Allianz National Football League Division One semi-final: Dublin v Donegal (tonight, Kingspan Breffni, 7.15pm, live on TG4)
A FIXTURE scheduling pile-up has turned what would have been an intriguing Championship appetiser into a phoney war.
With their preliminary round clash against Down at Pairc Esler set for June 27, Donegal cannot play in a League final if they win and so, since their place in Division One is secured and they’ve nothing tangible to play for tonight, the best manager Donegal Declan Bonner can hope for is that his side to emerges from Cavan town injury-free with pre-Championship morale intact.
The Ulster Championship will be Bonner’s focus and so he will use tonight’s fixture as an opportunity to give starts to some of the promising youngsters who continue to progress through the Tir Chonaill system while also building up the fitness of the likes of Odhran MacNiallais (a substitute in the last two games), Jason McGee, Stephen McMenamin, Dara O’Baoill and Caolan Ward.
In that respect, tonight’s game is a useful exercise for Donegal but, after losing Michael Murphy to a hamstring injury in round two against Monaghan, Bonner will be wary of risking his marquee players against the Dubs. Despite that the Donegal manager insists he wants to “get a performance” against the seven in-a-row chasing All-Ireland champions.
“You want to win it,” said the Na Rossa clubman.
“It's a huge task against Dublin who are going extremely well and have all their big guns out.
“It's going to be a real test no doubt but it's also a real opportunity and challenge for our guys to put their hand up two weeks out from Championship.”
Dublin could go forward to a final if they win but they need Tyrone to beat Kerry in the other semi-final.
In their three Division One South fixtures – which yielded wins over Roscommon and Galway and a draw with Kerry - manager Dessie Farrell used 27 players and only eight started every game.
Tonight Farrell has another opportunity to give run-outs to the likes of Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne, Sean Bulger, Eric Lowndes and Colm Basquel alongside the experience of Jonny Cooper, Brian Howard and Philly McMahon. Stephen Cluxton hasn’t featured yet and Evan Comerford, who has been alternating with Michael Shields between the sticks, should be in line to start.
Eight-time Sam Maguire winner James McCarthy missed the win over Galway in Tuam a fortnight ago but is fit to start again tonight. The Ballymun Kickham’s clubman is an advocate of the League final system and said more could have been done to ensure that the competition was played to a conclusion.
“We had a free weekend there just gone by and I don’t think it’s any real issue with teams playing week-on-week,” he said.
“We could have had the semi-finals on that weekend? But the calendar was laid out a few weeks’ ago and they’re rigidly sticking to it. I suppose time is the issue, that’s the reason for it and there’s nothing we can do about it now.”
Donegal haven’t beaten the Dubs since their dramatic All-Ireland semi-final win in 2014. Last year’s League meeting at Croke Park saw the Boys in Blue scrape home by a point and McCarthy is hoping for another engrossing contest tonight.
“They’re a team that we’ve had very tight games with over the last three or four years in all the League matches – we won by a point last year and it’s usually a point either way,” he said.
“We know a lot of their players and I’d say it will be a hum-dinger of a game on Saturday, no doubt.”
With the Championship looming, the tackle count will be down tomorrow but the score count should be up. Dublin, with more to play for, get the nod to win what should be an entertaining half-pace encounter.
