Mac's View: Crunch weekend for senior and intermediate championships in Donegal

We are into the last round of fixtures in the Senior and Intermediate Championship this weekend and it is becoming clearer by the minute that the contenders for the senior championship in particular are small in number.

The remaining round 3 fixture last weekend saw Killybegs overcome St Naul’s, which was a surprise to me as I thought the Mountcharles side would edge it. But it looks as if they are not going well and without their leader at full-back, Brendan McCole, it is difficult.

The final round of games this weekend have quite a few games that look to be one-sided, but then you never know when teams have their backs to the wall.

That is the case for the three teams with no points on the board especially - Cloughaneely, St Naul’s and Glenfin - who are also away from home. Cloughaneely have the toughest task, having to travel to Towney to play Kilcar.

St Naul’s go to Dungloe and you would expect that Dungloe, much improved in recent weeks, will be too strong. They ran St Michael’s to a point at The Bridge last week.

Maybe the tightest game at the bottom will be in Fintra where Glenfin need to get a win against Killybegs and they have a good record there. But Glenfin are just not going well this year and I expect that Killybegs will have just too much for them.

In the  other games I expect that Naomh Conaill will be too strong for Aodh Ruadh, even though these sides drew a few years ago in Ballyshannon. Ardara will also be up against it when this young Four Masters team go to Pearse Park.

St Michael’s travel to Magheragallon and after Gaoth Dobhair’s win in Letterkenny two weeks ago, you couldn’t bet against them winning again.

Glenswilly host MacCumhaill’s and in normal circumstances this would have been the game of the weekend, but with MacCumhaill’s missing their two big front men, Oisin Gallen and Joel Bradley Walsh, it’s hard to see them being able to overcome Glenswilly, especially with Michael Murphy in the form he has been of late. A win for Glenswilly here will put them top of the championship table.

Downings will be up against it when they entertain St Eunan’s, especially after the Letterkenny side slipping up last time out. They will want to win and win well to make the top four and get the free week off before the quarter-finals.

If the games go to current form then you would have Glenswilly on eight points on Sunday evening followed by Naomh Conaill, Gaoth Dobhair, Kilcar, St Michael’s, Four Masters and Dungloe on six points.

Because score difference will be needed, all teams will be trying to improve their scoring rate so it should make for a day of big scoring in the senior championship.

It is much the same story in the Intermediate championship with the final round of games taking place on Saturday evening.  Bundoran have a really long trip to the top of the county to play Malin. Indeed, most of the games are in the northern half of the county.

Termon, Buncrana and Milford are already assured of quarter-final places and indeed would be regarded as the front-runners for the Intermediate title. The three teams on four points, Naomh Muire, Bundoran and Naomh Columba should make it to the last eight also and Malin will be hoping to get the better of Bundoran on Saturday to join them. After that it will likely come down to score difference to see who makes the final spot and who will be in the relegation play-off battle.

CONGRATS BURT

Congratulations to Burt on winning back the Donegal senior hurling championship last weekend with victory over Setanta. They were playing second fiddle for a few years but there is a great tradition in Burt and it was inevitable that they would come back again.

Congratulations also to Buncrana and Four Masters on winning the Intermediate and Junior championships on what was a great day for hurling in O’Donnell Park, Letterkenny on Saturday last.

NEW YORK TRIP 1974

Memories of a Donegal trip 50 years ago to New York came back to me this week, 50 years on. I had played club football with Cavan in New York when I was in Toronto because there was no Donegal New York side. I remember playing in 1965 when Yankee Tommy Gallagher from Ballyshannon played his last game for Cavan. Hughie Coyle from Gaoth Dobhair was centre-half, Brendan McHugh from Bundoran was midfield and I was wing-forward. I remember there was a man of the match award and I thought I had played well but they gave it to Yankee Tommy in his last game.

It was only after that Donegal began to come up through the junior ranks in New York. I would have played afterwards with Kerry in New York and when we went on a trip to New York after winning Ulster in 1974, I ended up playing for Kerry against Donegal and it didn’t go down too well with some Donegal people. When we came home from that trip I was sacked as Donegal manager.

Finally, this week when I was talking about the Donegal Centre of Excellence a few weeks ago I neglected to name those involved in the purchase of the lands at Convoy, namely Dessie McFeely as well as Enda Bonner and Sean Kelly.

Brian McEniff was in conversation with Peter Campbell