Donegal county hurling team

The Donegal county hurling team represents Donegal in hurling and is governed by Donegal GAA, the County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the Nicky Rackard Cup and the National Hurling League (currently Division 2B, often also in Division 3A).

Donegal's home ground is MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey. The team's manager is Mickey McCann.

The team last won the Ulster Senior Championship in 1932, but has never won the All-Ireland Senior Championship or the National League.

History

Donegal has three senior and four junior Ulster hurling titles, the last senior win coming in 1932.

Donegal has a residue of pre-GAA hurling. The Burt Hibernians brought Donegal the 1906 Ulster Senior Hurling Championship, defeating Antrim by 25 points to one. Burt later played in Derry. In 1923 Donegal fielded a team of three natives augmented with Gardaí and customs officers from hurling counties to win its second Ulster SHC. When they lined out for the semi-final, wearing blue jerseys against Limerick on a cold, miserable day in Croke Park, numbers were worn by the players for the first time to help the spectators to distinguish them. The team trailed 5–4 to nil at half-time and lost 7–4 to 0–1.

Donegal was National Hurling League Division Three champion in 2001.[1]

Donegal reached the final of the 2006 Nicky Rackard Cup, only to be defeated by Derry.

The county reached the final of the 2009 Lory Meagher Cup, only to be defeated by Tyrone.

Donegal won the 2011 Lory Meagher Cup.[2]

Ray Durack was manager of the county team from January 2012 until May 2015.[3][4] He led Donegal to the 2013 Nicky Rackard Cup.[5][6][7][8][9] As Nicky Rackard winners, Donegal would have expected to compete in the 2014 Christy Ring Cup.[10] However, due to restructure of the competitions, Donegal were not promoted to the 2014 Christy Ring Cup.[11] Durack then brought the county to Division 2B of the National Hurling League in 2014 (their highest league ranking in team history).[3][12] Ardal McDermott succeeded Durack as manager, serving between 2015 and 2017 and leading the county back to Division 2B of the National Hurling League in 2017 (as Division 3A champions), after the team were relegated the previous year.[13][14]

On 25 October 2017, the county board announced Mickey McCann's appointment as senior manager on a two-year contract, with the possibility of a third year in charge also mentioned.[15][16] The county board had specifically identified him after all candidates nominated for the position were rejected as unsuitable.[17] McCann led Donegal to first competitive victories over Derry and Down in the 2018 National Hurling League.[18][19][20] The 2018 Nicky Rackard Cup followed.[21]

Relegation from 2B to 3A followed in 2019, promotion to 2B followed in 2020.

Donegal won the 2020 Nicky Rackard Cup; in doing so, the county became the first to win the competition on three occasions.[22]

Current squad

Recent players include:

Current management team
As announced on 25 October 2017:[15]

Managerial history

Players

All Stars
Nicky Rackard Cup All Star Awards
  • 2006 – Danny Cullen (Setanta), Aiden Begley (Aodh Ruadh)
  • 2007 – Ger O'Dwyer (Setanta)
  • 2008 – Mickey McCann (Burt)
  • 2012 – Ardal McDermott (Burt), Lee Henderson (Seán MacCumhaills)
  • 2013 – Christy McDermott (Burt), Danny Cullen (Setanta), Sean McVeigh (St Eunan's), Lee Henderson (Seán MacCumhaills)
  • 2014 – Justin McGee (Sean MacCumhaills), Paul Sheridan
  • 2015 – Ronan McDermott (Burt), Jamsie Donnelly (Seán MacCumhaills)
  • 2016 – Pádraig Doherty (Burt)
Lory Meagher Cup All Star Awards
  • 2009 – Jamsie Donnelly (Seán MacCumhaills)
  • 2010 – Paul O'Brien (Burt), Mark Patton (Four Masters), Ardal McDermott (Burt)
  • 2011 – Enda McDermott (Burt), Joe Boyle (Burt), Niall Campbell (Burt), Colm Breathnach (St Eunan's)

Player of the Year
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

2013 Danny Cullen[11]

Honours
All-Ireland
Provincial
League
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

References
  1. "Donegal crowned Division Three champions". RTÉ Sport. 7 July 2001.
  2. "Donegal thriller at Croke Park". Inishowen News. 9 June 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  3. "GAA: Donegal on the look out for a new hurling manager". 28 May 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  4. "Durack ready for action". Hogan Stand. 22 February 2013. Retrieved 22 February 2013. According to manager Ray Durack, the squad has put in a huge effort so far this year in a bid to make up for last year's shortcomings.
  5. "Donegal 3-20 Roscommon 3-16". RTÉ Sport. 8 June 2013. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2013. Sean McVeigh edged Donegal in front with a 29th-minute goal, but Fallon netted a free to give the Rossies a 2-10 to 1-10 interval lead.
  6. "Donegal win Nicky Rackard Cup". Irish Examiner. 8 June 2013. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  7. "Donegal hurlers win the Nicky Rackard cup". Donegal Now. 8 June 2013. Archived from the original on 4 May 2014. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  8. "Nicky Rackard Cup final: to Donegal the spoils". Hogan Stand. 8 June 2013. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  9. "Donegal win Nicky Rackard Cup despite sending-off". BreakingNews.ie. 8 June 2013. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  10. "Durack ready for Ring assault". Hogan Stand. 14 June 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  11. McNulty, Chris (22 December 2013). "Durack aiming for more success as hurlers honoured". Donegal News. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
  12. "High praise for Durack". Hogan Stand. 18 April 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
  13. McNulty, Chris (5 July 2017). "Ardal McDermott steps down as Donegal hurling boss". Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  14. https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/hurling/davin-flynn-hits-2-8-as-donegal-take-division-3a-title-35585198.html Irish Independent
  15. "Michael (Mickey) McCann appointed Senior Hurling Manager for 2018/2019". 25 October 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  16. "Mickey McCann appointed Donegal hurling manager". Irish Examiner. 25 October 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  17. McNulty, Chris (23 September 2017). "County Board to headhunt hurling boss as candidates not deemed suitable". Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  18. "Donegal make their own history: Donegal 4-17 Derry 2-9". Irish Independent. 5 February 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  19. Comack, Tom (25 February 2018). "Donegal hurlers pull off an historic first win over Down in Letterkenny". Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  20. Devlin, Michael (20 June 2018). "The Cullen family continues to deliver for Donegal hurling". Retrieved 20 June 2018. Down was one of the big games, we've never beat them before.
  21. "Donegal win the Nicky Rackard Cup for the first time since 2013". Irish Independent. 23 June 2018.
  22. "Donegal goal burst enough to secure Nicky Rackard glory". RTÉ Sport. 22 November 2020.
  23. Craig, Frank (26 January 2020). "County hurlers open at home to Armagh". Donegal News. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  24. Foley, Cliona (10 July 2009). "Donegal 'sit-in' protest over Campbell ban falls on deaf ears at Croker". Irish Independent. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
  25. "Lory Meagher Cup final: Donegal reign supreme". Hogan Stand. 4 June 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  26. "Durack ready for action". Hogan Stand. 22 February 2013. Retrieved 22 February 2013. According to manager Ray Durack, the squad has put in a huge effort so far this year in a bid to make up for last year's shortcomings.
  27. "Ardal McDermott steps down as Donegal hurling boss". 5 July 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2017. The Burt clubman and former Donegal player, who retired in 2012, took over from Ray Durack in late 2015.
  28. "Mickey McCann appointed Donegal hurling manager". Irish Examiner. 25 October 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
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