BRIAN MCENIFF COLUMN: Draw has been kind to Donegal

Donegal’s Super 8 opposition is becoming a little clearer after the weekend’s round of games in the Qualifiers.

And after yesterday’s draw, we will now face either Meath or Clare and either Galway or Mayo in the Super 8s. The one definite we were sure of all along was Kerry, the Munster champions.

Donegal and Kerry is the middle game and is the Croke Park game. Each of the counties have one home and one away game and one at a neutral venue. Croke Park is the neutral venue.

Meath/Clare is our home game and that means Galway/ Mayo is the away game.

From our perspective I would count it a good draw. I feel, though he might not admit it, Declan (Bonner) will be happy enough with it. We’ve avoided the possibility of meeting Tyrone. I think Tyrone are the last team we would want at this stage, especially a Tyrone team with three wins under their belts and out for revenge. .

That is not a Donegal thing. It is the same for any team that would have taken their arch rivals’ scalp earlier in the competition.

On the face of it, Meath would be the fancy by many to be our first opponents. They were the best team we played in the league; we met them twice - in the second round in Ballybofey and in the final in Croke Park.

We won both games by a couple of points and were lucky to do so in both games. We really got out of jail back in February in Ballybofey and it took a late Jamie Brennan goal to snatch the win in the final in Croke Park. Donegal came from eight points down in that game and Meath felt they could have done better.

They were the best team we played in the league. But they suffered a right mauling by Dublin in the Leinster final. They only scored four points. Dublin won without breaking sweat 1-17 to 0-4.

It was the kind of defeat that could leave psychological scars.

How they get on against Clare will depend how they deal with that defeat. In normal circumstances you would expect Meath to beat Clare. But Clare have two wins under their belts, both away against Leitrim and Westmeath, over the last two weekends. They have momentum. If Meath are not themselves, I would not be at all surprised if Clare were our opponents in Ballybofey the weekend after next.

Galway and Mayo is a toss of a coin. It is one of those local derbies that takes on a life of its own once the ball is thrown-in. Galway have had the upper hand in recent meetings. But after their Connacht final defeat by Roscommon in Salthill, the gloss has gone off Galway a bit. Mayo seem to have got over the defeat to Roscommon and have got back on the bike in the last two weeks with narrow wins over Down (away) and Armagh at home.

But either way, be it Castlebar or Salthill, we will have to be in the whole of our health.

CONGRATS TO LADIES

A huge congratulations to the Donegal ladies and their history making three in-a-row Ulster championship win on Sunday. It is a great achievement and a huge well done to Maxi Curran and all the girls and all the people associated with the team in the last few years. It is a great achievement.

Finally this week sympathies to former county player Brian McLaughlin and his brother Raymond and their mother Patrica, on the death of their father Brian who was buried in Creeslough on Sunday. Ar Dheis Dé go raibh a ainm.

Brian McEniff was in conversation with Tom Comack