Mac's View: Is it time to split the county for the All-County Leagues?

We are having a very good end to the club league programme in Donegal after a sluggish enough start. We had a good encounter in Bundoran on Sunday with our neighbours, Aodh Ruadh. It was an enjoyable game played in a very good spirit and with a good crowd present.

It showed up a couple of things. One is that local derbies are important and the other is something I have talked about for a long time, the need to divide the county. And by doing this you could be playing these local derbies midweek in the middle of summer and they would attract good crowds and give clubs much needed funds.

There was a call for a split a long time ago but it was felt that the south was too strong at that time, but that is not the case now. You have the prospect of Malin being promoted to Division 1 in the next week or so and can you imagine the cost of them travelling to Bundoran and possibly Glencolmcille and the same the other way.

There is the price of fuel to be added in at the moment as another reason for looking at dividing the county. It is going to be a huge burden on clubs.

But back to Sunday's game in Bundoran, it was really entertaining with Ballyshannon scoring 17 points. We were lucky we got the goals and the draw means that we booked our place in Division 1 on our own steam.

Fair play to Peter Mac MacIntyre and the management team along with trainer Barney Curran. They have done well with what is mainly a crowd of young lads. They were behind the 8 ball at the start playing without the two county men and Shane McGowan wasn't available early on. They were also missing Dara Hoey, a nephew of former Sligo player Mattie.

There is still plenty to play for at the top and bottom. Glenfin against Kilcar will be tight with Glenfin very competitive at home. At the bottom the big game will be between Ardara and Glenswilly with the losers making the drop.

In Division 2 St Naul's look to be in big danger but there is great competition at the top of that division for the three promotion places with Malin, Downings, MacCumhaill's, Naomh Columba and Milford all involved.

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Big weekend at Croke Park
There will be another big weekend in Croke Park this Saturday and Sunday with the two football semi-finals and also Cavan against Westmeath in the Tailteann Cup final. Cavan could have lost to Sligo. If our neighbours had been a bit more cool in front of goal, they could have been there. The Cavan defence will have to be tighter against Westmeath but I think there is an extra gear in Cavan.

Westmeath have a powerful player in John Heslin and Cavan will need to be at their best. It will be a great pipe opener for the Derry-Galway semi-final on Saturday. Derry have what it takes to beat Galway, who will find it difficult to get around the Derry wall. They have good man marking defenders.

Galway's big threat Shane Walsh took a lot of abuse against Armagh and he will come up against probably the best man marker in the game at the moment, Chrissy McKaigue on Saturday. McKaigue has great pace and will give little away.
Galway have a good side but against Armagh their 'keeper made a few mistakes. They can't afford any blunders on Saturday.
The following day the big guns Kerry and Dublin meet and it is a difficult one to call. If Con O'Callaghan can play, I fancy Dublin, but without him I would fancy Kerry. It is that close.

We had the hurling semi-finals last weekend and Galway put up a good show against Limerick but had too many wides. The same was true of Clare against Kilkenny, although I never felt they would have troubled Kilkenny, even if they didn't hit so many wides. It looks like it will be a very good All-Ireland final between champions Limerick and Kilkenny.

Ladies take on Dublin
Good luck to the Maxi Curran and his management team with the Donegal Ladies on Saturday as they take on Dublin in Carrick-on-Shannon. They have beaten them already this year so there is no reason why they can't do it again.

Declan Bonner
And finally this week as Declan Bonner decides on his future, I have to again put on the record that he has been an outstanding county manager. He has a year left and it is up to himself to take it or move on. I'm hearing that there is a County Board meeting planned for Thursday of next week and Declan will probably give a presentation. Like I said in the week after the Armagh game, if he decides to stay, he would have to freshen up his backroom team.