Donegal survive chaos to grab Croker win
SAME OLE STORY: Donegal supporters during the Allianz Football League Division 1 Final. Pic: Ramsey Cardy, Sportsfile
Scrap the League finals. Don’t scrap them. We’ve no interest in Division 2 silverware. Gung-ho for silverware.
Armagh and Donegal fell over themselves in contradiction during Sunday’s sleepwalking-then-sprinting Division 2 decider. Neither knew what they wanted and how much they wanted to show.
Championship, if you’ve not heard, is only around the corner.
For the first 62 minutes of proceedings, the pair presented a compelling argument to scrap the higher-tier League finals. Equally convincing, though, was the counterargument they pulled from nowhere in the closing 12 minutes.
That chaotic closing made a mockery of what came before. We went from the back of the seat to falling off the edge at the front.
From half-time to just beyond the hour mark, this Division 2 decider produced just five scores. From the 62nd minute to the fourth minute of injury-time, there were nine white flags.
Rory Grugan’s 62nd minute free was Armagh’s first score in 24 minutes. It brought an end to their seemingly never-ending series of missed chances.
League debutant Darragh McMullen was thrice off target, Stefan Campbell fluffed a goal opening, Peter McGrane saw his goal shot saved, the returning Rian O’Neill was off target from the placed ball, Andrew Murnin and Grugan both hit the post. And on and on went their third-quarter wastefulness.
There was no such second-half wastefulness at the other end. That said, there wasn’t much of anything at the other end.
Oisín Gallen, Shane O’Donnell, and his namesake Niall kicked three-in-a-row to drag Donegal 0-12 to 0-8 clear on 51 minutes. Hardly a game-deciding gap, and one they didn’t go to any great lengths to build on.
And so when Armagh and this final did a volte-face, that gap was gone in an instant.
Grugan (two frees), Conor Turbitt, Campbell, and fellow sub Oisín O’Neill produced a five-minute five-in-a-row to shove the Orchard into a scarcely believable 0-13 to 0-12 lead.
The Donegal response, when you consider such absent and wily faces as McBrearty, McHugh, McCole, Gallagher, and Ó Baoill, was character-building.
Their No.6 Caolan McGonagle pointed six seconds into injury-time for their first score in 20 minutes. Gallen subsequently returned them in front.
Oisín Conaty brought Armagh level in a game now drowning with urgency. Bringing the curtain down on a delightfully frantic final lap was Aaron Doherty, his 73rd minute winner writing the headline that Jimmy is back winning matches and finals.
Their headline contributor was Ciarán Thompson and his three from play on the outer fringes of the semi-circle. It was a wonder why Armagh never pushed out on him and others. Plentiful scores from this central flank contributed to their 0-8 to 0-7 interval lead.
They travelled a winding road to still hold this narrow advantage at the finish.
“We’d a lot of young lads on the bus today heading to Croke Park for the first time, a lot of lads getting game time for whom it would have been their first time in Croke Park as well.
“With the injury list that we had, we didn’t want to be taking any risks, we were trying to manage that, and so we’re delighted to get the result,” said McGuinness of his second Division 2 crown, his first now 13 years in the rearview mirror.
With silverware banked, Donegal have a modicum of momentum heading for their championship opener on April 20 against the other League champions from Sunday.
For Armagh, who open their championship campaign a week earlier and on the easier side of the Ulster draw against Fermanagh, this was a lost opportunity. For Kieran McGeeney, his silverware count after nine and a half seasons remains a pair of Division 3 titles.
Was the bigger and impending show on their minds arriving into Croker?
“In the GAA world, we are looking to give out about something. I still think it is good to get to Croke Park and play a final. It mightn't suit all the time. But I still think they are a good idea,” said McGeeney.
“It was a very sort of tactical game for a lot of it. No bounce until things got going. We started to look a wee bit better then.
"I would have been disappointed just with our flatness. I don't think we went at it. At the same time, I wouldn't be too hard on the players. A lot of them had a tough week.”
No point being too hard over a game that will quickly disappear from memory.
C Thompson (0-4, 0-1 free), O Gallen (0-4, 0-1 mark, 0-1 free); N O’Donnell (0-3); C McGonagle, S O’Donnell, P Mogan, A Doherty (0-1 each).
R Grugan (0-4, 0-2 frees), C Turbitt (0-4, 0-2 frees); J Óg Burns, O Conaty (0-2 each); S Campbell, O O’Neill (0-1 each).
S Patton; M Curran, C Moore, C McColgan; C McGonagle, K McGettigan, S O’Donnell; M Langan, J McGee; P Mogan, C Thompson, L McGlynn; N O’Donnell, O Gallen, A Doherty.
J Brennan for McGettigan, O Doherty for McGlynn (both HT); H McFadden for McGee (43); J Mac Ceallabhuí for McColgan (60); C Mac Aonghusa for N O’Donnell (62).
B Hughes; A Forker, P Burns, P McGrane; G McCabe, A McKay, J Óg Burns; Ciarán Mackin, B Crealey; D McMullen, R Grugan, J McElroy; C Turbitt, A Murnin, O Conaty.
S Campbell for Forker (42); R O’Neill for McElroy (48); O O’Neill for McMullan (60); J Duffy for Mackin (69).
P Faloon (Down).
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