NEITHER NAOMH CONAILL nor St Eunan’s won their respective regional finals but they’re still where it matters most in the County Minor Football Championship Division 1.
On Saturday at Sean MacCumhaill Park, the respective Glenties and Letterkenny teams face off at 4pm with the margins expected to be tight.
The Naomh Conaill contemporaries are aiming for a first championship at this age bracket since 2009, when they defeated St Eunan’s 1-14 to 0-11 in Ballybofey. In more recent times, they also won the 2003 and 2004 minor championships, with those teams providing a bloodline for the 2005 seniors – the first from the club to take the Dr Maguire home.
John O’Malley, who was man of the match that afternoon six year ago, and Hughie Gallagher were part of that team and are now part of manager Michael O’Donnell’s management team.
“We’re excited,” O’Donnell said this week. “We’ve no real injuries and all the talk is of Saturday now. It will be a big occasion.”
In the Southern Regional Board final, Naomh Conaill certainly weren’t at their best and were punished by Aodh Ruadh, who ran in 0-15 to 1-8 winners at TÃrconaill Park last month.
That meant a meeting with Gaoth Dobhair, last year’s minor champions and a ding-donger County semi-final at O’Donnell Park ended in a 2-6 to 0-12 draw before Naomh Conaill won the replay 1-11 to 2-6 at the Banks.
“We were very disappointing against Aodh Ruadh but showed some steel to get the better of a good Gaoth Dobhair team,” O’Donnell said.
That night, Naomh Conaill showed they possess familiar characteristics to that of many of their club’s teams – strong defensively around the likes of Matias McKelvey and Charlie McDonnell with good runners such as JD Boyle, who are comfortable in possession, with forwards who can take their scores.
Eoghan McGettigan is a livewire up front and has scored 1-19 in his last three outings and his style compliments that of Ciaran Gallagher in particular.
Ethan O’Donnell, at centre-field, was a county minor last year and the only member of the minor panel also on the senior squad a week out from their RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta SFC semi-final against Kilcar on Sunday week.
Having already defeated St Eunan’s in the Minor League final this season, Naomh Conaill are aiming for a double but manager O’Donnell is not taking much from that victory in Fintra.
“The league means nothing and that day in Killybegs if we had any designs on winning the championship we’d have to beat teams like St Eunan’s,” he said. “Both teams have similar styles in the way they play and there’s very little to choose between both sides.
“When you consider this age bracket, we won at Under-12, St Eunan’s won at Under-13 and Under-14 as well as Og Sport and then we won the Under-16 league and this year’s league. It’ll be a massive challenge on Saturday between two well-matched sides.”
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