Speaking to national media this morning at a virtual press briefing Donegal Captain Sean McVeigh gave little away on the composition of the starting 15 for this Sunday’s Nickey Rackard All-Ireland Hurling final against Mayo in Croke Park. The squad has made light of a spate of injury problems to key players like Declan Coulter, Davin Flynn and Bernard Lafferty to power their way to the final with the added benefit of younger players getting an opportunity to bed down into a strengthening squad. It will be a wonderful occasion for some of these players to run out in Croke Park for a national final for the first time. Sean, who is looking to win a third Nickey Rackard medal pointed out that it was an injury ravaged squad that enabled him to establish himself as a regular in the inter-County team well over a decade ago.
Donegal were delighted to get promoted as Division 3A champions this year and see themselves as a Division 2 team. Mayo are already playing Division 2 hurling and will present a very stern challenge in the final. Sean noted that there were aspects of Donegal’s first outing against Longford that they were unhappy with. It will be important to put in a complete 70 minute performance against Mayo and if this is the achieved Donegal will not be too far away at the end. Surviving in Division 2 in 2021 is an important objective in tapping into the potential for hurling in the county. Strengthening of the squad by bringing in more young players is one aspect to building for the future while extending the reach of the game in Donegal is also important – Dungloe, from the west of the county played championship hurling for the first time this year while Four Masters from Donegal town in the south also played in the Junior Championship.
The game against Mayo throws-in at 1.30 and will be streamed live on TG4 Sport. The link to the stream and the programme, once it becomes available, can be found on Donegal GAA TV:
https://donegalgaa.ie/donegal-tv/
By Sinéad Breen Donegal PRO Thu 19th Nov
