Mac's View: Maxi Curran and his team giving us all in Donegal a boost

This week I have to start by congratulating the Donegal Ladies on reaching the All-Ireland semi-final with a great win over Dublin in Carrick-on-Shannon on Saturday. Fair play to Maxi Curran and his backroom team for having the team so well prepared.

Goals win matches and this was the second time they defeated Dublin in a matter of months, one hell of an achievement. It is a big boost for the county in general after the disappointment of the men losing out in Ulster and then to Armagh in the qualifiers.

I want to wish the Donegal Ladies well in their semi-final on Saturday. It will be a big day in Croke Park with both semi-finals and with Donegal taking on the All-Ireland champions, Meath, they get top billing at 4 pm, with the game being preceded by the other semi-final, Kerry v Mayo, at 2 pm.

Ironically, it has turned out the complete opposite to the men's championship with the four provincial runners-up making up the last four.

Donegal will not have it easy against Meath but they ran them close in the league final and they have improved steadily since then. Hopefully there will be a good Donegal support behind them on Saturday.

SEMI-FINALS
There was a big weekend of football in Croke Park again last weekend with the two All-Ireland semi-finals as well as the Tailteann Cup and All-Ireland Junior finals.

After watching the Derry v Galway game on Saturday a lot of Donegal people will be disappointed that we were not there. It made you reflect back on the last six minutes in Clones in the Ulster final. But there is no point in crying over spilt milk. I was disappointed in Derry. They scored three points early on but then the roof fell in and they could only manage three more in the entire game. When Plan A failed they had no Plan B at all.

It seemed at times that they were afraid to shoot. But then when you reflect on Galway, they only managed to score eight points and didn't score at all in the first 20 minutes.

It was a strange game. There are some similarities between Donegal and Derry, both are not attack minded enough. There is an old expression - the best means of defence is attack.

I suppose overall, Derry in themselves were happy enough to win an Ulster championship. But no more than ourselves, they will have to take a look at how they play the game.

We had a few fiascos in the game including the Derry 'keeper getting caught out the field with Damian Comer finding an empty net. It was always going to happen and the Derry man didn't need to be that far from goal as he was not providing anything extra.

Then we had the Hawkeye error before half-time. This brought back memories of 2010 and the Louth-Meath Leinster final when big Joe Sheridan carried the ball over the line to give Meath a win they didn't deserve. We didn't have technology then but it is hard to believe it went so badly wrong on Saturday. It is good to have technology but it has to be working right.

The game on Sunday made up for the Saturday game. Dublin showed great resilience in coming back and had to contend with some strange decisions including the awarding of the penalty and then after it was saved the Kerry player Sean Ó Sé followed through. He could have seen red but didn't get any card.

Then he was booked later on and might not have been there to kick that wonderful point to win the match - and into the wind.
Fair play to the seasoned Dublin players who stood up including their captain James McCarthy, even though carrying an injury. If Con O'Callaghan had been there, I have no doubt that they would have won.

Kerry are not the side I thought they were. They made a lot of mistakes and are beatable, although Galway will have to improve. But overall it was a cracking game.

In the other games in Croke Park, the Tailteann Cup final was a huge success. I suppose ill discipline on the part of the Cavan midfielder cost them the title, but fair play to Westmeath, they played some great football. The introduction of Ciaran Martin was the difference and he scored a really great winning goal.

Well done to former Donegal player from Fanad Patrick McConigley on being part of the backroom team in Kilkenny in winning the All-Ireland junior title on Sunday. They defeated Warwickshire on Friday evening in the semi-final, a team managed by former Aodh Ruadh player and former Bundoran team manager, Charlie O'Donnell.

BACK HOME
There were some more deciding games in Donegal at the weekend with Glenswilly defeating Ardara, which means that Ardara are relegated, after being a long time in Division 1. Glenswilly now play Killybegs to decide the third relegation spot. As expected Kilcar won and they will play Naomh Conaill in the Democrat Cup final. Fair play to Ballyshannon who finished third in their first year up.

Division 2 has still plenty to play for. Malin were promoted after a draw with Buncrana but then were hit with a bereavement with the sudden death of John Byrne on Monday. My sympathies to the Byrne family and the Malin club and to his family in south Donegal.

Congratulations to Burt on winning the Division 3 title and also to Naomh Brid, who will join them in Division 2. There are still some important games left in the next two weeks to decide the remaining league positions and we have four weeks to the start of the championship, something we are really looking forward to.

We also look forward to the All-Ireland hurling final this Sunday with Limerick going for the three in-a-row against Kilkenny, managed by an amazing man, Brian Cody. It could be a cracker.