 So, time to talk Gehle Games as we look ahead to the Ulster Under 20 Football Championship for Donegal, which starts this coming Friday night. Gary Duffey, Donegal Under 20 Manager joins me to look ahead to the opening. Hi, Gary, how are you doing? You're welcome to Highland once again. Thank you, Yashin. I suppose, Gary, first of all, you were appointed back in March and I spoke to you then and you were very excited to be getting back into the thick of things and in particular working with people of the caliber of Eamon McGee and Leo McLoone. How's that work partnership been going for you over the last couple of weeks? Did you guys all prepare for a huge game on Friday? Yes, it's been going well so far. You know, two boys bringing a lot of intensity to the set up. They know what to do and equally they know not what to do. And it's important to have that and have the quality of the two lads with us is really raised the bar for us as we prepare for our championship. Yeah, squad wise, what's the preparation been like for you? Because I'm sure over the last couple of weeks, you really turned the heat up on it, Gary? We've turned the heat up on it somewhat. Oshin, to be honest with you, there are a lot of there are club football and the boys are available to their clubs for the first couple of games and we're dealing with a lot of soft tissue injuries and stuff for the last week. So we just trying to get that balance right was was proven to be a challenge. But look, they're coming back, they're coming back thick and fast. And hopefully we'll be in a good place come Friday night. Yeah, so how are you fixed in squad wise? Obviously, you have a few then with Knox, Gary? Yeah, look, we've lost a couple of players that's really about Keelan Gallard, a big loss to us over the course. He picked up picked up an injury, Sean Kern as well. And Jack Gillespie, the lads have picked up Knox and are going really well with training and it's unfortunate for them that maybe Jack could be ready for Friday night, but that's going to be assessed tomorrow. But with Keelan and Sean, they're ruled out for the weekend. Yeah. And in relation to your actual squad, you've course from minor manager a couple of years ago, Gary, how's things changed since then and how's things evolved? And how many of that team do you actually have this time around in 20s? Oh, look, some have come and some have gone as well. And there's a backup from the minor 2019 team. So between they're trying to find the balance between the 2018 team and 2019 team. So there's there's a good mix there. Is it a good blender? Lazar shown good character for it. Lads has really stepped up a lot of people, a lot of players have developed a lot over the last couple of years, which is great to see, especially the times that we're in it. And it's very easy to just put the feet up over the pandemic. But a lot of lads did respond and had their eye on the common of always under 20s that hopefully would lead the way to their senior pathway. Yeah, because there's a new route, not so much a new route, but Dunnigol have taken charge of the route now. So they have with Carl Lacey and Aaron Kiles in charge of the Academy. And it's all about getting the conveyor belt now, Gary, getting the conveyor belt running properly, I suppose more. Yeah, look, it's very much welcomed. And we bought into it in our management team. And Carl knows what it's like. He's seen the gaps in the years with maybe underage teams. And we're just trying to close that gap and get that conveyor belt going. So we well bought into it. And the understanding of that has to be at the front so that we can produce players for senior team in the next couple of years. Yeah, Rory O'Donnell's name is your captain. Jimmy Grant is vice captain. Did you have much trouble in trying to select your man to lead the side? Or was it an easy enough choice for you, Gary? Oh, look, there's a number of leaders in every change of room. And just Rory just maybe stood out in Jamie, look, they're vocal. They're good lads. They really showed show leadership on the training field. We didn't rush into the decision. We watched them. We monitored it over a number of weeks and those two stood out and we're delighted that they said that the challenge of leading Donagall 120s this year. Yeah, a couple of challenge games, Gary, as well, for you that you've under your belt. Listen, you don't read too much in the results of challenge games. You look at the performance and players and particular certain players and see how they're developing. Did you get much out of those games? Were you happy with what you had out of those games, Gary? Yeah, look, we're always trying to find areas that last to sit under positions and use the challenge game for that. Challenge games are good. Don't get me wrong, but competitive football is where you learn far more and we didn't get a league this year. So these challenge games was an express thing and to find out what pairs can settle into positions. And we've seen one or two that did step up in them challenge games that may be able to do a job for us. Come championship. Is there more pressure than on you guys as a management team given the circumstance that you don't have a leg and you've got a very, very short period of time to try and get this team clicking properly, Gary? Yeah, look, come here, pressure is for tires. We honestly, we want to develop these players. This is what we're about, where development squad a conveyor belt for the senior team and getting the balance right is what we're really putting all efforts into. Of course, we want to go out in one. I'm not here to say we're not, but the main thing is we keep things moving in the right direction for Dunnegal football. Yeah, well, you're playing our man Friday night. What do you know about the opposition at this stage, Gary? Because get into these sort of championships now and the current climate that they're in, it's a bit of an unknown so there. Yeah, look at and equally for our ma as well, because they're no league football, like I said earlier, it's very hard to know player develop like Dunnegal did and players maybe don't make a panel that was there in minor teams. We met each other at minor level two years ago. We in Balboffay, they're a lot of good players from that our ma brings physicality, which you always do. And it's also football. And we know what also football is like as competitive of any one of five, six teams can one and our ma can be no different in in that many given year. Yeah, nice card at the end of it. Trapped to Haley Park to play it's her own. Gary, we're not even considering that at the minute. We're just fully focused on Friday night. Does she just maybe in the style of football of the modern day football? We've seen high scoring games at senior level. Gary, is it something that we can look forward to possibly at at under 20 level as well? I look with the Dunnegal. We Dunnegal is a lot of criticism in the past, maybe from 10 years ago and stuff. Dunnegal teams, particularly under the age, always have been scoring high. They always try to play, expand some football and we're no different. Well, we'll look forward then to some good football that's coming Friday night. The best looking star, my Gary. Thanks for talking to us. Thank you, Yashin.