BONNER – Glenswilly will need huge display in Minor

THE Division 1 Minor Championship Final takes place on Bank Holiday Monday and Glenswilly will hope to put an end to Four Masters’ great run.

Masters are aiming to win the Minor title for the fourth season on the trot, and they will be hard to stop.

Glenswilly are doing great work at underage level and they’ll be delighted to have another team through to a Division 1 decider.

Glenswilly have always been able to produce good players but it was only when they got the right structures in place around ten years ago, that they started to consistently compete at ‘A’ standard.

They had a great semi-final win over Gaoth Dobhair last week when they were underdogs.

Gaoth Dobhair had six county minors last year and were ahead going into the closing exchanges but the Glen men didn’t give up.

Shane Tinney scored ten points and if you’re going to win the big games at this time of year, you need a marksman who knows where the posts are.

Gaoth Dobhair will be disappointed because they won the Minor league and would have been eyeing up a double.

Four Masters won the Ulster Minor title last year and while they have lost some influential players such as Callum McCrea and Kevin Muldoon, they still have a lot of quality.

Conor McCahill and Turlough Carr were in the county under 20 panel this season and then you have Lewis McCaughan and Cian Gavigan who played in the senior championship.

It’s great to have players who are capable of stepping up to that standard, but you have to manage their workload carefully.

Masters didn’t put a focus on the league but the championship was always going to be a big goal and they’ll fancy their chances.

That said, Naomh Conaill pushed them hard in the semi-finals and Glenswilly will take heart from that.

The four semi-finalists are the teams that we see regularly competing for these top prizes, and it’s likely to be the same at Under 21 level over the next couple of months.

They are going to be strong at senior level over the next ten years and the likes of Termon and MacCumhaills have plenty of talent coming through as well.

It is noteworthy that St Eunan’s haven’t been in the mix at minor level for the last few years.

I know they won an Under 15 county title a couple of years ago, but they just don’t have the quality coming through at the moment, and that is a tad concerning from a Donegal perspective as the county tends to do well when St Eunan’s are going well.

‘Eunan’s are working hard at underage level but there’s a lot of competition in Letterkenny and it’s not easy to keep all the best players focused on Gaelic Games.

Glenswilly and Four Masters also played in the Under 16 Final this year and the Donegal Town lads won that.

Glenswilly will be hoping this is their time but they are going to have to produce a huge performance at O’Donnell Park if they are to take the silverware out the road.

Erne Gaels

It’s that time of the year when club players who haven’t tasted success get jealous when they see other teams celebrating.

Only a handful of teams get what they are looking for out of a season.

The likes of Kilcoo have won seven titles in-a-row and will be thinking about Ulster while other teams crave the big breakthrough.

I was involved with Erne Gaels last weekend in the Fermanagh final and we just about managed to get a draw with Derrygonnelly Harps.

We got the bounce of the ball we needed but we know we will have to be better the next day.

Derrygonnelly have won six of the last ten championships so they are a serious outfit.

Last Saturday’s final was a terrific game. It had everything you wanted – an engaged crowd, drama, great goals, super defending, red cards, and a grandstand finish.

The teams will do it again this weekend and there will be nothing in it once again.

As has been well documented, Derrygonnelly are down three very good players this season as the Jones brothers – Ryan, Conall, and Garvan – have all joined Leitrim Gaels.

They made their mark as well as they helped Leitrim Gaels to their first ever county title last week.

It’s quite the story for Leitrim Gaels as they were only formed in 1997 and spent a lot of years at junior level.

Westport and Ballina will have to do it all over again as well as they drew in the Mayo defence.

Padraig O’Hora and Lee Keegan were both brought off in the first half after a heavy collision and you can be sure neither of those two were going to pull out too easily.

In Derry, Newbridge made it back-to-back championships.

After Magherafelt beat Watty Grahams, you’d have fancied them to go on to win the county title, but Newbridge managed to do it and you have to hand it to them.

There have been some big fallers in Ulster, and as Naomh Conaill starts to build up again, I think they will see an opportunity ahead.

However, they do have a big obstacle in their way first up against the Monaghan champions.

I’m sure Martin Regan and his backroom team will be making their way to Clones on Sunday for the final between Scotstown and Inniskeen.

It will be an interesting match. Scotstown are appearing in their 13th final in-a-row but Conor McCarthy and Ryan O’Toole have been struggling with injury.

Inniskeen are looking to win their first county title since 1943.

One of their players is getting married on Friday so that’s not ideal but Crossmaglen’s John McEntee is managing Inniskeen and you’d imagine he will have them ready.

It’s always hard to look past Scotstown but whoever comes through will be a tough challenge for Naomh Conaill.

The Tyrone final is on this Sunday and while Trillick are fancied to take the win, it would be the biggest surprise in the world if Loughmacrory managed to do it.

I also have to give a big mention to North London Shamrocks on winning the London title.

As I mentioned last week, there was big Donegal interest in that final as they went up against Tir Chonaill Gaels, who have been traditionally the big Donegal club in London.

However, the Shamrocks have taken over that mantle now in many ways and they are picking up most of the Donegal lads that head across the pond.

I would have worked with many of the Shamrocks players before at club and county level and they have some quality players.

Peter Witherow has done a very good job with the team and they will be delighted to retain the London crown.

They will now face the Mayo champions in Connacht and will want to give that a real good rattle this season.