2015 Donegal county football team season

The following is a summary of Donegal county football team's 2015 season.

Donegal county football team

2015 season
Stadium	MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey
All-Ireland SFC	Quarter-finalist
Ulster SFC	Finalist
← 2014 2016 →

The 2015 Donegal county football team season was the franchise's 111th season since the County Board's foundation in 1905. The team entered the season, having reached the 2014 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.^[1]

Personnel changes

Rory Gallagher was in his first season as the team's manager. He was ratified on 31 October 2014.^[2] In December 2014, Gary McDaid officially joined the backroom team as coach–selector.^[3]

Thirteen players were added ahead of the 2015 Dr McKenna Cup, including goalkeeper Mark Anthony McGinley, Eoin McHugh, Ciaran McGinley, Conor Parke, Eunan Doherty (Naomh Conaill) Kevin McBrearty (Four Masters) and Ryan Malley (Ard an Rátha).^[4]

Ahead of the season Rory Kavanagh announced his retirement.^[5] Mark McHugh returned.^[6]

Another veteran of the 2012 All-Ireland SFC winning campaign, Dermot Molloy, also departed, between the McKenna Cup's conclusion and League's beginning.^[7][8][9]

Michael Boyle left for Boston before the 2015 Ulster SFC semi-final and Mark Anthony McGinley, who had earlier joined the panel, was promoted to his position.^[10]

Panel

Team as per Donegal v Galway, 2015 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Qualifier, 1 August 2015

No. Player Position Club 1 Paul Durcan Goalkeeper The Four Masters 2 Paddy McGrath Right Corner Back Ard an Rátha 3 Neil McGee Full back Gaoth Dobhair 4 Eamon McGee Left Corner Back Gaoth Dobhair 5 Ryan McHugh Right half back Cill Chartha 6 Anthony Thompson Centre back Naomh Conaill 7 Frank McGlynn Left half back Glenfin 8 Neil Gallagher Midfield Glenswilly 9 Martin McElhinney Midfield St Michael's 10 Christy Toye Right half forward Naomh Mícheál 11 Odhrán Mac Niallais Centre forward Gaoth Dobhair 12 Mark McHugh Left half forward Cill Chartha 13 Patrick McBrearty Right Corner Forward Cill Chartha 14 Michael Murphy (c) Full forward Glenswilly 15 Colm McFadden Left Corner Forward St Michael's

No. Player Position Club 16 Mark Anthony McGinley Substitute St Michael's 17 Eamonn Doherty Substitute St Eunan's 18 Declan Walsh Substitute Malin 19 Martin O'Reilly Substitute Seán MacCumhaills 20 David Walsh Substitute Naomh Bríd 21 Hugh McFadden Substitute Na Cealla Beaga 22 Leo McLoone Substitute Naomh Conaill 23 Gary McFadden Substitute Glenswilly 24 Eoghan Bán Gallagher Substitute Na Cealla Beaga 25 Ciaran McGinley Substitute Cill Chartha 26 Daniel McLaughlin Substitute St Michael's

Competitions

Dr McKenna Cup

Main article: 2015 Dr McKenna Cup

The draw was made in early November 2014, with Derry, Fermanagh and Queen's Donegal's opponents in Section B of the competition.^[11]

Gallagher's first match in charge of the county was a 2015 Dr McKenna Cup away defeat to Derry.^[12]

Queen's was the second game; Dr McKenna Cup Section B up until that point ran as follows: Fermanagh 1–13 0–9 Queen's on Sunday 4 January; Derry 1–16 0–8 Donegal on Sunday 4 January; Donegal 2–16 1–8 Queen's on Sunday 11 January; Fermanagh 1–9 1–7 Derry on Sunday 11 January; Derry vs Queen's at Owenbeg on Wednesday 14 January at 19:30 GMT; Donegal vs Fermanagh at MacCumhaill Park on Wednesday 14 January at 19:30 GMT.^[13]

So Fermanagh was the third game.

National Football League Division 1

Main article: 2015 National Football League (Ireland)

Donegal advanced to the Division 1 semi-finals.

2015 Division 1 table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	D	Pts	Notes
2	Dublin	7	4	1	2	7–93	2–78	30	9	Advanced to NFL semi-finals
3	Monaghan	7	4	0	3	4-86	7–84	-7	8
4	Donegal	7	3	1	3	6–75	5–70	8	7
5	Mayo	7	3	1	3	8–79	7–79	3	7
6	Kerry	7	3	1	3	6–88	9-90	-11	7

¹Donegal, Mayo and Kerry are ranked by points difference.

Donegal	1-15 - 0-12	Derry
	Report

31 January 2015

Round 1

MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey

Referee: Marty Duffy (Sligo)

Donegal	2-10 - 0-11	Dublin
	Report

7 February 2015

Round 2

Croke Park, Dublin

Referee: Maurice Deegan (Laois)

Donegal	0-12 - 1-08	Cork
	Report

1 March 2015

Round 3

Ballyshannon

Referee: Joe McQuillan (Cavan)

Donegal	1-04 - 0-09	Monaghan
	Report

8 March 2015

Round 4

O'Donnell Park, Letterkenny

Referee: P. Hughes (Armagh)

Kerry	2-13 - 2-11	Donegal
	Report

15 March 2015

Round 5

Tralee

Attendance: 6,250

Referee: R. Hickey (Clare)

Donegal	1-13 - 0-06	Tyrone
	Report

29 March 2015

Round 6

MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey

Referee: Joe McQuillan (Cavan)

Mayo	0-12 - 1-09	Donegal
	Report

5 April 2015

Round 7

Attendance: 12,304

Referee: David Coldrick (Meath)

Cork	4-11 - 0-19	Donegal
	Report

12 April 2015

Semi-final

Croke Park, Dublin

Referee: M. Duffy (Sligo)

Ulster Senior Football Championship

Main article: 2015 Ulster Senior Football Championship

Donegal advanced to their fifth consecutive Ulster final.

	Preliminary round					Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Final
						Cavan		0-15
						Monaghan		0-16
											Monaghan		1-20
											Fermanagh		0-13
						Fermanagh		1-13
						Antrim		0-08
																Monaghan		0-11
																Donegal		0-10
						Derry		0-12
						Down		0-11
											Derry		0-10
											Donegal		1-09
						Armagh		0-08
	Donegal		1-13			Donegal		2-11
	Tyrone		1-10

Donegal	1-13 - 1-10	Tyrone
M McElhinney (1-2); M Murphy (0-3, 2 frees, 1 45); C Toye, C McFadden, P McBrearty (0-2 each); F McGlynn, K Lacey (0-1 each).	Report	S Cavanagh (0-4, 3 frees); D McCurry (1-0); C McAliskey (0-3); Justin McMahon, M Donnelly, R McNamee (0-1 each).

17 May 2015

16:00

Preliminary round

MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey

Attendance: 17,435

Referee: Joe McQuillan (Cavan)

Armagh	0-08 - 2-11	Donegal
T Kernan 0-3 (1f), J Morgan, C McKeever, E Rafferty (f), A Findon, C Rafferty all 0-1 each.	Report	M Murphy 0-5 (5fs), P McBrearty 1-1, M O'Reilly 1-0, O MacNiallais 0-2, N Gallagher, M McElhinney, N Gallagher 0-1 each.

14 June 2015

14:00

Quarter-final

Athletic Grounds, Armagh

Attendance: 18,186

Referee: David Coldrick (Meath)

Derry	0-10 - 1-09	Donegal
M Lynch 0-02, 1f, E Bradley 0-02, 2f, C O’Boyle 0-02, C McKaigue 0-01, C McFaul 0-01; N Holly 0-01, B Heron 0-01.	Report	M O’Reilly 1-00 P McBrearty, 0-02, 1f, M Murphy 0-02, C McFadden 0-02, M McElhinney 0-01; C Toye 0-01, O MacNiallais 0-01.

27 June 2015

19:00

Semi-final

St Tiernach's Park, Clones

Attendance: 19,237

Referee: Rory Hickey (Clare)

Monaghan	0-11 - 0-10	Donegal
C McManus 0-6 (4f), K O'Connell, O Duffy, K Duffy, D Mone, O Lennon 0-1 each.	Report	P McBrearty 0-6 (4f), M Murphy 0-2 (2f), K Lacey, F McGlynn 0-1 each

19 July 2015

14:00

Final

St Tiernach's Park, Clones

Attendance: 31,997

Referee: David Coldrick (Meath)

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship

Main article: 2015 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship

Donegal	3-12 – 0-11	Galway
P McBrearty 1-1, C McFadden 0-4 (1f), R McHugh 1-0, C Toye 1-0, O MacNiallais 0-3, M Murphy 0-3 (2f), L McLoone 0-1	Report	G Sice 0-5 (5f), D Cummins 0-1, T Flynn 0-1, A Varley 0-1, P Conroy 0-1, S Walsh 0-1, D Comer 0-1 (1f)

1 August

6:00 PM

Round 4B

Croke Park, Dublin

Referee: Eddie Kinsella (Laois)

Mayo	2-13 - 0-11	Donegal
Lee Keegan 1-2, Aidan O'Shea 1-0, Jason Doherty 0-3, Cillian O'Connor 0-3 (0-2f), Kevin McLoughlin 0-2, Keith Higgins 0-1, A Freeman 0-1, A Moran 0-1.	Report	Michael Murphy 0-8 (0-5f), Christy Toye 0-1, Leo McLoone 0-1, Anthony Thompson 0-1.

8 August

6:00 PM

Quarter-final

Croke Park, Dublin

Referee: David Gough (Meath)

Kit

Management team

• Manager: Rory Gallagher
• Selectors: Gary McDaid,^[3] Jack Cooney^[14]
• Strength and conditioning coach: Paul Fisher^[15]

Awards

Footballer of the Year

Frank McGlynn^[16][17]

GAA.ie Football Team of the Week

Included:

• 4 August: Ryan McHugh, Odhrán Mac Niallais, Colm McFadden^[18]

References

1. "As it happened: Donegal shock Dublin". RTÉ Sport. 31 August 2014. Archived from the original on 15 March 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2014.
2. "Rory Gallagher confirmed as new Donegal manager". Irish Independent. 31 October 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
3. Walsh, Harry (23 December 2014). "Gary McDaid joins Donegal backroom team". Donegal News. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
4. Walsh, Harry (21 December 2014). "Thirteen new faces on Gallagher's first Donegal panel". Donegal News. Archived from the original on 8 August 2015.
5. "Rory Kavanagh ends inter-county involvement". RTÉ Sport. 15 January 2015. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
6. "Mark McHugh rejoins the Donegal football squad". Irish Independent. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
7. "Dermot Molloy steps away from Donegal panel". Highland Radio. 28 January 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
8. "Forward Dermot Molloy quits Donegal panel". BBC Sport. 29 January 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
9. "Dermot Molloy quits the Donegal panel". RTÉ Sport. 30 January 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
10. Keys, Colm (11 August 2015). "Durcan's Donegal future in doubt as he plans move abroad". Irish Independent. Retrieved 11 August 2015. But Boyle opted to travel to Boston for the summer prior to the Ulster semi-final against Derry and Mark McGinley stepped up to become the reserve goalkeeper.
11. "McKenna Cup 2015: Donegal and Derry pitted in same group". Hogan Stand. 5 November 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
12. McNulty, Chris (4 January 2015). "Report: Rory Gallagher's experimental Donegal well beaten by Derry". Donegal News. Archived from the original on 7 January 2015.
13. "McKenna Cup: Wins for Donegal and Fermanagh". BBC Sport. 11 January 2015. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
14. Keys, Colm (4 January 2017). "Only six new inter-county gaelic football managers in 2017". Irish Independent. Retrieved 14 January 2017. Rory Gallagher extended his term for a further three years with the option of serving a fourth and has a new coach in former Tyrone All-Ireland U-21 winner Richard Thornton, who comes highly regarded. He replaces former Westmeath footballer Jack Cooney after two years with Gallagher.
15. Watters, Andy (15 December 2020). "A level playing field? Donegal coach Paul Fisher laments lack of resources in quest to close gap on Dublin". The Irish News. Retrieved 15 December 2020. But Paul Fisher, the man who has overseen that programme for the last six years has reluctantly decided that it is time to move on. With a gym to run, a family to support and a Masters to complete, the Letterkenny native has stepped down after playing a vital role in the successes of managers Jim McGuinness, Rory Gallagher and Declan Bonner.
16. Foley, Alan (1 December 2015). "The Donegal GAA name players of the year and various award winners for 2015". Retrieved 1 December 2015.
17. "2015 Donegal GAA Award Winners Announced". Highland Radio. 1 December 2015. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
18. "GAA.ie Football Team of the Week — Week 12". 4 August 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2015.