Mac's View: Disappointing end but we had a great summer with Donegal

I was disappointed leaving Croke  Park on Sunday because Donegal could have been in an All-Ireland summer and the trip would have been extended by another couple of weeks.

But when you look at the overall journey, we have had a great summer of football following Donegal and I want to thank Jim McGuinness and the players for the journey they have taken us on.

There was a great crowd of Donegal supporters in Headquarters on Sunday.  When I was making my way back to the Skylon after the game I couldn’t believe the amount of Donegal supporters on the road. There must have been 35,000-40,000 supporting the boys.

It was a very good game and Donegal were excellent in the first half. I was very optimistic at half-time as I thought we were by far the better team in the opening half.

But we tired in the last quarter and we were only able to get one point in that time. I don’t know why that happened because I always felt we would finish stronger than Galway. Maybe we have a lot of football played for a team that was in Year 1. That Galway team has been around for a while and were in the All-Ireland final two years ago. That probably stood to them.

In my time I always felt I was very fit and before games I would normally go away and not do that much in warm-up. I would be trying to keep my energy for the game. Nowadays it is much different with very intense warm-ups.

But Galway were no great shakes on the day and were there for the taking. However, they did manage to keep Ryan McHugh and Peadar Mogan scoreless and in the end that was a big loss for Donegal.

Their wing-half back Dylan McHugh did some damage on us and he is quite a good player. But we had probably the best player on the field in Michael Langan, who gave an exhibition of point taking and his general play was good also.

Brendan McCole did a great job in curtailing Galway danger man Damien Comer, not allowing the full-forward one score over the course of the game.

Patrick McBrearty also had a good game and maybe he should have stayed on, especially as we needed shooters. The loss of Eoghan Ban Gallagher came at the wrong time while Jamie Brennan was sick and not many people would have known that. He would have been a good option to come in, but that was just another of those little fine margins which worked against Donegal.

There were a few dodgy referee decisions and they all seemed to go against Donegal.  But at the heel of  the hunt we didn’t see the game out and that’s what cost us in the end. It’s hard to know why the energy levels were low in the final quarter.

The Galway goal, while in the end was not a big factor in the outcome, reminded me of what happened back in 1983 when Val Daly’s fluke shot for a point ended in the Donegal net. This time it was Paul Conroy and it was a freak goal. In 1983 it was big Martin Griffin who unsighted ‘keeper Noel McCole, this time it was Galway’s Matthew Tierney who came across in front of Shaun Patton and the ball ended in the net.

But we recovered very well and quickly from the goal and we were back level at half-time. At that stage we had everything to play for.

But what a great year this bunch of players under Jim McGuinness have given us. It is just a pity that we are not talking about All-Ireland tickets this week.

But we must look forward. Next year,  the entire panel will be available again and with the club championships coming up now in August, Jim and his assistants, Neil McGee and Colm McFadden, will be hoping to unearth another few Ciaran Moores to supplement the panel. Moore was the find of 2024 for Donegal.

Just look at the year we have had - winning Division 2 and getting promotion back to the top flight and then winning Ulster before our run to the All-Ireland semi-final.

Congratulations to Armagh on reaching the final and fair play to them. They put in a great second half against Kerry and I was delighted for Kieran McGeeney. He might seem a dour kind of man but he has kept going for 10 years. It would have been great to see us against Armagh in the final, but it was not to be.

It will be a tight final with two battle hardened teams and a difficult one to call.

I’m looking forward to the hurling final this Sunday between Clare and Cork. They are going mad in Cork looking for tickets, I’m told.

Here at home on Saturday Bundoran defeated Ballyshannon in the league for our first win of the year. Shane McGowan was back and made an appreciable difference. I would not have been unhappy if Ballyshannon had won but they have another chance to save themselves in the play-off this Sunday.

In the league finals on Saturday Naomh Conaill will have all their troops back for the tilt with Gaoth Dobhair and that should be a good contest. The Division 2 final between Four Masters and Buncrana should also be worth attending while Convoy take on Carndonagh in the Division 3 final.

LATE HUGHIE TRAVERS

I was sad to hear the news of the death of Hughie Travers in Donegal Town. Hughie and myself were the same vintage and we played county minor together. He was a fantastic big footballer, very gentle. He was a lovely striker of the ball and could play anywhere from full-back to full-forward. He could get you seven or eight points without breaking sweat. He had a lot of good years with Four Masters and Clanna Gael. May he rest in peace.

Brian McEniff was in conversation with Peter Campbell