The Democrat Sports Diaries: A different Third Sunday in July

The Democrat Sport Diaries is put together by our sportswriters Peter Campbell, Alan Foley and Chris McNulty where they will be discussing the week’s talking points ...

Just what would The Follower think of the fixture schedule for the championship in 2022? How many times did Cormac talk about Clones and the Third Sunday in July - Ulster final day and the quest for the Anglo Celt Cup. It was a continuous theme in his weekly Democrat column.

After that, the most important date was the Third Sunday in September when the Sam Maguire Cup was handed out.

Next year the Third Sunday in July will again be an important date, but not for the Ulster final in Clones but it will be a big weekend in Croke Park with the All-Ireland final set for that date.

The knock-on effect is that the Ulster senior championship final in 2022 will be held at the end of May. It will be a sea-change for all counties, and the preparation will take on a major shift as the championship will begin in mid-April - a couple of weeks after the final game in the Allianz National League.

Donegal have been handed a home draw in MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey with Armagh the visitors. It is probably the stand-out first round game along with Galway v Mayo in Connacht. The Donegal-Armagh game is the only first round contest that will match two Division One teams against each other.

With four Ulster teams involved in Division One of the league this year - Armagh, Tyrone, Monaghan and Donegal - it remains the most competitive provincial championship. The 2022 championship will, at least, have a qualifier system, but both Donegal and Armagh will know that if they can get over the first round, they have a pathway to the Ulster final. The winners will play Antrim or Cavan in the Ulster semi-final with Tyrone, Derry and Monaghan the favourites to vie for the other Ulster final spot.

The quick turnaround from the Allianz League to the Ulster championship after four of the sides clashing in that league, is going to make for a very interesting year ahead.

Donegal have Armagh at home in the league as well and one wonders will they play that game in MacCumhaill Park, or will they take the Orchard County to O'Donnell Park and not give them a run-out at the Ballybofey venue.

If league positions are to be taken into account in the event of qualifying for the All-Ireland championship the following year, can teams afford to experiment? What is very clear is that Declan Bonner's Donegal need to get off to a good start in the league. With four home games, a target of seven or eight points should be good enough to secure status.

With the Dr McKenna Cup returning in January, it is going to be flat out from January onwards, hopefully until the Third Sunday in July! PC

END OF AN ERA IN GLENTIES

It’s a little hard to fathom that for all their recent successes, Naomh Conaill had only ever won two Donegal SFC titles before Martin Regan opted to take over as manager ahead of the 2015 season.

Since then, Naomh Conaill have appeared in all but one of the Donegal SFC finals that have taken place, winning the Dr Maguire in 2015 against St Eunan’s and coming through that 2019 trilogy against Gaoth Dobhair thanks to a late John O’Malley score in the second replay.

In August, they won the deferred Donegal SFC on penalties against Kilcar, although that particular competition remains up in the air.

A simple tool of measurement of any managerial term is to assess if the club is in a better place afterwards than beforehand and Naomh Conaill have gathered momentum in the last decade or so and accelerated since 2015, to be considered one of the top teams in Ulster.

Naomh Conaill were, by their own admission, flat in the recent Donegal SFC final and on the day Regan held his hands up and said his team were outplayed and out-thought by a St Eunan’s team, who ran out winners on a 1-11 to 0-4 scoreline. IT was their first loss in 26, since the 2019 Ulster final against Kilcoo, which shows an outstanding level of consistency.

The nature of Donegal football, though, means St Eunan’s, Naomh Conaill, Kilcar or Gaoth Dobhair will never be too far away and it will be the same when the ball is thrown into the air in 2022.

There’s a synergy in Glenties, a place where folk are dyed in blue and white, with a host of their first-team players looking after underage sides and the club is as well-supported as any in the county.

Naomh Conaill, whoever is in charge, can work off a sound base that Regan and his backroom team did a lot to have in place. AF

COLLEGE GAINS FOR YOUNG SPORTS STARS

Georgie Kelly has clubs in England, Scotland and even in Europe fluttering their eyelashes in his direction.

The Tooban man scored 26 goals for Bohemians this season, but is now a free agent.

Kelly is 25 and coming off the back of his best season yet in the League of Ireland.

The striker won’t be jumping into a move for the sake of it.

Kelly is completing a Masters at UCD and his education is his priority;

“Playing in the League of Ireland won’t sort you for life and if you’re ticking along at something else behind it, it’ll give you a good start for life after football,” he said in a recent interview.

“I just want to get my foot in the door somewhere. The worry I have is that when you come out of football in your mid-30s, you’re going in to start at the bottom of a company. I’d rather do little bits here and there for experience.

“For others, it’s their life and it matters more to them. It depends on what comes up for me and what opportunities are there for me.”

It felt a rare type of an insight, but the reality is that the join between education and sport has never been better.

Last Friday night, Donegal men Sam Todd, Jack Keaney and Michael Gallagher played for UCD - where they are all on scholarships - as they returned to the League of Ireland Premier Division.

It is not just on Irish shores where these opportunities are available.

Roma McLaughlin and Zoe McGlynn have enjoyed an excellent season with Central Connecticut State University, both their football and education thriving.

Last week, Finn Valley athlete Cara Laverty was confirmed as a new scholarship student at Providence College.

Finn Valley men Ben Carr and Tristan Kelly are in their first years at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville and Union University in Jackson.

In Donegal, an enhanced Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed last month between Donegal GAA and LyIT. A wide range of sports scholarships are now on offer at LyIT, where Michael Murphy has recently been appointed as Head of Sport.

LyIT teams are all playing at good levels now and are competitive.

No longer is there an either-or scenario when the good sports person reaches their third level education.

The importance of the coexistence of sport and education finally seems as if it is seeing the light. CMN