A pale shadow of past Donegal teams. And a mountain ahead of them before they can even contemplate seeing any more silverware coming in this direction.
The words of Pat Spillane on the Allianz National League highlights show on R.T.E. on Sunday night were weighted with the wisdom of one who knows. Or at any rate, thinks he knows.
By Paddy Walsh
Due to alternative sporting events elsewhere – see below – I didn’t make it along to
O’Donnell Park and when I did hear the final result shortly before a quarter to five, it appeared to be a close run thing and what I’d believed was a decent performance from Rory Gallagher’s men.
But the Kerry pundit soon put me right. A “misleading scoreline” if ever there was one, he surmised. A raft of changes by the visitors after they held a nine point lead coming into the final ten minutes saw the hosts claw their way back to within three points before the final shrill of the whistle confirmed the win for the Kingdom.
From talking to a few who were at the game, the scoreline of 2-17 to 1-17 was indeed somewhat misleading and hardly did justice to a dominant Kerry but credit to Donegal – a much changed Donegal as anticipated and indeed as enforced on them – for making a fight of it to the finish.
However, you’d have to say that Spillane’s description of them as a “pale shadow” of former teams is a bit misleading itself. True, Donegal had some high profile players on view – Murphy, McHugh, McBrearty, McGlynn, to name but a handful – but there were also some young lads blending into the set-up and it does take time to get the gel right.
Had this team been made up of last year’s starting fifteen and it had fallen far short of their opponents in terms of endeavour and enterprise, you might have got away with labelling them as a pale shadow. But it will surely be further down the League line before such judgements can be passed.
Too early, I’ll admit, to be thinking of All-Ireland glory this year but with a few more games under their skins, I wouldn’t be ruling out a piece of silverware in the form of the Anglo-Celt Cup arriving into the Hills.
Meanwhile, does anyone else out there believe that the R.T.E. sports producers offer us a very lazy highlights package from the main games on Sunday night’s programme?
Couldn’t they show the scores in full as opposed to providing viewers with an over-edited skimpy package that sometimes, you feel, doesn’t do justice to the game?
A pale shadow of other highlight shows, I’d suggest.
LAST HURRAH AT MAGHERAFELT
To Magherafelt on Saturday for the Northern Ireland & Ulster indoor track and field championships. And to Magherafelt on Sunday for the Northern Ireland & Ulster indoor track and field championships.
Yes, two days of athletics and many more making the double trip from this neck of the woods over the weekend.
Not for the first time, an encouraging couple of days for our young Donegal competitors with medals of all colours draped around necks for the journey home.
And not for the first time, an indoor event at the Meadowbank Sports Arena was a chilling experience, particularly on the Sunday when temperatures dropped and blankets were shrouded over many shoulders and knees. Magherafelt very cold indeed.
Many – this family included – have been attending these championships at this particular venue for a number of years but, it seems, last weekend may have been the final trek over the Glenshane Pass.
Next year, it seems – or so the word on the ground was – the Northern Ireland & Ulster indoor track and field championships will involve a trip outside the Province, almost certainly to the impressive indoor facilities in Athlone though still possibly (though not probably given the price of renting it out), to the new arena in Dublin.
Apart from the temperature of the place, the track surface is – and this is according to those who have competed on it – not quite conducive to good running. Added to that is the fact that there’s the slightest of inclines on the run-up for the long jump that represents a hurdle competitors should hardly be expecting in this particular discipline.
But you know what? I’ll miss the old place. Always well organised and friendly faces all around and a café where warming beverages and the heating system are a stark contrast to the rest of the facilities.
WHERE NOW FOR McCOURT?
As we were returning from Magherafelt on Saturday afternoon, there were queues beginning to form at the Riverside Stadium just outside the city of Derry where Linfield were the scheduled visitors for an Irish Cup tie against the hosts, Institute.
A 2-0 win for the visitors and a couple of days later another 2-0 success for a team in blue at the same venue. Two more goals from new signings, Ciaran O’Connor and Danny Morrissey earned Harps their second pre-season win having lost to Longford Town in a friendly at the weekend.
A bit early to be suggesting that Ollie Horgan has solved his front-line problems and the lack of goals from that department but it’s looking good.
Meanwhile, former Harps midfielder, Raymond Foy, started for the ‘Stute – the pity of it being that we really should not be describing him as a former Harps midfielder. He certainly could have done a decent job in that department in the coming season.
And Paddy McCourt? I see he will not be joining champions, Dundalk, after all – could we still see the former Celtic and Derry City winger flying down the flanks at Finn Park?
HUGH REACHES THE END
Four years ago I attended an open athletics meeting in Donegal Town. It mostly involved juvenile athletes but there was also a masters event and in that capacity one individual in particular stood out. And with the enthusiasm of someone a quarter of his age, he claimed a couple of medals – the beaming smile on his face suggesting that had they been his first ever he could not have been happier.
I only saw Hugh Gallagher perform on a small handful of occasions but for some reason that day in Donegal Town is marked in the memory.
Here was a man who could have been at home tending to his garden or dozing in the armchair but instead this Sunday found him warming up and competing in a sport that never took a back seat as far as he was concerned.
He was eighty-eight years old then but, as I say, he could have passed for a twenty-eight year old such was his passionate approach to the variety of events in which he participated.
And those gold medals at local level meant as much to him as any of the national or international haul he had gained over the years.
The list of achievements of this old master ranks up there, and well above, those of his peers – 29 world gold medals, five world silvers, two world bronzes, 23 European golds, five silver medals, and a highly impressive 172 gold medals in All-Ireland events. And records broken all along the way.
Of course, some might ask what was the opposition count on those occasions? Well, as anyone acquainted with masters athletics knows, there is indeed a fairly competitive edge when it comes to taking part in disciplines such as the long jump and shot putt, and the other categories in which Hugh excelled.
He took immense pride in his achievements but never allowed them to cloud out his gentle personality and mannerly disposition.
On Saturday, he completed life’s run at the age of 92 and to his family and friends and the community in Creevy, Carrigart, and Milford A.C. of which he was a proud member, this column can only extend sincerest sympathy on his passing.
ATHLETIC TALENT ON THE UP
A few short years ago the likes of Jerry Kiernan and Eamon Coghlan were fairly drooling about some of this county’s young athletes and how they envisaged them making their mark in international competition.
To date it has been Mark English who has fulfilled those prophecies but now it’s the turn of competitors away from the track who are grabbing the attention.
We’ve already had Arlene Crossan making huge strides in her disciplines and the likes of fellow Finn Valley A.C. athletes, John Kelly and Sommer Lecky have not been far behind.
St Johnston native, Kelly broke the Donegal shot put record with an astounding throw of 17.49 in Dublin on Sunday.
And also at the AAI Games, Castlederg born Lecky set a new Irish Youth record in the high jump with a leap of 1.80m.
Rather too early to be looking ahead to the Donegal Sports Star Awards night but……
FROM FEARFUL TO HOPEFUL
Well, I did suggest last week that we should be fearful. And we hadn’t even reached half-time when it became apparent just how fearful we should have been.
True, for periods of the second forty, it looked like the Ireland we had been accustomed to in recent times but after recovering to lead by a point, the concession of those two late penalties at Murrayfield proved decisive.
We could also have taken heed of the women’s clash with their Scottish counterparts – Fahan’s Nora Stapleton was instrumental in the win – and the Irish under-20’s, the previous evening.
Nora Stapleton
Both teams had been seriously under a Scottish cosh but had just about squeezed by to record victories and the same could be said of the Munster side who did battle with Edinburgh, also on Friday night, in the Pro-12 and came out victors by a solitary point. The warnings were there.
Needless to say, some of the Dublin media pointed fingers and frustration at Ulster’s Paddy Jackson who, in failing to roll away, had conceded one of the penalties that proved critical.
Little mention, however, of the penalty conceded by Leinster’s, Jamie Heaslip, who had also failed to roll away and the golden opportunity he had of scoring what could have been a crucial try only to make his way to the line in the manner of a wombling walrus before finally offloading the ball into Scottish hands.
Both he and Ireland have the chance to make amends this weekend when Conor O’Shea’s Italy stand in their way. Judging by the talk around the Irish camp this week, it promises to be a bonus point trip to Rome with a performance to help erase that pitiful opening half at Murrayfield.
And right back into Championship reckoning.
BECKHAM STRAYS OFFSIDE
So no Knighthood for poor old David Beckham and if his private e-mail is to be believed he’s not too happy with it and deployed some choice language to convey his feelings.
That’s that then. The only way he’s going to be called ‘sir’ from here on in is if he finds himself in the Laggan Valley….
