2013 Donegal Senior Football Championship

2013 Donegal Senior Football Championship

2013 Craobh Sinsear Peile Dhún na nGall
Tournament details
County	Donegal
Year	2013
Winners
Champions	Glenswilly (2nd win)
Manager	Gary McDaid
Captain	James Pat McDaid
Promotion/Relegation
Promoted team(s)	Naomh Muire
Relegated team(s)	Cloich Cheann Fhaola
←  2012 2014  →

The 2013 Donegal Senior Football Championship was the 91st official edition of the Donegal GAA's premier club Gaelic football tournament for senior graded teams in County Donegal.

Brian McEniff managed Réalt na Mara in the competition, taking over from Joe Keeney after his resignation and filling the position in his 71st year. ^[1]

Format

The old format, which involved a two-legged first round, was scrapped in favour of an opening round containing four groups of four clubs, played out as a league, and with one team relegated. ^[2] Two of the four teams in each group advanced to the quarter-finals after each have played the others once. ^[3]

Teams finishing bottom of their group played two relegation semi-finals. The losing relegation semi-final teams met in the relegation final. The losing team was relegated to the Donegal Intermediate Football Championship to be replaced either by the Intermediate Championship winning team or the team finishing seventh in the All-County League Division Two. The match schedule was released in March 2013 and matches began over the June Bank Holiday weekend. ^[4]

Donegal captain Michael Murphy begged the Donegal County Board to reconsider the scheduling of the Donegal SFC, as his team set out to defend the Sam Maguire Cup. Murphy described it as "probably not ideal from our situation", and despaired over "the hand we're dealt with" but said he would "like them to look after us in that way". ^[5] They didn't. ^[6]

Draw

The draw for the first round, made at the RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta studios in Derrybeg in February 2013, produced a "group of death", with only two from Glenwilly, St Michael's and Cill Chartha progressing to the quarter-finals. ^{[7] [8]} The 2012 finalists St Eunan's and Naomh Conaill were also placed in the same group. ^{[9] [10]}

Results

Group stage

Four Masters, St Michael's and Naomh Conaill, considered "big guns", failed to progress from their respective groups. ^[11]

	Qualifies for quarter-finals
	Play-off for relegation to Intermediate Championship

A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
St Eunan's	2	2	0	0	4–27	2–15	18	4
Malin	2	1	1	0	0–26	1–15	8	3
Naomh Conaill	2	1	1	1	2–16	2–21	-5	3
Cloich Cheann Fhaola	2	0	0	2	1–14	2–32	-21	0

B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
Seán Mac Cumhaills	0	0	0	0	0–0	0–0	0	0
Ard an Rátha	0	0	0	0	0–0	0–0	0	0
Four Masters	0	0	0	0	0–0	0–0	0	0
Glenfin	0	0	0	0	0–0	0–0	0	0

C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
Gaoth Dobhair	0	0	0	0	0–0	0–0	0	0
Na Cealla Beaga	0	0	0	0	0–0	0–0	0	0
Termon	0	0	0	0	0–0	0–0	0	0
An Clochán Liath	0	0	0	0	0–0	0–0	0	0

D

Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
Cill Chartha	2	2	0	0	1–30	3–21	+3	4
Glenswilly	2	1	0	1	5–20	0–23	+12	2
St Michael's	2	0	1	1	1–24	2–23	-2	1
Réalt na Mara	2	0	1	1	1–16	3–23	-13	1

Relegation semi-finals

	Réalt na Mara	v	Glenfin

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	Cloich Cheann Fhaola	v	An Clochán Liath

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Relegation final

		v

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Knock-out stage

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Seán Mac Cumhaills

Na Cealla Beaga

Malainn

Malainn

Na Cealla Beaga

Naomh Adhamhnáin

Na Cealla Beaga

Gaoth Dobhair

Glenswilly

Ard an Rátha

Glenswilly

Glenswilly

Ard an Rátha

Cill Chartha

Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals took place on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta on 9 July, upon the completion of the group stage. ^{[12] [13]} All four group winners from the first round were defeated at the quarter-final stage, including defending champions St Eunan's. ^[14]

	Malin	v	St Eunan's

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	Cill Chartha	v	Glenswilly

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	Seán Mac Cumhaills	v	Na Cealla Beaga

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	Ard an Rátha	v	Gaoth Dobhair

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Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals was made in Letterkenny on 15 September 2013. ^[14]

	Na Cealla Beaga	0-11 - 1-07	Malin

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	Glenswilly	1-14 - 0-16	Ard an Rátha

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Final

Ahead of the final Glenswilly player and Donegal captain Michael Murphy was named Ireland captain for the 2013 International Rules Series, creating a dilemma for the young pup and giving the Donegal County Board a headache due a fixture clash. ^{[15] [16]} The Donegal County Board ultimately decided not to move the final. ^[17] Murphy did not captain Glenswilly; this honour fell to James Pat McDaid. ^[18] Séamus Coleman attended the final. ^[19]

20 October 2013 Final	Na Cealla Beaga	2-6 - 3-19	Glenswilly	Ballybofey Referee: I Molloy (Glenties) Man of the Match: Michael Murphy
	H McFadden 1-3 (3fs), C Murrin 1-0, D Conwell, B Boyle, B Faherty 0-1 each	Report	M Murphy 1-5 (1-0 pen, 5fs), G McFadden 0-7 (5fs), C Bonner, N Gallagher 1-1 each, K McFadden 0-2, Caolan Kelly, R Crawford, D McGinley 0-1 each.

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Ulster Senior Club Football Championship

Main articles: 2013 Ulster Senior Club Football Championship and 2013–14 All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship

References

1. "McEniff to manage Bundoran seniors in Championship". Donegal News . 31 May 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
2. "New SFC format". Hogan Stand. 8 February 2013. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
3. "2013 Club Championship draw made". Donegal Now. 17 February 2013. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015.
4. "June weekend start in senior championship". Donegal Democrat. 5 March 2013. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
5. "'Put Club Championship on ice' says captain Murphy". Donegal Democrat. 24 June 2013. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
6. "Murphy's plea falls on deaf ears". Hogan Stand. 26 June 2013. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
7. "Kilcar, St. Michael's and Glenswilly in Group of Death". Donegal Democrat. 17 February 2013. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
8. "GAA – John Joe Doherty On Donegal Senior Championship Draw". Highland Radio. 18 February 2013. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
9. Walsh, Harry (18 February 2013). "St Eunan's and beaten finalists Naomh Conaill have been paired". Donegal News. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
10. "GAA: Donegal Championship draw in full". 17 February 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
11. "Donegal Senior Championship Review". Highland Radio. 1 July 2013. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015. St Eunan's, Malin, Ardara, McCumhaills, Kilcar and Glenswilly have all progressed while the big guns of St Michael's, Four Masters and Naomh Conaill are included in the sides who have failed to reach the last eight.
12. "Last eight places up for grabs". Hogan Stand. 5 July 2013. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
13. "SFC quarterfinal draw made". Hogan Stand. 12 July 2013. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
14. "Semi-final drawn in 'wide open' Championship". Donegal News. 15 September 2013. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
15. Moran, Seán (8 October 2013). "Michael Murphy must wait to see if club versus country dilemma can be resolved: Donegal county board postpone for 24 hours decision on deferring county final". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
16. Keys, Colm (4 October 2013). "Captain Michael Murphy faces club v country dilemma". Irish Independent. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
17. "Ireland captain Michael Murphy faces International Rules and Donegal final on same weekend". RTÉ. 9 October 2013. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
18. "No-one taking anything for granted in club semi-finals". Donegal Now. 5 October 2013. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2013. Glenswilly captain James Pat McDaid said he was impressed with the Ardara men and their quarter-final win over Gaoth Dobhair.
19. Fennessy, Paul (20 October 2013). "Seamus Coleman was at the Glenswilly-Killybegs game today: The Irish soccer player will have been disappointed at the outcome of this afternoon's match". TheScore.ie. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.