Perhaps they just slept in the dressing-room?
At the height of Donegal’s might under Jim McGuinness there was much grumbling about the delays in running off the county championships, but it seems things just take a while to run their course in the north west, even when the county footballers exit the Championship at the quarter-final stage.
Maybe it has something to do with all the epic, fruitless journeys they undertake.
Curse of Donegal strikes again as club team makes three-hour round-trip for no game https://t.co/zEQfK0ipQ3 #gaa
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 13, 2016
At 6.26pm on Saturday evening, renowned hurling stronghold (38 county titles) Beart CLG won their first ever Donegal intermediate football title. As the northern evening light disappeared from O’Donnell Park in Letterkenny, they prevailed over Milford on a scoreline of 2-11 to 1-12 after extra-time.
Three points down to the Division 2 champions in the 58th minute, Beart earned a reprieve when Conor Harkin was dragged down in the box, dusted himself off and converted the equalising penalty.
Paul McHugh and Mark Coyle secured the win with points during the 20 minutes of extra-time, to make history for the club that is located near the Donegal-Derry border.
The victory was celebrated lustily in the stands
Yessss!!!! pic.twitter.com/ffJLUdJ7pk
— An Bheart (@ClgBeart) October 15, 2016
The victory was even celebrated lustily in the dressingroom
But the victory party – for the players at least – will have extended no further than some jubilant jumping up and down, a recovery drink and, if they’re lucky, an ice bath.
The 2016 Donegal intermediate football champions are due back in O’Donnell Park this afternoon for their 2pm throw-in against Bredagh of Down in the Ulster intermediate SFC.
That is just 19 1/2 hours since the full-time whistle peeped on their historic final victory. Factor in 30 minutes for trophy presentation, an hour for showering and dressingroom gallivanting, another hour for the round-trip from Letterkenny to Beart, an hour’s warm-up on Sunday afternoon and that leaves 16 hours to rest and recuperate before their provincial campaign
The pubs of Beart may have been quieter than expected last night but, with any luck, it will be a hell of a Sunday session.
We’ll keep you up to date on their progress via our GAA Twitter account.
On the latest episode of the GAA Hour, Wooly chats to new Meath boss Andy McEntee about the flawed Dublin Championship and catches up with new Clare joint manager Donal Moloney. Listen below or subscribe on iTunes.
