No one gave Donegal a chance but we always believed - Tara Hegarty

Tara Hegarty says Donegal ladies have dragged a huge monkey off their backs following their amazing Ulster SFC final upsetting of Armagh on Sunday.

Maxi Curran’s girls had suffered three previous provincial losses to their dominant Orchard counterparts. But when it was least expected, Donegal broke that cycle in spectacular fashion.

Hegarty (22) admits that the side’s NFL campaign, where they dropped out of Division 1 without winning a single game, was difficult period for the group. But, in an indirect way, she explains it also galvanised them.

And with Niamh Hegarty and Tanya Kennedy parachuted back into the mix just before throw-in on Sunday, suddenly this encounter didn’t look the ‘gimme’ for Armagh that so many had previously labelled it.

“With the league campaign we had, it’s understandable in a way why no one gave us a chance,” said Hegarty after. “But we always believed we could do it. That belief, in the end, was what got us over the line.

“I was part of the panel in 2019, when we last won it. But we’ve had a few horrible experiences since, all at the hands of Armagh. Last year… it actually felt like we’d lost it twice. We should have won it in normal time and we should have got over the line in extra-time as well.

“But there is no doubt, given what we’ve come through this year, this is just so much sweeter because of all of that”.

In relation to the eleventh hour inclusions of both her sister and Moville clubmate, Niamh, as well as Kennedy, just off a plane from Australia, she admits it both boosted morale as well as the side’s chances.

“It was a huge boost to have those girls in there - two brilliant players and two great personalities to have around the place. The moment we heard they were back it lifted everyone’s spirits.

“Training, in the huddle, it also just lifted the intensity of all of that. And they weren’t coming back for the sake of it. They believed we were good enough, as a group, to upset the odds here. So that was a confidence booster as well for the rest of us”.

Donegal had already suffered an eight-point championship loss to Armagh, in Lifford, just three short weeks prior to their meeting in Owenbeg. That fact, coupled with their previous league woes, meant it felt like just Armagh simply needed to turn up at the weekend.

“It has been a tough period, this season I mean. As it went on it just seemed that little bit harder to try to get a handle on it. But we stuck together throughout it all. And that had a great effect on the squad, I believe. There is a real resilience now because of that. And we clicked today just when we needed to most”.