There could be more pain for Donegal in the coming weeks says Tony Boyle

Donegal have an idea of who they will be meeting in the All-Ireland series after the draw on Tuesday and former county star, Tony Boyle, feels there could be more pain to be endured.

Donegal will begin the three-game series with an away trip to the losers of the Munster final (predicted to be Clare) while they will host the Ulster championship winners (Derry or Armagh) in Ballybofey before their final game against Monaghan at a neutral venue.

However, Boyle feels that the draw could have been less kinder. “No, listen. It probably could have been worse, without a shadow of a doubt.

“But coming from where Donegal are, I would imagine there were a lot of other counties hoping to be in the same group as Donegal and probably wanting to target them.

“It is going to be difficult but at the end of the day the players know where they are at now, and what they are going to be up against. And it is time for us to stand up and be counted.

“You are looking at either Derry or Armagh coming into Ballybofey. I would imagine they would have preferred the losers of the Munster final to be their home game, but it is what it is,” says Boyle, who is a little worried about Donegal’s prospects.

“We have a couple of weeks to focus on it. I’m afraid there might be  more pain in the next number of weeks and months. We have to try and get one result out of the three games.”

The former All-Star agrees that one win would be regarded as success but he is not a fan of the new-look championship, where winning one game is likely to see you into a preliminary quarter-final.

“One game would be success. But to me it is a strange way to get to a quarter-final, being broken into four groups. For me it should be the top two going into the quarter final.

“I know they are talking about dead rubbers. But look, having three games in each group, having that amount of games to get rid of four teams, I don’t think it makes a lot of sense.  

And I think it is something they might have to look at in the future.”

It has been a difficult season for Donegal and Boyle says there are a lot of contributing factors. 

“It has. Listen, you have to go back to the whole process of the selection of the team manager. To a certain extent we know what happened. Rory (Kavanagh) seemed to have the job and that fell through and then it seemed to be cobbled together. Paddy Carr seemed to be in the firing line and listen,  the year started poorly and it has continued on a downward spiral, bar the Kerry result.

“Then you throw in the fact of Paddy McBrearty picking up an injury and Ryan McHugh leaving the squad, two of your most experienced players.

“It was difficult for the younger players, but listen, county football goes on. The lads have to . . .  Michael’s (Murphy) shadow has been over that team for years. We always looked to Michael to pull  us out; it is up to other lads now to pick up the slack and give this All-Ireland series the best shot they can.”

Boyle feels there is a chance to restore some pride. “Absolutely, and possibly something to look forward to next year as well. They have got to be targeting Clare as that possible game and maybe Monaghan as well. And you will have the Ulster champions in Ballybofey and they might come with their eye off the ball.

“You just have to try and get a result somewhere to turn the tide. The last thing you want is three losses to finish the season,” said Boyle, who agreed that good performances might help but  he added “it’s results that count. There is no way around it, the performance against Down was poor. We started reasonably well and at half-time the game was there for the winning but we fizzled out in the second half, which was disappointing.

“Obviously losing Michael Langan was a blow but honestly I don’t think we would have beaten Armagh  anyway, but it would have been nice to get that result against Down.

“It would have been nice to get a wee bit of pride back in the jersey before the All-Ireland series.”

He also feels that the younger players and the big number of them being introduced has been an issue.

“It is difficult; it is always that bit easier when you have a lot of experienced players around you and if you are getting results. There’s a lot of players coming into a team that is completely devoid of any sort of confidence and that’s difficult for the older and established players, but it’s doubly more difficult for younger players who are trying to make an impact.

“That’s why players might think it would have been better if it was an old style championship, once you were beat you were out and regroup for next year.

“But we have three games and it is something to look forward to. But there will be nothing easy. 

“If it is Clare and it’s likely to be Clare, I would say they are targeting that match for their victory, to finish second or third. They have had some big scalps over the last number of years so it is going to be difficult. It may well come down to the neutral (venue) game against Monaghan and it will be interesting to see how they respond to their defeat against Derry.

“The boys have to take it on and give their best shot.”

McShea's Say: This time next year, we might not even be in the draw for Sam

In his weekly column, Donegal's 1974 Ulster SFC winning captain Pauric McShea says he finds the direction GAA is going in the county is a puzzling one and things might not get better in the near future

The Dungloe man is fully aware that the big problem for Donegal in recent games has been accumulating a score to secure a win.

“Yeah, that’s a difficulty. Obviously Michael (Murphy) and Paddy (McBrearty) would have done the bulk of the scoring of the last 8-10 years and now you  have neither of them. The one player you would hope would get a run of games now going into these series of games would be Oisin Gallen.

“He has serious, serious potential but he doesn’t seem to get a run  of games without picking up some sort of knock.  There are also scores from the likes of Michael Langan, if we can get him fit.  But the important thing is to get our scorers on the pitch and injury free and that is going to be very, very important.

“Here’s hoping for that.”