County League 2026 season.

The Donegal Town outfit shared the spoils at home to St Eunan’s first day out as Niall O’Donnell rescued a late point for the visitors.

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On Sunday, Dunnion took his young side across to Davy Brennan Memorial Park to take on hosts Naomh Conaill.

With both teams depleted due to Donegal senior and U-20 commitments, the contest represented an opportunity for some of those on the fringes to catch the eye.

In the end, it was the Tír Conaill Park residents that edged matters, 2-13 to 2-9.

Given the strong breeze at play in Glenties, this one ultimately came down to the visitors’ better productivity when that gale was with them in the second period.

“Probably the first half, against that big breeze I think we went in just the two down,” Dunnion, a SFC winner with his home club back in 2003, explained.

“We tried to go after their kick out, tried to be patient on things and work it. But in fairness, second half, obviously, they got the goal to come back into it again.

“That’s Glenties and that’s what they do. They just battle so hard. Like, in terms of coaching and all the things you look to work on, that’s probably something they have just developed over time and have it engrained in them.

“We were pegged back the week before against St Eunan’s so it was nice just to get over the line in Glenties.”

Four Masters - given what they have achieved at underage grades in recent seasons - are a club on an exciting trajectory that many expect is pointing towards a Dr Maguire win sooner rather than later.

Last season’s narrow semi-final loss to the eventual winners suggests that ambition is actually ahead of schedule.

But Dunnion is pragmatic enough to not read too much into that. Even if it did feel like significant progress at the time, he’s seen and experienced enough to know that it counts for very little as they get ready to go once more this term.

“It was a good year, encouraging,” he said on 2025’s exploits. “We are blooding a lot of players and that is just going to take time. It just doesn’t happen overnight.

“We have a lot of lads involved in county teams. It’s great for us in one sense, as others get an opportunity and get football. So that whole process just moves at its own pace.

“For us, we just want to keep building and getting lads used to adult football. If you are picking up wins along the way, that’s encouraging.”

Given their recent underage success, there will be no shortage of options progressing up and off that prolific conveyor belt.

However, one issue that Four Masters might find conflict with is that the reserve league, or Senior B as it’s now called, can be stagnant at times with some clubs just unable to field second string adult teams.

Dunnion was involved in Martin Regan’s backroom team for a number of seasons and seen firsthand how it affected momentum and that peripheral development at times.

Indeed, both the Glenties outfit and St Eunan’s looked to enter their reserve sides in the Junior A championship back in 2024 to negate the shortfall in competitive action.

Dunnion agrees it’s imperative that all young adult players are getting games and he hopes that will be the case during the league this season.

“In order for us to keep players about, we need lads to be getting football. That goes without saying. Reserve football is so important to our club, like it is to every other club in the county as well.

“But with the lads we are missing right now because of county, and with some lads also away travelling, the hope is we can cater for all the players we have training with us right now.”

Four Masters might just have taken Naomh Conaill’s league scalp but Dunnion is in no doubt they remain the team to beat this season.

Having worked with Naomh Conaill in recent times, Dunnion says no state secrets or blueprints were taken back up the road when he eventually did depart.

He says what Naomh Conaill have harnessed and put to use for over two decades now comes from hard work, repetition and lineage as the club’s old guard continue to set the pace.

“What they are doing here, that’s the benchmark, that’s the barometer. I’ve seen it firsthand. And that’s what we’re aspiring to be.

“What Martin has done here is unbelievable. And we’re talking about young lads progressing and moving up.

“But I have to go back to that older generation here. What they have given and continue to give, it’s hard to fathom the importance of all of that.

“They set a standard and the rest look to get up to that. For us looking at them, that’s the example. That longevity, that’s a dynasty they’ve built here.

“Like so many of the rest of us would give anything to just get over the line once as far as a senior championship is concerned.

“But they draw a line under the likes of that and move on right away. What’s next? And this season again, they are the team to beat. It’s quite extraordinary really.”

Dunnion has assembled a brilliant backroom team of affable but qualified winners. Dr Austin O’Kennedy was in brilliant form in Glenties on Sunday.

And with Barry Monaghan and Michael Doherty in tow, Dunnion says it’s not just the Four Masters players having fun.

“The new rules are brilliant. It’s brilliant for our lads too that they’ve come along at this time. Any young footballer now coming into adult or senior level, what a time to be making that step up.

“There is a freedom there, they have opened the game up. Anyone I talk to is enjoying it, inside and outside the wire.

“From a coaching perspective, it’s the exact same. The game is simply never over now. We were six ahead there at the end and we were still panicking that we might get caught.”