A decade of Big Four dominance as Championship contenders unlikely to change

The format has changed through the years, the dates are more set in stone now, and opportunities for second chances are in abundance. To see the big clashes in recent years, please click the arrows

But for over a decade now, the Donegal championship still fails in changing the overall winner of the Dr Maguire Cup come October. 

For many Donegal GAA fans, it is the time of year when they return to their annual Groundhog Day of the senior championship.

Despite what the public may think of the split season – and there are varied opinions on the matter – by the month of October, there will be a team celebrating a county final win, through all the excitement, dullness, controversies, and talking points.  

That doesn’t change, and if recent history is anything to go off, neither does the winner. Please click on the arrows to go through the club guide

Since 2016, only Naomh Conaill, St Eunan’s, Kilcar, and Gaoth Dobhair have won the Donegal senior championship and with that, we have the famous Big Four of Donegal football.

In that time, remarkably only Glenswilly have come close to matching them when they caught a fancied Kilcar team on the hop in the 2016 county final. But since then, the final two have always been made up of the four powerhouses in Donegal. 

Despite living in hope, it looks like the championship season will roll on with the same protagonists and storylines even before we go searching for our hats and coats for winter. 

There was even an idea back in 2018 that the Donegal senior championship could be the most open football competition in the country, with 2014 to 2018 producing a new winner every year, but in reality, it only strengthened the idea of this Big Four conundrum.   

Even more remarkably, since Kilcar lost the county final to Glenswilly in 2016, only St Eunan’s, Gaoth Dobhair, Kilcar, and Naomh Conaill have been knocked out of the championship by one another in that eight-year gap, which almost begs the question of the overall competitiveness of the championship. 

The idea of the Big Four slipping and cracks appearing, with the conversation of Kilcar and Gaoth Dobhair perhaps joining the rest of the pack . . . that remains to be seen in the championship, and no doubt these teams will meet somewhere down the line before the 2024 season draws to a close. 

Some matches between these teams have been more memorable than others, but they have all had their talking points. 

Here we chase some of the Big Four’s most memorable championship showdowns within the last decade.