Mac's View: Patrick McBrearty is good choice to lead Donegal

Congratulations to Patrick McBrearty on being appointed captain of the Donegal senior team. Patrick has been a very consistent performer for Donegal now for well over a decade and he was a good captain of his club when they won the Donegal senior championship a few years ago.

He will have good support with the two Killybegs men, Hugh McFadden and Eoghan Bán Gallagher as vice-captains. I like Big Hugh as a vice-captain; he has filled that role well for a number of years and Eoghan Bán has been one of the most consistent players for the county in the recent past.

They will have plenty of work to do to get Donegal motivated for the challenge of Division 1, starting on Sunday week with the visit of Kerry.

I picked up somewhere that the Kerry manager, Jack O’Connor, is to rest the Cliffords for a month. I would have liked to have seen them playing against Donegal, but then again I will be quite happy if they stay at home.
The performance of the two of them last Sunday in the All-Ireland junior club final was just breathtaking. David’s scoretaking was an unreal performance, 11 points and just three of them from play.

It has been some year for both Cliffords, but David, in particular, has been spectacular, winning just about every competition he took part in, and ending up man of the match in most of the games.

It made me reflect back to 1966 and the football being played by Mickey McLoone, even though he only played six months of that year before he got hurt. He was the top scorer in the country that year. He picked up a knee injury and at the time there was more damage done trying to repair it and he never really recovered.

McKENNA CUP
Donegal finished their Dr McKenna Cup campaign with an improved performance against Monaghan in MacCumhaill Park last week.

Like I said last week, I had seen the Monaghan-Down opening game in the competition before we got started. I was impressed with the Down level of fitness and they were far too good for Monaghan.

Then when we played Down in Newry, you could see that our level of fitness was behind. We did blood a lot of new young players and we had to do that, to be fair. But in the second half of that game with all the substitutions, it was not a great gauge.

Last week, against Monaghan, the second half was reasonably good as we had brought on a couple of lads at half-time who did well. But overall, the two games in the Dr McKenna Cup will have brought us on and you would have to be reasonably happy.
Sadly, many of what will be our starting team against Kerry have not got much match time. We will need to have a challenge game against some good opposition before Sunday week.

I’m sure the management will be aware of that. But when we look back on the Dr McKenna Cup, we will feel that we have tried new players with a little success.Down lost out to Derry on penalties, after the game finished in a draw. And they will take on Tyrone on Saturday evening in the final at the Athletic Grounds in Armagh.

What will be encouraging for the Donegal management is that all the other counties were fielding teams that had a much bigger sprinkling of senior players and if Donegal can get three or four players from the competition, they will be happy.
On the national front, Glen from Maghera will take on Kilmacud Crokes in the senior club final this Sunday in Croke Park and this should be a good game. I would fancy the Dublin side but being an Ulster man, I will be rooting for Glen, who are an accomplished team.

RESERVE FOOTBALL
On the club scene here in Donegal, I want to raise an issue which is becoming a problem for many clubs including my own, Bundoran.

We will be playing in Division 1 of the league this year and we will be struggling to field a reserve team. And even if we succeeded, it would be very weak and would be struggling against the bigger sides. Trying to get players to come out to play if they are conceding 10-12 goals in a game is not easy.

Something needs to be done to address this issue. It was a problem for many clubs last year. There is no good going out and being hockeyed. There must be a way of getting around this, maybe a condensed league, or regional league for reserve teams that could play midweek.

Hopefully, there will be a forum to let clubs have their input. In fairness, there are clubs who can field three teams and they should be accommodated too.

MARTIN GRIFFIN
I was very disappointed not to be able to take up an invitation to the MacCumhaill’s club dinner dance at the weekend because of a ‘bug’ I have been fighting for a few weeks. There was a great tribute to the late Martin Griffin and I had a really soft spot for the big man. Fair play to the MacCumhaill’s club for honouring one of their finest.


Big Griff was one of the best footballers I worked with. He wasn’t just a big man who could hold his own physically, but a very talented footballer who was a joy to be around.