| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Gaelic football | ||
| Position | Goalkeeper | ||
| Born | 1971 | ||
| Club(s) | |||
| Years | Club | ||
19??–200? | St Eunan's | ||
| Inter-county(ies) | |||
| Years | County | ||
1991–2004 | Donegal | ||
Tony Blake (born 1971/2) [1] is an Irish Gaelic football coach [2] and former player for St Eunan's and the Donegal county team.
He attended St Eunan's College, where he played for the school team. [3]
Donegal manager Brian McEniff called Blake onto his panel in 1991, though Blake soon departed for a career in association football. [1] He was reserve goalkeeper for Sligo Rovers when they won a treble in the League of Ireland. [2]
Blake made his championship debut for Donegal after Paul Callaghan sustained a groin injury during Donegal's championship win over Antrim in 1998. [4]
He started Mickey Moran's first game in charge of Donegal, a league win at home to Offaly in October 2000. [5]
Blake won a Railway Cup in 2000. [6]
He never won the Ulster Senior Football Championship during his career. [7] He played throughout the 2002 Ulster Senior Football Championship as Donegal advanced to the final. [8] [9] [10] [11] He also featured in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship quarter-final against Dublin. [12] It was his best campaign and he credits the assistance of former Donegal goalkeeper Gary Walsh for his part in this. [2]
He started the first game of Brian McEniff's last spell as Donegal manager, a league defeat to Galway in Tuam in February 2003. [13]
He played in the 2003 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final against Armagh. [14]
A persistent knee injury forced him to retire from inter-county football in May 2004. Donegal's manager at the time, McEniff (again), said of Blake's meeting with a surgeon: "when the test results came back it showed a lot of wear and tear behind the knee cap". Blake had worn a bandage on his knee before Donegal's 2004 Dr McKenna Cup final defeat to Tyrone. McEniff said: "I noticed it that day and it became apparent that he had a problem". Paul Durcan (who had just won a Sigerson Cup with Institute of Technology, Sligo) had been deputising for Blake in the 2004 National Football League. [1]
Since retiring, Blake has been a goalkeeping coach with Letterkenny Rovers and Naomh Colmcille. [2]
A terrible hand pass clearance from Ray Sweeney went straight to Jason Sherlock who picked off Cosgrove and he buried the ball past Tony Blake from 13 metres.