Dungloe management team's belief is spurring the players on - Mark Curran 

Mark Curran credits Dessie Gallagher’s unwavering belief in the Dungloe players for their meteoric march towards the Donegal SFC decider. 

Gallagher and his backroom team of Ronan Brennan, Jamie Sweeney, Mannie Brennan, Manus Boyle, Tommy Grannell and Hugh McCarron have masterminded a serious rise that started with an IFC win in 2022 and could yet end with a spectacular upsetting of hot favourites St Eunan’s in the SFC final. 

Dungloe seen off St Michael’s in last weekend’s semi-final by 0-9 to 0-8 to set up a decider meeting with their Letterkennt counterparts, who themselves just shaded their last-four tangle with Gaoth Dobhair 0-8 to 0-7. 

Gallagher candidly revealed on Saturday evening that he and his backroom team had laid a marker at the squad’s first get-together at the beginning of the season. 

He also revealed that his players probably thought the management were “off their heads” with their 2024 ambition, which was to reach a first SFC decider in six full decades. 

But as the season began to pick up momentum and the wins started to accumulate, Curran admits the bosses’ vision finally became the players’ reality as well. 

Still attempting to catch breath as he was besieged by Dungloe supporters in MacCumhaill Park on the final whistle, Donegal defender Curran admitted the initial feeling was one of just relief. 

“It’s amazing - just a real relief really,” he said. “From the start of the championship, we’ve built and improved every single game. 

“We came in here with a real good opportunity to reach a final and thankfully we’ve achieved that. 

“St Michael’s would have had the same goal here today and it was so close. But we just got over the line there in the end and now it’s all about building towards a final meeting with St Eunan’s in two weeks time”.

0-5 to 0-4 up at the break in Ballybofey, Dungloe nailed the first three points of the second period to move four points clear by the 39th minute. 

St Michael’s would rally and bring themselves back to within one nearing the end. And in added time, one last roll of the dice seen Daniel McLaughlin crash a ball against the inisde of the Dungloe post. 

Curran admits that Dungloe needed to show a little more composure at the time but was content that luck was on his team’s side on that occasion. 

“They were always going to come back at us. Like I said, they would have seen this as a golden chance for them too. We were probably fortunate enough with the one that smacked the post. 

“They kicked some wides too so we know we’ve plenty now to work on in the next fortnight”. 

Dungloe slipped off the SFC radar back in 2020 but their slow and methodical reset has really caught the imagination of the players in the subsequent four seasons. 

Curran explains: “Two years ago we won the Intermediate and it’s just snowballed from there. Dessie and his management team built from the bottom up. 

“There is a good group of young players there willing to work hard and commit to it. This will get attention now but it didn’t just happen overnight. The application and effort has been there for a few years now. 

“We’re very lucky to have the calibre of men involved in the management team that we have. If we’d half the belief they have we’d take some stopping!  

“The management has been drumming it into us that we’re as good as anyone out there and it’s had a great effect. 

“But we’re under no illusions, St Eunan’s will be hot favourites in the final and rightly so. Their team is littered with county players. We know what they’ll bring. 

“We’ll focus on ourselves between now and then and look to get to the level we know it’s going to take. 

“Our ladies won the Intermediate title this weekend as well so it’s just a brilliant day for the club”. 

Curran has already picked up NFL Division 2 and Ulster SFC medals with Donegal in an intercounty season that only came to an end in August at the All-Ireland semi-final stage. 

It’s been a long season for Curran bur he’s certainly not complaining. 

“It’s all about playing football. When you’re playing championship games, Donegal or Dungloe and you’re winning, it makes it all the more easier and enjoyable”.