1.
A Master at workSaturday evening’s Junior A Championship match at O’Donnell Park between St Eunan’s and Naomh Padraig, Uisce Chaoin, was well down the home stretch when a player scurried into the venue and made his way to the dressing room.Four minutes from the end, Eunan Keaveney came on for Naomh Padraig, replacing Kevin Doherty.Keaveney hurried from Collooney in County Sligo, where he played for the Donegal Masters in their All-Ireland Masters Shield final win over Galway, to fulfill his club duties.Keaveney, still in his Masters gear, didn’t want to miss out on aiding Naomh Padraig’s bid for a quarter-final slot. Naomh Padraig, as it happened, bowed out after a narrow 1-12 to 2-8 loss in Letterkenny. The ever-committed Keaveney showed an example with his efforts in making sure he didn’t have to skip Naomh Padraig’s big game - CMcN
2.
No rest for the wickedSean McDaid was another man who played his part as Donegal won the All-Ireland Masters Shield courtesy of a 1-5 to 0-7 scoreline on Saturday in Collooney, Co Sligo. As well as captaining the side, McDaid was man of the match and the Urris official was back in the centre of the action on Sunday afternoon as the match referee in Falcarragh as Cloughaneely took on Killybegs in the Donegal SFC. AF
3.
Concerns in reserve On Monday night, the Donegal CCC conducted a draw for the quarter-finals of the Senior B Football Championship.A couple of walkovers were awarded while Bundoran did not enter the competition. St Naul’s were unable to field against St Eunan’s and St Michael’s.Competition organisers opted to do a draw rather than rely on table placings to determine the quarter-final line-up.In the games that were played, there were five scorelines that stand out as concerning.Cloughaneely had 40 points (8-19 to 0-3) to spare on Killybegs, Naomh Conaill had big wins over St Michael’s (5-13 to 0-9) and Killybegs (3-21 to 0-1). Glenfin posted eight goals in a 8-12 to 0-2 victory over Killybegs and Glenswilly had a 23-point margin (4-17 to 0-6) on St Naul’s.There have been repeated worries expressed over the amount of walkovers being awarded in the reserve leagues of late.The system whereby a club’s reserve team competes against the same clubs as its senior team is, clearly, broken. Either reserve teams be graded on their own merits or something like a regionalised competition be developed.Otherwise, the situation, surely, will only get worse - CMcN
4.
Off on his travelsBundoran will be short another player when it comes to the relegation battle with news that Michael McEniff, son of Donegal PRO, John McEniff, is off this week to work in Canada with KPMG. Michael, or Mikey, as he is called around Gaelic Park, has been a great servant to Bundoran over the last decade or so. Troubled by injury for most of this year, he returned to play in the championship and on Sunday last gave his best display of the year, scoring an early goal and the final point of the game which closed the gap to the minimum. Geraldine Foy captured Michael kicking the final point. Hopefully, it will not be his last point in a Bundoran jersey -PC