BY MATTHEW WILSON

Gaoth Dobhair manager Rónán MacNiallais is hopeful that his outfit are more ready for the challenge this time around when they meet Naomh Conaill in the Donegal Senior Football Championship Final.

Gaoth Dobhair have been flawless to date in their Championship campaign, coming out on top in all four of their group outings before defeating Kilcar in the quarter-finals and St Michael’s in the last four.

However, the year didn’t start out so brightly for the Magheragallon men as they lost their first couple of Division 1 encounters while also facing defeat in the Senior Gaeltacht Championship.

“We had a very disappointing start to the year, with the league and the Gaeltacht and we lost five games in-a-row.”

“The new rules probably played a role in that, you’re playing teams with their first 15 at their disposal but as the year went on we kind of got to grips with it and the league went a bit better for us then near the end”, said MacNiallais.

As the league campaign drew to a close and the Championship preparations ramped up, MacNiallais and his side were putting their full concentration on game number one.

The 2018 county champions lost their opening fixture to Four Masters last term and therefore they wanted to make sure that they got over that hurdle first.

Off the back of that first win against Glenfin, the group have progressed through each obstacle which has been placed in their way.

“As the Championship came along, we just took it one game at a time. We had a bad start to the Championship last year so, we didn’t want to go down that road again so all of our focus was on the first game. We got the win and we moved on from there.”

“We’ve been happy with the progress, not happy with the performances but every day but we’re getting the results. The games are always tight. The St Michael’s game we won by six but whether we deserved to win by six or not is another question.”

“Overall we’re happy enough to be getting results. Last year, there were some games that we played alright in and ended up losing and the Championship is all about winning games.”

Following the disappointing start to the season that the Magheragallon residents experienced, the Gaoth Dobhair manager expressed that there was certainly pressure on the group to pull things together.

He discussed that some difficult conversations were held within the group which may have supplied some players with a ‘wake-up call’ as to what’s required when you put on a Gaoth Dobhair shirt.

The squad rallied together from this point and MacNiallais stated that there was a clear shift in the attitude in order to turn their season around.

“There definitely was (pressure). In Gaoth Dobhair it’s just not acceptable to be losing four or five games in-a-row.”

“You might lose one or two and that’s fair enough but with the quality of the players in the dressing room, it didn’t matter who you had or didn’t have, the players there we felt were good enough.”

“There were a lot of hard conversations and in fairness to the boys, they used it the right way, they knuckled down and you could see a change in attitude and how they went about things after that.”

“Sometimes it’s good to have that. We would’ve had ideas of getting to a League Final but that was out the window then and it was a relegation fight for a while.”

“Maybe it was a wake up call that some of our younger players needed to realise that just because you’ve a Gaoth Dobhair jersey on your back doesn’t mean that you’re entitled to go out and win a game.”

The two senior finalists have a recent history of final meetings, with the pair contesting the famous trilogy which took place in 2019 as well as the 2023 decider where the Glenties men ran out eight-point winners.

Martin Regan’s outfit flew out of the traps in that 2023 final and the Gaoth Dobhair boss feels that his side didn’t do themselves justice with their performance on that occasion.

However, a lot of young players took to the field that day and with two more years of senior experience under their belt, MacNiallais is hoping that they are better positioned to test Naomh Conaill this time around.

“It’s important in every game to get off to a good start, especially when you’re playing against a team with the calibre of Naomh Conaill.”

“They’ve experienced the big day, this’ll be their eighth final in nine years. They know what it’s all about and that big day is second nature to them.”

“We were there two years ago and we didn’t do ourselves justice at all. We wouldn’t be happy with how we performed but that was testament to Naomh Conaill with how they got out of the box and they never gave us a sniff of it after that.”

“Maybe that final came too soon for this group of players. A lot of younger players came through at that time, this is their third year at it now so maybe they’ll be more ready for it now hopefully.”