Mac's View: Great for Donegal to get back playing in Croke Park in League final

A win is a win and congratulations to Donegal on defeating Meath on Saturday in a game that did not have that much attached to it. But with Armagh only drawing in Cork, the win means that Donegal finished on top of Division Two, a point ahead of the  Orchard boys.

We can head to Croke Park with that in mind on Sunday and it will be great to be part of a double header with three Ulster teams involved. We’re on against Armagh at 1.45 and Derry meet Dublin at 4 pm.

It looks like we will be without our captain Patrick McBrearty and there is a doubt over Ryan McHugh, as both picked up injuries on Saturday. If Ryan has any problem it would be best to take care of him and not risk him because we have a big game coming up against Derry in the championship.
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Overall on Saturday night after an indifferent start which saw Meath caught us sleeping and hit a goal after 16 seconds. The first 18 minutes of the game was totally dreadful and we were never up to the speed of the game.

But then we found our mojo with four points in two minutes and there was a fantastic turnaround. Everybody was then on the front foot and we got some great performances.

Shane O’Donnell was popping up everywhere and it was great to see our own clubman, Jamie Brennan, back to himself. He had a great appetite for the ball and took his goal very well in the second half to put the lights out on Meath.

The trip to Croke Park will give all the squad more confidence. The defence are all showing well and there is great drive from Mark Curran, Ciaran Moore, Ryan McHugh and Peadar Mogan and big Caolan McGonagle and Ciaran Thompson are so consistent.

Big Hugh McFadden had a good outing at midfield; Oisin Gallen got four points and is now being double teamed while Aaron Doherty had had his best performance of the year.

Michael Langan was rested and will hopefully be flying for Croke Park. It will be good preparation for the Derry championship game which is three weeks from Sunday. It will be a great opportunity for the management to have a look at Derry afterwards as well.

So it is congratulations to Jim and the team for gaining promotion and topping the league, remaining unbeaten. There is a good buzz in the county now.

Caolan McColgan was back also, showing up well when coming on in the second half and he seems to have bulked up but he still has great pace. If  Ryan McHugh is not to be risked on Sunday, then McColgan seems a good replacement.

We can look forward to a very good day’s football on Sunday.

One final point on last week’s game against Meath. It was disappointing that there was no TV footage of the game used by RTE or TG4 on Sunday or Monday.

HURLERS

The Donegal hurlers were unfortunate to be beaten by a point in Letterkenny in the league semi-final despite being short of the entire Setanta contingent. Still Donegal got what they wanted from the league, promotion to the new format for next year. They can now prepare for the championship.

The Donegal Ladies finished their league campaign with a good win away in Tipperary and like the hurlers they can now direct their focus on the championship.

The minor Ladies had a good win over Tyrone but our minor footballers lost out to Down in Ballyshannon by a point on a day when there was a gale force wind blowing down the field. They will have plenty of action in April with four championship games week after week.

CAIRDE DHUN NA NGALL

Good luck to all involved in Cairde Dhun na nGall which was launched on Saturday evening and they have targets for fund-raising to help out at all levels of the GAA in the county.

It is going to be a big weekend of football with the All County Leagues starting on Saturday. We in Bundoran have a long trip to Malin which is not ideal on a Bank Holiday Weekend in our town. I’m glad I’m not the team manager trying to get a team together for a Saturday evening, but it is good to have the leagues up and running.

I see that Michael Murphy is involved with the Donegal U-15s, who also got up and running last weekend and that is a big boost for young talent to have such a respected figure involved.

My congratulations to Leitrim on gaining promotion from Division 4 and commiserations to our other neighbours, Fermanagh, who defeated Cavan yet were relegated on five points.

Wishing Donegal all the best in Croke Park and hope it will be a Happy Easter for players, mentors and supporters. But it won’t be easy as Armagh are tough and the arrival of Conleith Gilligan from Derry to their backroom team.

Brian McEniff was in conversation with Peter Campbell