Kilcar's Michael Hegarty: ‘The current system just isn’t working’

Michael Hegarty believes there should be a rethink into how club football should be structured in Donegal. 

The Kilcar manager will see his team welcome St Naul’s to Towney on Saturday afternoon in the Donegal SFC with both clubs looking to kick-start their campaigns following respective losses to St Eunan’s and Glenswilly in the opening round of fixtures last weekend.

With Ryan McHugh honeymooning, Kilcar were further weakened with the unavailability and injury of Andrew and Matthew McClean, Jason Campbell, Ciaran McGinley and Conor Doherty, as St Eunan’s breezed to a fuss-free 2-12 to 0-9 victory.

It was a far cry from the previous championship clashes between the teams at O’Donnell Park in recent seasons, with Kilcar winning in Letterkenny in 2012 and 2021, as well as drawing in both 2016 and 2020, albeit with the latter in front of a restricted crowd during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The current system in the Donegal SFC sees 32 fixtures over four weekends in the opening round, with only four sides to face elimination. 

With the All-County Leagues essentially petering out in recent seasons and clubs not permitted to play their county senior players, Hegarty, who saw Patrick McBrearty line up for Kilcar for the first time this year and is still awaiting the return of McHugh, thinks that a change is required.

“It’s just the way the format is at the minute,” the Kilcar boss said. “There’s no real buzz in the games. It’s like a league match and if you’re not pushing it then you’re going to be caught. If we had a return match now with St Eunan’s in Towney with us needing to win to stay in - maybe in a week or two - wouldn’t it be great? 

“We’d see then if we’re good enough to bring it to a third game or not and there would be some real bite in it. 

“You’d have a real cracker and the old two-legged format meant there was always a chance of one of the big guns getting knocked out and that would create an opening for someone else. That’s what you want in the championship. At the minute, there’s so many games that are essentially dead-rubber.

“Do I prefer the old format, the home and away? Absolutely. And look, I know that county players need to play more than a game or two for their clubs. The St Eunan’s game was the first time we had Patrick this year and we’re still waiting on Ryan. 

“County players want to play club football and it’s demoralising for some clubs who might get relegated in the league having been forced to play without county players all season. It’s not very fair.”

Hegarty, as well as reverting to the old two-legged opening round, believes a comprise would be reached if county players - after Donegal’s season concludes - could return for the latter stages of the All-County Football League and the gap between it and the Donegal SFC reduced. 

“We’d no game for four weeks at all and even the final three league games before that were dead rubbers so we’d seven weeks in summer with nothing really,” he added. 

“Maybe it’s time to think about a rule the league will finish when we’re in a position where the county players are available to play in, say, the last three games. Maybe there’s some way to link the league finishes then with the championship and that in turn would help the league, get teams more up to speed and then go right into the championship. It’s something that has to be looked at because the current system just isn’t working.”

Hegarty said Kilcar would take the loss to St Eunan’s “on the chin” and is hopeful of having some of his missing players return for St Naul’s visit.

“You're playing a top team in Eunan’s there and they are going well and were nearly at full strength so it was a big task for us with a lot of men missing,” he said. “We know where we’re at now and we can reassess things. We knew from during the week we were going to be under pressure coming over here. We have to just take it on the chin.

“We’ve four or five lads there that are maybe a week or two away so we’ll see at the end of the week where they’re at, so would hope to get Ciaran McGinley and Matthew McClean back at least. Ryan, we would expect to be missing again. We’re home to St Naul’s and for us, it’s a matter of certainly trying to win those home games. We’ll try and put our best foot forward and see where that takes us.”