Donegal may be poised to name Rory Gallagher as their new football manager but their club championship is facing into another round of uncertainty.
The county board is now set to meet this weekend to officially ratify the replacement for Jim McGuinness, with Gallagher, as expected, their preferred candidate. Gallagher worked as assistant manager with McGuinness up until the end of 2013, and was seen as his right-hand man when they won the All-Ireland in 2012.
Likely successor
Although Gallagher stepped away from Donegal for this year, once McGuinness announced his decision earlier this month to step down after four years in charge then Gallagher immediately emerged as the most likely successor. Indeed the Fermanagh native, now resident in Killybegs, soon declared his interest, and was then nominated for the position by Kilcar, the Donegal club he also managed this season.
Although there were three other nominations (Paddy Carr, Cathal Corey and Anthony Harkin), Gallagher was always likely to get the nod. Other early contenders, including Donegal minor manager Declan Bonner and Damien Diver, one of McGuinness' selectors this season, opted out ahead of the application deadline.
There is still some uncertainty over exactly why Gallagher split with McGuinness at the end of 2013, although the fact he would still be well known by the Donegal players would help bring some continuity, especially as Donegal face into a very testing Ulster championship in 2015, with Tyrone first up then Armagh awaiting the winners.
There is, however, still real uncertainly about when the Donegal club championship will be finished, after the Donegal Competitions Control Committee (CCC) met last night to consider an appeal over the result of last Sunday's county semi-final, where defending champions Glenswilly proved narrow winners over the Glenties club Naomh Conaill.
Glenswilly were then scheduled to play St Eunan’s in the county final in Ballybofey on Sunday, only for the Donegal CCC to be landed with the appeal from Naomh Conaill, demanding their semi-final be replayed and re-fixed for this Sunday, instead.
Although Naomh Conaill narrowly lost out to Glenswilly, 0-10 to 0-8, their appeal was based on the fact Glenswilly finished with a man on the field who in fact shouldn’t have been there.
The problem, it later emerged, was that match referee Jimmy White gave Glenswilly's Ciarán Bonner a yellow card earlier the game. Later, Bonner was given a black card, with Oisín Crawford, who replaced him, going on to score the winning point.
No replacement
However, under the GAA’s rules on black cards, introduced earlier this year, Bonner should have been given a red card (the penalty for being given a yellow card, followed by a black card), and no replacement should have been allowed.
The error was reportedly acknowledged in the referee’s report, prompting Naomh Conaill’s appeal, and leaving the Donegal CCC with no option but to consider it.
By the time Bonner was black-carded, Glenswilly were already down to 14 men, as captain Caolan Kelly had been given a straight red for a foul on Stephen Molloy. Kelly, however, will be able to play in any re-fixture.
It now seems likely that the county final will be played on Saturday week, November 8th, the day before the Donegal champions are due to play the Fermanagh champions in the first round of the Ulster club championship. But any further draws or replays and the Donegal champions will almost certainly miss their date in the provincial competition.
There is already a precedent for ordering a replay in such circumstances, with an incident in a Munster Colleges match last January: Kerry's Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne were ordered to replay their match with Cork's Coláiste Chríost Rí, after a similar refereeing error were the player black-carded should in fact have been sent off.
This further complicates matters for Glenswilly and Ireland International Rules captain Michael Murphy, who has already conceded he could be in danger of missing some or all of next month's series in Australia should his Donegal club commitments extend into the Ulster championship.
Should Glenswilly win the semi-final re-fixture, then the re-fixed county final, Murphy would find himself straight into the Ulster quarter-final on Sunday week. Another Glenswilly victory there would mean an Ulster semi-final date on November 16th: by then, the Irish squad would be in Australia, departing on November 12th, with an important warm-up game scheduled for November 16th in Melbourne, against the semi-pro Victorian Football League selection.
Increasing speculation
Meanwhile, there is increasing speculation that Cork dual player
Aidan Walsh
is now poised to commit to hurling only for 2015. Walsh spoke earlier this week about being still torn between playing either football or hurling with Cork next season, having already decided to end to his dual status at senior intercounty level.
Walsh tried to play both codes this season, having previously concentrated on football only. He hasn’t yet made his preference known to the respective Cork managers, and despite some expectation that he would commit to Brian Cuthbert’s football panel for 2015, it now seems he will commit to hurling, and manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy.
Two of Cork's dual players, Eoin Cadogan and Damien Cahalane, haven't yet made their intentions clear for 2015, although both are also likely to commit to one code only.
