Donegal minors are future for the  Donegal Ladies - Tony Boyle

The Donegal Minor Ladies take on Waterford in the All-Ireland Minor C final this Saturday and already they are being looked at as the future for the senior ladies of the next few years.

The final is set for Kinnegad with a 2.30 pm throw-in and Donegal will travel with confidence, having won all their games in Ulster before being much too strong for Leitrim in the All-Ireland semi-final a couple of weeks ago.

But what is really encouraging about the present minor squad is that at least 10 of Saturday’s starting team are underage for the minor grade again next year.

Three of the squad were involved with the Donegal seniors this year, winning an Ulster senior championship medal - ‘keeper Aoibhin Randles, Abigail Temple Asokuh and Katie Dowds - with the latter pair playing a big part on the field.

One of the mentors with the Donegal minor squad is former All-Ireland winner in 1992 Tony Boyle, who has a daughter, Ulitah, one of the important cogs in the team at midfield.

Having such a young team reaching the All-Ireland final makes it an exciting prospect, especially for the future of the ladies game in the county.

“It is good in one way. We were lucky enough this year it was only Abigail (Temple Asokuh) and Katie (Dowds) who were involved with the seniors. We had the bulk of the players. It might be a wee bit more next year, whoever is there looking after both teams,” said Boyle, speaking ahead of Saturday’s big game.

“It is something we have overlooked, how young they are. A lot of these girls have been together since U-14. I suppose the big plus this year is that they have been exposed a bit to what the seniors have been doing,” said Boyle, who said that the strength and conditioning coach, Shaun Gallagher, has been a fair bit of work with the boys.

“To be fair to Maxi (Curran), he has brought some of them up to do the odd training session with the seniors, more or less to give them a taste to see where you have to get to to play senior football.

“Obviously, it would be nice to win on Saturday but the main aim is to get as many players through as possible. We had a couple of in-house games against the seniors throughout the year and the girls see now the standards that you have to get to. It is a good learning experience for them.”

While he feels that there needs to be caution, he agrees that this team will provide a big number of senior players in the next few years.

“You would imagine over the next couple of years. There will be 8-10 of them playing minor again but some of them will have to double up and play a bit of senior football as well. Look, the secret is to get the balance right and not rush too many of them in at the one time,” said Boyle, adding that lessons might have to be learned as to the tough time the Donegal seniors had in the league this year with a big influx of new blood.

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Donegal are probably playing in a grade which is one step below where they should be and Boyle explained how Donegal finished up in the C grade. “The way it works in Ulster, they are split into two groups, one of five and one of four. Unfortunately, last year we were in the second tier, which ended up in the third tier because our minors didn’t win any games last year.

“For the group that we have, in Ulster, we could have survived in the first group and whether we would have made tier one or tier two. We spoke about it during the year but there was nothing we could do about it. You can only beat what’s in front of you.”

But there is one issue about the competition which Tony Boyle feels the LGFA will have to look at.

“We’ve been together since last November.  The competition itself didn’t start until the end of March and here we are going into the first week of August and we have played only a total of five competitive games.

“I understand that you have the Leaving Cert thrown into the middle of it, but to me it was far too drawn out. You are heading into your sixth game over a period of eight months,” adding that the girls did get to play minor and senior for their clubs.

“There is still a lot of football played but you are still asking girls to trek to Convoy twice a week for the guts of eight months for six games.  I feel  they could condense the season a bit more.

“We want to make sure we finish it off on a high. The main objective for Declan (McDermott, manager) was to be sure we go back into tier one in Ulster next year.”

Cavan are the standard bearers at U-16 having won the All-Ireland U-16 again. “The standard in Ulster is very high but the girls have got some exposure to senior football as well. But look, we’ll get Saturday over us first and hopefully the girls will have an All-Ireland title to show for all the work they have done.”

Looking through the Donegal minor panel, the names reveal a very big GAA pedigree with offspring of many good county and club players apart from Tony Boyle. Surnames like McGinley, McColgan, Gallagher, O’Neill, Boyce, Bennett, Doherty, Dowds, McAteer, Caulfield to name a few. Not to mention Abigail Temple Asokuh, daughter of former Finn Harps and World Youth winner with Nigeria, Eloka. There Tara Geoghegan with a Limerick rugby connection

“I think if you even look at club football, a lot of footballers have daughters and they have got involved in the coaching side. And that has helped to lift the profile and the standards,” said 

Boyle, who said that was the reason he had got involved, after managing the Dungloe men’s senior team for two periods.

“I took a break from that and then I was getting it at home that I never helped out with any of the girls’ teams. So that is what got me involved,” said Boyle, who adds that it has been good for Dungloe with the success that the ladies have, and that is reflected in other clubs also.

And it is a proud Boyle who now watches the latest of the clan, Ulitah, reaching new heights with Donegal.

“She’s a very good athlete. She obviously gets her athletic ability from the mother’s side. It is not something that was my strong point. She has won every medal at underage and she still has a couple of years to go at minor level.

“Listen, we are lucky in Dungloe that we have a few ex-players who are involved including myself, Raymond Sweeney, Joe Boyle and Shaun Sharkey, boys like that who have put in a lot of work over the last few years and it is bearing fruit now.

“And we are lucky we have a group of girls who are talented  as well. It’s been successful for us and long may it continue,” said the former All-Star.