BONNER – Two strong clubs left standing

here are two teams still standing in the Donegal SFC and Naomh Conaill and Gaoth Dobhair should serve up an exciting final.

It’s been an open championship with new teams emerging and yet the two remaining are the same sides that played in the 2023 final.

On that occasion, Naomh Conaill won comfortably but I believe it will be much closer this time.

Gaoth Dobhair have won two Under 21 titles in recent years and a lot of those players are really finding their feet now.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are a lot of quality players not playing for them at the moment such as Michael Carroll, Odhran McFadden-Ferry, Cian Mulligan, Gavin McBride, Kieran Gillespie and Cian McEntee but they are still a force and their reserve team are in the Senior ‘B’ Final as well.

Naomh Conaill are in the reserve decider as well so it’s safe to say that the two clubs with the greatest depth are the ones who will battle it out for the silverware.

Naomh Conaill were under pressure again on Sunday against Four Masters.

It wasn’t looking good for them in extra-time when they fell three points down but then Kevin McGettigan got a vital goal.

It was a brilliant goal from Kevin especially when you consider that he had shipped a heavy head injury and was on and off the pitch getting treatment at different stages.

However, he showed good pace and composure to finish off the move.

Four Masters will wonder how they left themselves so exposed?

Did they get a bit carried away when they hit the front?

Perhaps it came down to a little bit of inexperience but I have no doubt that Four Masters will learn from it and they will be a real force going forward.

Once again the Naomh Conaill youngsters – Shea Malone, Finnbarr Roarty, and Max Campbell – drove them on.

It hasn’t been a straight-forward championship but they will be hard to beat in the final.

Gaoth Dobhair have won all their matches so far and they are growing in confidence all the time.

They aren’t worrying about who isn’t playing for the team.

Their young players have stepped it up and the likes of Ethan Harkin, Micheal Roarty and Stephen ‘Donna’ McFadden have been getting scores.

Odhrán Mac Niallias has been improving as well and he made some great catches in the semi-final.

I think his brother Rónán deserves huge credit and he has done a final job as manager.

There’s a good edge to this Gaoth Dobhair team and everyone is pulling together.

St Michael’s will be disappointed and they just don’t seem to be able to get over that semi-final hurdle.

They started well and kicked three two-pointers.

They needed to be five or six ahead at half-time but conceded 1-2 just before the break and Gaoth Dobhair always looked like they would take it from then on.

I know St Michael’s have some good underage players coming through but it might be two or three years before they make it and they’ll need their seasoned campaigners to stick at it next season.

Junior

We now know the Junior ‘A’ Championship finalists and Carndonagh will take on Letterkenny Gaels in a repeat of the 2022 final.

Gaels came out on top on that occasion but Carn are very much the fancied team this time around.

That said, Letterkenny Gaels appear to have picked things up in recent weeks.

Aidy Glackin is in his first year as manager and Ronan Frain’s return home from America has pushed them on.

They came through a cracking contest after extra-time against Naomh Brid on Saturday.

Naomh Brid lined out without two of their best young attackers in Eoghan Gallagher and Aaron McGrory and they will have a long winter to think about what might have been.

Conor McBrearty led the charge for Gaels and he is a quality player.

Carndonagh didn’t have it all their own way against Convoy.

Conor O’Donnell scored a fine goal but didn’t have a huge say in the match other than that.

Carn were looking good with ten minutes to go but Convoy then got a brilliant goal from Oran Patterson and a brace of two-pointers.

Convoy had a couple of frees at the end that they missed and Carn eventually got over the line by three points.

Both teams now have this weekend off to try and get ready and it should be a decent final.

Intermediate

The Intermediate final will take place this Sunday and it should be a good game between Malin and Naomh Columba.

The teams met at the semi-final stage last season and Glen won that match.

However, they then came up short against a good Termon in the final.

There’s bound to be a lot of hurt with Naomh Columba because they have lost two of the last three finals.

And even before that they were knocking on the door but losing to strong sides at the semi-final stage.

I know they are desperate to win the Intermediate and we have seen before with the likes of Aodh Ruadh, Cloughaneely, and Termon, that if you stick at it, eventually it will go your way.

Naomh Columba will be hoping that rings true once again.

Of course, Malin have had their own pain in a final when they lost to Downings in 2023.

Their team has changed a bit since that with some of their elder statesmen stepping away.

John Gerard McLaughlin and Stephen McLaughlin returned for the semi-final and it will be interesting to see how much they feature this week.

Malin were relegated from Division 1 but the championship has gone much better than them.

They started off by beating Buncrana and that has set the tone.

They’ll need big performances from Sean O’Neill, Christy ‘Fildara’ McLaughlin and Josh Conlon, but there is a decent spread of scorers in the team and Malin sides have always been able to score goals.

Naomh Columba have been conceding a wee bit more than they would have liked.

However, they have a strong midfield and attack and if they get the defence sorted they will feel they can do it.

They will also want a good start and will feel that if they can get ahead then they will have the running power to control the game through the likes of Eric Carr, Shane Callaghan, Paul O’Hare and county man Aaron Doherty, who I expect will have a big game.

Malin are underdogs and will throw everything they have at Naomh Columba, but I just feel that this is Glen’s time to win the Intermediate.

FRC

It looks like the FRC’s rule changes will be passed permanently on Saturday at Special Congress.

The FRC have made some amendments in recent weeks but they won’t make a huge difference from what I’ve seen before.

One controversial topic from during the season was if a two-point effort was touched by a goalkeeper, it only counted as one point.

It was hard to call 100% sometimes if a goalkeeper had got a touch or not and for me, it makes sense for all efforts from outside the arc to be worth two.

It looks like there will be a change with the hooter as well and play won’t continue on after it blows unless it is in the air or play is stopped for a free or a ‘45’.

I’m not so sure on that one. We saw in both the semi-finals here in Donegal last week (when the hooter wasn’t in action) how major scores were registered after the time that had been announced for injury-time has been elapsed.

At least when you play until the ball goes dead, it takes out that grey area.

The rule changes have definitely been a huge success and we’re seeing that with better fare on the field and bigger crowds attending matches.