Michael Murphy Sports Donegal SFC semi-final: Naomh Conaill 0-11 St Eunan’s 0-9
NAOMH Conaill are not only dominating Donegal club football, they’re dictating pretty much everything that happens in it.
To make friends with the Dr Maguire Cup, you won’t always have to beat them but you’ll have to be sure that you have the tools for it if you come to need them.
They’re in the back of everyone else’s minds, all the time.
In two weeks’ time they’ll play in their eighth final in nine years where they’ll meet Gaoth Dobhair. They are the first team in Donegal’s history to reach seven consecutive finals.
Scorelines have a habit of not doing them justice.
There were two points in it as they beat St Eunan’s again, one more than in last year’s final.
Every so often they’ll find themselves in a game that they can’t control, like the 2021 final. They’re not built for chasing big deficits.
Once in a while, the tightness of games on which they almost always come out on the right side will go against them, last year’s Ulster Club defeat by Cargin being the case in point.
But they’ve become unnervingly comfortable in the environment of a tight game.
“After the game it’s very easy to say that, you feel comfortable. It was the same last year, after the game you felt we could see it out,” said their boss Martin Regan.
“But at the time you don’t, it only takes a player to slip or a dropped ball, a shot for a point coming off an upright falling in somebody’s hands.
“Games like that can come down to luck. You’re never totally in control. We felt we were well set up defensively but that doesn’t guarantee.
"Eunan’s left a lot of scores behind them, they had 11 wides, we’d only one. They had double the shots we had. You’re not winning too many of those games.”
He was now playing them down having spent the week, like most people, wondering how the bookmakers were making them 13/8 outsiders again.
Rarely was there more than a point or two between the sides at any stage but like most games Naomh Conaill play, it felt like they were in as much control as you can ever have over a game like that.
The first half in MacCumhaill Park had moved into the pattern they’d wanted it to after the first ten minutes and yet with two minutes of stoppage time played, Shane O’Donnell didn’t get the finish right on a chance that would have levelled it at 0-5 apiece.
Instead the blue shirts came forward and Anthony Thompson, from almost the same position he’d kicked an earlier score, fired blind off his right foot inside the far post and their interval lead was two, 0-6 to 0-4.
That just about reflected it.
There’s nothing overly complicated about how they defend. Every club in the land is getting 14 behind the ball. The difference is that Naomh Conaill just bring an honesty and an enthusiasm to their pursuit of the ball that very few club teams anywhere can match.
If you half hesitate or you bring the solo up half-a-yard too high or you find yourself on your weaker foot, they smell it. They match that with discipline in the tackle.
You’re talking small margins. If it feels wrong to eulogise so much over a two-point win, consider how many one-and-two point wins they’ve had in those last eight years.
These are the things that swing the balance 51-49, but almost universally in favour of the boys in blue.
Rory Kavanagh spoke after last year’s final about how disappointed he was that they kept coughing up possession in attack. The same thing happened again today.
Eoin McGeehin was really game and had a great battle with Jason Campbell. The Letterkenny man was spritely and their go-to for most attacks, but they didn’t get enough pace off him for too long.
Conor Morrison had a brilliant battle that he definitely shaded against Charlie McGuinness. He drove St Eunan’s on, but when the ball was in their attack, they just couldn’t the O’Donnell brothers into the game the way they wanted.
Credit there must go to Ultan Doherty on Niall and the combination led by Ethan O’Donnell on his namesake Shane.
It was for no lack of St Eunan’s effort and they had chances towards the end as they squeezed higher and higher up. Caolan Ward came into the last ten minutes but their last four efforts all went wide, undoing what seemed to be a rally when they got it to 0-10 to 0-9.
But Anthony Thompson provided the thrust that came in stages once more from the younger sibling Ciaran, a lesser thorn this time than in past meetings but that’s only due to the bar he’d set. He was still massively influential.
Gaoth Dobhair took them to two replays and a single-point in the third game in their last final meeting four years ago.
Whatever’s between them on the scoreboard in a fortnight is unlikely to be a chasm but the 2018 Ulster champions’ task is to try and exude control otherwise they’ll be on the wrong side of whatever it ends up.
MATCH STATS
Naomh Conaill: S McGrath; J Campbell, A Thompson (0-2), U Doherty; K McGettigan, J Mac Ceallbhuí (0-2), AJ Gallagher, E O’Donnell (0-1); L McLoone, C Thompson (0-3, 0-1 free); B McDyer, O Doherty, E Doherty; C McGuinness, J O’Malley (0-3, 0-2 frees)
Subs: E Wade for O Doherty (40), K McGill for K McGettigan (50), S Corcoran for McDyer (58), O Doherty for Wade (58), M Boyle for Mac Ceallbhuí (61)
St Eunan’s: S Patton; C Morrison (0-1), C Ward (0-1); C O’Donnell snr; A Deeney; K Tobin, P McEniff; D Mulgrew, K Kealy; E Dowling (0-2, 0-1 free), S O’Donnell, C Moore (0-1); C O’Donnell jnr (0-2 frees), N O’Donnell (0-1 free), E McGeehin (0-1)
Subs: P McGettigan for Kealy (45), E Doherty for Deeney (48), B McIntyre for McEniff (50)
Referee: E McFeely (St Mary’s)
