McShea’s Say: Donegal's spending is difficult to fathom

In a week that saw Errigal Ciaran become champions of Ulster after beating Kilcoo in the final, much discussion has centred around issues off the pitch.  

The revelation that the PSNI has confirmed that it is investigating an alleged incident on the Armagh GAA team trip to the USA is still making headlines. 

County boards, the length and breadth of the country, are also scheduled to talk to Croke Park officials on Tuesday night regarding the Revenue’s intentions to look at the GAA a lot closer.  

Closer to home, ahead of the Convention in Pettigo on Wednesday evening, I was reading the breakdown of Donegal’s own spending of €1.8m and it made for very interesting viewing. 

The figure related to Donegal is difficult to comprehend. I believe that Donegal’s income increased significantly in the last year or two, and that is to the credit of all sponsors and supporters of our county teams, but I am at a loss to understand how that amount of money could be spent preparing any number of teams.  

No doubt the message from Croke Park this week would be the need for tightening the belt as I do not believe that level of spending for Donegal, or any other county is remotely sustainable.  

The only other county in Donegal’s league when it came to spending was Dublin and there is no comparison to the two counties when it comes to the number of businesses, commercial support, or population as both are on distinctly different playing fields commercially. 

Eunan’s regret 

Errigal Ciaran’s provincial win would suggest that St Eunan’s were not far away as they really put it up to the Ulster champions in their quarter-final this year but the Ballygawley men did improve in every subsequent match.  

It is to their credit that they prevailed in Sunday's final when their two leaders Darragh and Ruairí Canavan only hit one point from play. 

But this Errigal side are an exceptionally closely knit group, they stand up for each other if a scuffle breaks out, it is like a family member being hit and they take it personally.  

Other teams would fall out if someone gave another player a telling-off on the pitch, this team doesn’t, they know it is for the team’s benefit. 

The togetherness is most impressive and I believe that this Tyrone outfit are now more than capable of winning this All-Ireland club title.  

While they were well subdued against Kilcoo, the Canavans are special talents. Both can give the killer pass that no one can see, let alone try, and if it doesn’t come off, they will both track back to win the ball again and try something ever riskier and it will come off. That is the sort of players they are, and that is the sort of class that wins All-Irelands. 

Sympathy 

I was very sorry to learn of the death of Margaret McMenamin from Barnesmore last week. Margaret was a very nice lady who made everyone she met feel very welcome.  

Margaret and her husband Danny were a great team. Danny was, and still is, one of Donegal’s greatest followers. To Danny and the family, I extend my sympathy on their great loss.