DONEGAL’S defeat to Down in the Ulster championship might end up being a good thing. Getting out early, an opportunity to take stock, assess and rebuild.
But not that draw. That draw is just a nightmare. Even for Kerry, it’s not ideal at all.
And before we get into Donegal, it actually adds an interesting angle to the Munster final. How do Kerry not keep a half eye on Donegal?
They’re in the Munster final on Sunday, a home fixture against a Cork side that look to have bounced back. It’s just become a little bit difficult to focus fully on that now, surely.
Cork have got some real quality in the likes of Chris Óg Jones and Steven Sherlock, but I do think, having seen a bit of them during the league, they are a little bit off the top Division One sides in terms of minding the ball and not giving away cheap turnovers.
That doesn’t mean they can’t turn Kerry over, who, you have to remember, are down a big number of bodies.
Shane Ryan, Brian Ó Beaglaoich, Sean O’Shea, Paul Geaney, the list goes on. How many of those guys are getting close? And if they are getting close, what do you do with them?
For me, I wouldn’t be taking any fitness gambles now at the weekend, which could play into Cork hands.
Kerry should prioritise that Donegal fixture. It’s been mentioned they likely couldn’t meet again until the final, but there’s a chance neither side will be provincial champions going into it, which few would have predicted.
And, of course, Kerry won’t be inclined to forget what happened in the league final. On their home patch, what a chance to lay down a marker.
We talk about the new system, how will it bed in? Well, what a way to start.
There was no shortage of talk about the draw! We were in a meeting at the club, and we didn’t leave the meeting until 1:30pm, and we were driving up to Kilcar. I thought I’d missed it, but it worked out perfectly for me!
Logistically, it won’t be that easy for us to get there. We’re looking at a connection flight in Dublin to Kerry, which sounds mad, and hotels are expensive, but Killarney in the summer time is a great spot.
It’s probably not the one we want from a football point of view, but it’s brilliant every other way!
Read More: RTÉ and GAA+ at loggerheads with GAA over Kerry-Donegal clash and All-Ireland SFC picks
We won’t see Donegal in an Ulster final of course. Since 2011, we have been in 11 finals, which is some record. Unfortunately for me it doesn’t look like Celtic are going to win the league either. At least Donegal did.
You’re relying on Motherwell to take something off Hearts really, but Hearts in fairness have been the better side all season.
I was in Armagh on Saturday commentating for Derry v Monaghan. Genuinely, I felt at one stage it was going to be embarrassing for Monaghan. The Derry runners were causing so much bother, and when Monaghan pushed out, they left themselves open to the kicks inside.
For me, it was Michéal McCarville’s two-pointer that kick-started the whole thing. Himself and Mícheál Bannigan were excellent. I thought Ryan O’Toole really got to grips with Shane McGuigan too.
Bobby McCaul caused havoc, and the goal he had ruled out, I think he would have caught that ball without the nudge the foul was given for.
It’s funny because I saw Monaghan against Donegal in the McKenna Cup final and was fearful. The league was probably worse again, Gabriel Bannigan mentioned they went down to Killarney with just seven men in the entire 26 that had played in 2025.
And the thing is they’ll fancy Armagh. How could they not after the drama on Saturday?
Compare that to Sunday and I’m just not sure how much benefit it will be to Armagh, even though they were awesome. Derry are obviously waiting for them in the long grass too.
Read More:
- ‘I’d rather have them all back...’ Has Kieran McGeeney left door open for Rian O’Neill, Niall Grimley to return to Armagh squad?
- All-Ireland draw: Heavyweights Donegal and Kerry clash in Killarney in first round
It was painful to watch Down, I can’t imagine how Down people would have felt. A week is a long time in sport.
Looking at Conor Laverty even, I’d know Conor, and I know that he would have fully expected his team to win that game.
They knew they had Donegal coming for months. They could only really focus fully on Armagh for a week.
They can’t use it as an excuse in terms of sapping them, players recover so well and even though Armagh beat Fermanagh, they had a 70-minute match a week ago too.
Down will know they just didn’t get to the pitch of it, which is probably a mental thing as much as anything.
The Tailteann Cup does feel disastrous, I’m sure after Sunday some would feel they want the season done and dusted right now, but they’ll pick themselves up.
Even with the old qualifier system, it used to be a fairly lonely place going into that first round after being knocked out of Ulster. This would be tougher again, obviously.
It’s really all about getting over the first one, and then if you get over the first one, then everybody can row in behind each other.
Mark McHugh and Westmeath have got in there, and they have a Leinster final and a good chance of beating Cavan in round one. I saw people criticising his comments after the game where he asked his players do they want to be playing Dublin or playing Leitrim.
He was dead right. That’s motivation. I’m sure Conor Laverty may have said something similar at half-time against Armagh.
How Derry bounce back will be fascinating too. Would a Monaghan defeat in extra-time have been detrimental to that group? Not to undermine them, but it probably wouldn’t have.
If you look at the Derry body language afterwards, they were shell shocked. In terms of where that group are at, this Armagh game could make or break them.
