St. Eunan’s have a great chance to progress in Ulster

The Letterkenny side carry the tag of favourites, and rightly so, and we will be behind them as they try to improve the Donegal record in the competition.

That Donegal record is not good reading as we have only won the official competition twice - with St Joseph’s back in 1975 and we did not win it again until Gaoth Dobhair defeated Scotstown in 2018.

I remember playing in the competition prior to it being made official and it was a great competition back then when there weren't as many games to be played. I do remember playing a club league game in Donegal in the afternoon and then going and playing an Ulster club game that evening.

We were fortunate with St Joseph’s to win the competition in 1968 before it became official and we went on to win the All-Ireland title defeating Dunmore McHales of Galway over two legs.

The official competition began in 1969 and St Joseph’s lost a couple of finals to Bellaghy and Clanna Gael before finally winning the title in 1975, beating Castleblayney Faughs in the final.

It is always played late in the year and thankfully the weather has been good over the last week so we should have perfect conditions on Saturday evening in Brewster Park for the meeting of St Eunan’s and Erne Gaels.

It would be foolish for St Eunan’s to take Erne Gaels lightly. The Belleek side have won three Fermanagh titles in-a-row and defeated Kingscourt last year in the opening round before bowing out to Kilcoo.

The experience gained from winning three in-a-row has to be worth something when you go into Ulster. It is one of the drawbacks for Donegal clubs as it is rare that teams go back-to-back, such is the level of competition within the county.

St Eunan’s will have to have their A game with them and if they can reproduce their performance in the county final, that might be just about good enough. Niall O’Donnell is commuting from Chicago for games, which is not ideal, but he is vital to their chances.

Good luck to a number of Donegal teams who are also in Ulster club action this weekend. The Donegal Intermediate champions, Naomh Padraig, Muff are in Brewster Park on Sunday afternoon taking on Kinawley and that will be a big test for the Inishowen side, who have made huge strides in just a few short years.

Our junior representatives Urris came up short last week, no match for what must be a very strong Fintona side from Tyrone.

Good luck also to the Naomh Columba Ladies who are in the Ulster Intermediate Ladies final in Killyclogher on Sunday where they take on Monaghan champions, Truagh.

Last weekend MacCumhaill’s were knocked out of the Ulster Junior hurling championship by Truagh while congratulations to St Eunan’s hurlers, who advanced by beating Castleblayney in the Intermediate hurling club championship.

It was good to see some appointments being made this week at county level and the appointment of Martin McHugh and Frank McGlynn to assist Gary Boyle with the U-20s was the big one. Those two will bring a lot of experience and know-how to that group.

I’m also hearing that Rory Kavanagh is coming in as Donegal minor manager and that is also a great appointment. It is good to see the All-Ireland winning players getting involved.

We are still awaiting the full make-up of Jim McGuinness’s backroom team and it is a surprise that we are still in the dark about that, especially as the squad are now back in full time training. Hopefully, that will be cleared up soon.

We had the All-Star presentation last weekend and I was disappointed that our own Michael Langan was not included. We did win the National League and I felt Langan had much to offer over the Monaghan man, O’Hanlon.

But then the All-Stars are subjective and it was surprising that Roscommon, despite beating Mayo and Galway to win the Connacht title, did not get a player on the team. I felt Diarmuid Murtagh was worthy of inclusion.

On the home front the U-21 competitions are nearing the knock-out stages and there have been some good games and hopefully the weather keeps up for the remaining games.

Finally, this week my condolences to the Kane family, Ballyshannon on the death of Fiona, daughter of the late Alan and Patricia Kane. May she rest in peace.

Also my condolences to the O’Neill family in Down on the death of Kevin O’Neill, a member of the great Down teams of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. His brother, Sean O’Neill and the 1960 captain Kevin Mussen are the only survivors now left of the 1960 and 1961 All-Ireland winning panels.

Brian McEniff was in conversation with Peter Campbell