BY DÁIRE BONNAR DONEGAL star Oisin Gallen believes the shortened season makes it physically challenging to stay at 100 per cent week-on-week. With the split season now, the Ulster Championship typically starts a month earlier and is usually wrapped up before it would have even started previously. It puts an extra strain on players with games […]
Derry and Tyrone set for u-20 final showdown
ULSTER U-20 FC SEMI-FINAL Donegal 0-14 Derry 1-12 By Michael McMullan A LAST gasp point from impact substitute Ryan McNicholl shot Derry to victory in Ballybofey on Wednesday night. Advertisement In an exciting finale that saw Donegal come from three points down to level the game, it was McNicholl who nabbed the winner. It sets […]
Rampant Donegal sink champions to net semi-final spot
Ulster SFC quarter-final Donegal 4-11 Derry 0-17 By Michael McMullan DONEGAL bagged four goals to dump champions Derry out of the race to win a third successive Ulster title on Saturday night at Celtic Park. Advertisement On a night when the home side were wasteful and unable to engineer a clear goal chance, Donegal’s four […]
JOE BROLLY: The litmus test
FR Liam McClarey, our team chaplain when we won the All-Ireland in 1993, had an audience with his Holiness the Pope in Rome last Thursday. Liam played on the Glack team that won the Derry Junior Championship in 1981. The competition is called the Joe Brolly Cup (after my late grandfather) and as my father […]
The heart of Donegal’s hurling future
By Michael McMullan DONEGAL’S minor hurlers have been tipping along nicely this season and they’ll be hoping to get back on the horse. Defeat to Mayo in the Celtic Challenge on Saturday was a first blemish this season. A trip to Westmeath offers the opportunity to bite into the winning feast again. It’s been a […]
STEVEN POACHER: Down need variety for Orchard test
THE Ulster Championship last weekend felt like an extension of the National League – poor crowds, soft pitches and windy, wintery conditions. It was a far cry from the summer sod, when the sun is shining, the straw hats are out and the football is fast and intense. Down’s game with Antrim on Saturday was […]
Both teams will say it’s a tough draw: McFlynn
Paul McFlynn played in Derry’s 1998 winning team against Donegal and is part of the current management team. He spoke to Michael McMullan WHEN Paul McFlynn hoovered up a late Derry kick-out in the 1998 Ulster final, Donegal had one hand on the Anglo Celt Cup. Within seconds, Joe Brolly was blowing kisses, basking in […]
McGuinness: Derry game is much more than mere ‘free-hit’
By Shaun Casey MICKEY Harte was always the Everest that Jim McGuinness needed to scale. Go back to 2011 before the Ulster and All-Ireland titles, before the All-Stars and Player of the Year awards, before one of the greatest turnarounds in GAA history. McGuinness’ first objective when he assumed the reins of his native county […]
KEVIN CASSIDY: This is the one
THERE has been a lot of giving out about the lack of championship feel to the games up until now. This will all disappear on Saturday evening when close neighbours Donegal and Derry lock horns. Whatever the result on Saturday, one thing is for sure it will look and feel like a proper championship game. […]
KEVIN CASSIDY: Setting down a marker
DO away with the league finals they said. Nobody wants them they said. There is no room in the calendar they said. Well, anyone who was of that opinion before last weekend’s games will certainly have changed their tune on Monday morning. What we witnessed in Croke Park is everything that is good about our […]