Gaels ready to storm Donagh

Erne Gaels Oisin Kelm, right

ERNE Gaels coach Dara Keown admitted that his team have done better than anyone expected this year in reaching the county championship final, and he believes his side enter the final against St Pat’s Donagh as underdogs.

That would be all very well if the Gaels were minnows in the pond of minor football, but in actual fact they are the defending champions.

So why then would he take such a pessimistic attitude?
“This is a very young team, a lot of them are u-16 and only three players are the actual age of minors, and won’t be available next year,” Keown said.

Only seven players are back from last year’s successful season.
One of those is Thomas McCaffrey, though he is somewhat doubtful after suffering a knee injury while playing for in a juniors club match.

Keown said that he is hopeful that McCaffrey will return, though they were not certain.

“It will be a tough game for us and we will be going in as big underdogs,” Keown explained.

“We did well during the league although we lost to Derrygonnelly in our last game. That was due to complacency.

“But during our last two Championship games we have been impressed by their work ethic.”

In their first six games of the minor league campaign they lost just one match, against Teemore Shamrocks in the MFL section B.

The full story is in the current issue of Gaelic Life, published on Thursday July 5. Buy your copy now in your local newsagent, or you can purchase the online version – for only 90p – by clicking here