Dungloe's five-in-a-row minor ladies ready for Ulster challenge

Dungloe's five-in-a-row minor ladies are back in Ulster club action this Sunday as they welcome Tyrone champions Carrickmore to Rosses Park.

The Rosses Park side have won the county title for an incredible five years now, with Joe Boyle at the helm this year.

It’s his first year in charge of the minor side, having been part of Raymond Sweeney’s backroom team last year, while Tony Boyle won the first three Donegal titles.

Boyle is accompanied in the backroom team this year by Brendan McGee, Mark Clerkin and Jamie Sweeney, and they have had the majority of this team since Under-8s.

“We’ve won the whole way up from Under-13 to 16s and they have been a great bunch,” Boyle told the Donegal Democrat.

“The underage at the club was fairly bleak and nearly non-existent before (five years ago), but we got involved because we have daughters involved and we’d all played a bit of football, so that helped.

“But the commitment from the girls makes it easy, whether you’re training two or three nights a week, they’ll look for an extra night and they always turn up, so it’s easy to manage when you have a good bunch.

“We’ve a panel of 24, and from that, only three of them will be overage from next year.

“Elisha Boyle, our captain, has played in all five county finals, which is unbelievable. You’d have nobody that young in the panel anymore and you’d be hoping you wouldn’t need to, but that’s where we were at that stage. Then Emma Wallace and Sholah Ward will also be overage.

“We lost three from last year as well and so they’re all a bit older and that year can make a difference. But some of the younger girls coming through are really pushing on, so it’s good.”

The Dungloe ladies reached the Donegal Senior semi-final this year, losing out to Termon, with the likes of Elisha Boyle, Toni Boyle, Nicole Gillespie, Mia O’Donnell and Emma Wallace all still minor, starting in that game. And the majority of the rest of the team were part of the Junior B winning side in their first year of fielding a reserve team, beating Red Hughs by 1-9 to 1-6.

That success at senior and reserve level was followed by another impressive performance from the minors themselves, as a week before their Junior B success, they beat Aodh Ruadh by 6-11 to 1-8 to claim the minor title in Convoy for a fifth year.

“Some of them would have played bits and pieces in the league (for the seniors), but we entered a second senior team this year, and all of them would have been getting competitive football between the senior and reserves and then the minor. That extra night training really helped us as well.

“They’re still young and there are a lot of girls in the senior team whose place will be under threat in the coming years, but to be successful, that’s what you need: people pushing on and numbers at training, and hopefully we can keep it going.

“The county final was on the Sunday, and the Thursday before that they had their school prom, and every single one of them was at training on the Friday, which just shows their commitment. Not one of them let us down, and they deserve what they get.”

Dungloe have had one draw this year against Termon, and won all their other games, but they come up against another side unbeaten in their county this Sunday when Carrickmore come to Rosses Park (throw-in 2pm).

The six-week break since the final against Aodh Ruadh might not be ideal, but there are no excuses being made by Boyle, and home advantage is always a help in the provincial championship.

“We took a week off after the minor final, but most of them played in the reserve final the next week, so they didn’t get much of a break, but they don’t want the break. It’s nice to still be playing at this time of year.

“Everyone will be in the same boat, Carrickmore had their county final before us, so everyone’s had a long break, so it’s a level playing field on that count.

“We don’t know a lot about them. They’re unbeaten all year and they’ll not be easy, but we’re as prepared as we can be, and we’ll give it a shot.

“We’ve been training on our own pitch, so it’s worth a few points to you. We don’t have an early start and it’s 2 o’clock, so they’ll have plenty of time to get prepared. Hopefully the weather holds out, and we’ll have a good day in Dungloe.”