 And it's time to talk Gillett games once again another bumper weekend of action championship wise here in the northwest and in particular in Donegal, Brendan Kilcoyne, former winners of player and manager with St. Unions left to the doctor McGuire. You're welcome to our championship preview again, Brendan. Thanks, Sasha, good to be chatting. Yeah, good to be chatting. So massive games, Brendan, on the horizon this weekend. We'll start with your club, your former club that you, of course, went to many as a final and won with St. Unions when the draw was made for the quarterfinals. We did say that this route was going to favour St. Unions a lot more maybe than the rest of the sides in the top four up against St. Michael's at the weekend, the first of the semifinals five o'clock on Saturday. Everybody, well, the bulk of the majority of the people are thinking that this is a game that St. Unions should come through on. But if Michael Langans in any sort of form like what he was last last Friday night, it could cause problem for St. Unions, Brendan. Oh, yeah, Ashene, you're spot on there. Like Michael Langan really is a top, top player, you know, exhibited by his nomination for an All-Star Award there recently. And, you know, he's the fulcrum of this St. Michael side, but there's a lot more to the St. Michael side than St. Michael or then Michael Langan. You know, I really felt very well set up defensively the last day Ashene, you know, we're covering the game and they just crowd the D with bodies and make it very difficult for teams to get in them, into them areas to get scores. And, you know, Eru has suffered as a result of that, of their defensive setup. And they're going to be hard to break down. They're very well organized. Daniel and Raymond McLaughlin have done a great job of them getting them to where they are today because it is difficult enough league. And, you know, they're moving along and taking along nicely. The few players to come back into Ashene, you look at, you know, Colin McFadden. We saw him play, we covered Kilkar, St. Michael's down in Towney last year. And Colin McFadden was a really, really good player that night, so he was. So he's to come back into the fray this weekend, so he has. And of course, if Colin Mantney, you know, if he can get over the knocks that he had, he'll obviously be a huge addition to this St. Michael's team. And also his brother Anton didn't feature last weekend, you know. So if they're at full tilt on at the weekend, they're going to pose a lot of questions for the St. Union's teams, Ashene. Yeah. Who do St. Union's put in Michael Angan? Well, you know, that's the one thing. You know, to have loads of good defenders and very good experienced defenders, you know, Caleb Mord, Eamon Doherty, Aaron Deney is a very good man, Marker. And, you know, Darren Mulgrew has done that role around the middle of the field for St. Union's previously. He may be tasked with it. And Darren has played well the last number of games for St. Union. He's a good fan of form. So they have options there. I don't know who they'll do, who will actually take it up, but they have options. And if it's not working, they can change it. But it's a huge assignment. Like, you know, we saw him kick one, three in the first half last weekend and basically put the game to bed. And, you know, it wasn't as effective in the second half, but the job had been done by Michael at that stage. So, you know, that is going to be the main, you know, question mark in this game. Can Union's curb the influence of Michael Langen? But there's plenty of good players that can have a right go at it, Ashin. Whether they're capable of stymium for the full 60 minutes remains to be seen, but they have a very experienced defense the whole way up, you know, the six defenders, two experienced midfielders. And I suppose it's up in the forward division that they may lack a bit of experience, usually quality, talented footballers up there. And, you know, it was the young lads of, you know, Kieran Tobin at the back, I thought an exceptional game last weekend for St. Union's driving forward, got a goal. And, you know, young Conor O'Donnell, really, he seemed to be the one that broke the mold from the point of view that he was prepared to take on shots from outside the box and, you know, are outside the scoring zone and he kicked a couple of great scores. And, you know, then you have Shane O'Donnell, again, very effective and really asked questions so he did of the opposition defense. So, you know, they have experienced players right up through the field, but most of them are at the back and it's whether the forwards can break down this St. Michael's defense. Now, you know, we saw Union's been very cagey in possessions at times and they're not prepared to take chances. And I just feel that they're going to have to take more chances against the St. Michael's rear guard. And, you know, we saw Conor Park in the second half, drop on the shoulder, taking his man on. There's some very pacey players that can come from the back and ask questions of this St. Michael's rear guard. But they need to be braver, I feel, than they were at the weekend, O'Sheen. Yeah, obviously, that's front-sex will be looking very much to Niall O'Donnell. He asked you, who's going to mark Michael Langan? Who's going to mark Niall O'Donnell? Who's going to try and keep him quiet from a St. Michael's point of view? Yeah, I think it'll be the collective in that respect. You know, St. Michael's seem to revert to the collective defensive unit where they get plenty of bodies back and they clog that area. So, again, that's going to be the big question that they're going to be looking to answer down the bridge this weekend through Thrain and to see who can mark them. And I'm not sure who will be tasked with that, but that would be a big assignment for them because you would have to feel that if you concurred the influence of Niall O'Donnell in the St. Union's team, you're a long way in there to stop on them really having a huge effect so they are. So, you know, I don't know who's going to do that job, but I was particularly impressed by their full backline the last day, Ashene Lean-Paul-Furley, who was flanked by Steven Dope and Jamie Hunter, and if you were Donnell driving from the half backline and, you know, they have options and they will have their homework done because I know Rami McLaughlin was involved with them for morphing through the minors in the last couple of years and he's meticulous in his preparations and, you know, they'll make sure that they have everything there. Now, you know, St. Michael's have got to this stage a number of times in the last few years and have struggled to push on from the semi-final and they'll be looking to stop that trend and they've come, you know, they've come up proper against St. Union's in big games recently, including the game down the bridge a couple of years ago where I think Union's got through and scored difference and took the last minute. Connell has done point to get them through that particular evening. And, but you look at their performance against Kinkara down Towney last year too where they were hugely impressive and very unfortunate not to come away with the results. So they have a big performance in them and, you know, they'll know that now is the time to deliver and yes, Collin Antony and Christie Toy and Martyn McElhenney who was exceptionally good for St. Michael's last weekend, you know, they have a job to do so they have and, you know, they're experienced in getting on in years but there's still a lot of craft and, you know, they seem to be in fairly good shape. And in relation to St. Union's probably going to be a bigger performance needed for the last four of them what we've seen so far in the campaign for the Cathedral Town Men. Yeah, definitely Ashene, you know, that, you know, even if you take around, you know the middle third, they put, you know Gavin Mulroney went long with a lot of his kickouts at the weekend and just St. Noel's won a huge proportion of their own kickouts and that's an area that I'm sure Rory Kavana will be looking at this week to try and tidy up and get a better return and getting that hungry baller on the middle of the field and, you know, they definitely will need to up their performance on where they have been for the last few weeks. They've been kind of just getting through games and they don't need me saying this they'll be quite aware of that themselves that they're now moving into, you know semi-final where the performances are going to have to be better than they have been here to forward from the point of view, you know, they've been leaving it late in games to try and close them out. St. Noel's, you know, when the score that goes 11 and levelling the match up maybe seven, eight minutes into the second half at the weekend, you know that type of performance won't get them over the line against this resolute and experienced St. Michael's team, Ashene. Yeah, right. Okay, we wait to see what happens in the first one. What about the second one, Brendan? A big statement last week by Neve Connell heading into another huge clash against Colquillard. Yeah, huge game this sort of, you know and in light of the, you know the 2020 final following on from that and the after the repercussions of the objections and that, you know, this is a massive game for both clubs, two best clubs in the county and have proven that over the last couple of years, Ashene, you know, and I was over at the Kilt Car our drag game on Saturday night and I left that thinking Kilt Car in great place here to play superb football and they looked really tuned in and it's going to take a huge performance to beat them. And then, you know, we saw Neve Connell against Ghidor when they put in what I feel was a performance of the ages to totally wipe out the Ghidor challenge on Sunday. I just thought they were superb. So, you know, this is a huge game, very 50-50. There's never anything between these two teams. You go back to the county final, you know and I suppose the one thing from a Kilt Car point of view the same to just my memory of that game the same to spend a lot of that game chasing down leads where Neve Connell got the goal and they showed great character to come back each time that they went behind but you can't, you expend a lot of energy chasing down the lead. And I felt that was the case with Kilt Car in the final that, you know, Neve Connell controlled a lot of the game and got the scores that left Kilt Car chasing but listen, huge, huge game and I'm sure all patrons in Gales and the county would be really looking forward to this with much anticipation to the weekend. Yeah, you said about it was a performance of the ages from Neve Connell but how much a factor was Ghidor's performance and making it look like a performance of the ages, Brandon, if you know what I mean because Ghidor weren't at the races whatsoever last summer. No, they weren't and I think you can only, you know, attribute that to the power of Neve Connell's performance all over the field like that, you know, they epitomize the word team machine in that every player is a fighting cove on this machine from cornerback to corner forward when they're having the ball, you're a defender when they have the ball, you're a null and all out attacker kind of thing. And, you know, that's reflected in the fact that, you know, they've got two scores, you know, they've got both their cornerbacks, Kevin McGuette again, Nelson Dardi, both sauntering up the field to kick fabulous scores for them. And, you know, they have so much ability around the field and interestingly, I was looking at the program before the game last Sunday, like a journey to Gales is probably the only out and out forward that they named on the team. Listen, Karen Thompson, you know, obviously is a top scorer in that a lot of the players that they had named and can play and the game now has got so that players numbers are basically a number in your back. But their work rate was just unbelievable. I watched Charlie McGinnis and he chased up and down the field on numerous occasions to play his part in their defensive rear guard. And just as quick as they turned the ball over, he was chasing back up to get to the edge of the square. And then with the power of runners that they had and the Doherty's, you know, Ewan and Nelson, Kevin McGinnigan, Ethan O'Donnell, these guys coming from the back, like they're a formidable outfit, so they are actually. Yeah. And will Kilkar be happy that everyone's sort of talking about Neve Connell this week, Brendan, off the back of that performance and the statement that they made. Is that going to suit Kilkar? I don't really think so because everyone was talking about Kilkar this Saturday evening until Neve Connell put in the big performance on Sunday. So, you know, but I don't think that'll be a huge factor. These teams know each other really well. They've played each other, you know, in high level competition games over the last number of years. So I don't see that, you know, that they've passed much heat on that side of things, Ashing. And I just see this as a hugely 50-50 game. You know, I don't think these games go to a replay or extra time or penalties. So I think it's a replay. And like, he definitely wouldn't be ruling out this one going to a replay. And I don't think the animal complainant because, you know, there's some, there's such quality of players on both sides. And, you know, we spoke a little bit about Neve Connell. Like, you just look at the quality that exudes throughout this Kilkar team. And the relocation of Owen McHugh at fullback has worked a treat. Andrew McLean is kind of slotted in at center back. And they give huge pace to the center of that Kilkar defense. And particularly in the transition when the turn ball over, they can really hurt teams. And Brendan, not forgetting about Ryan McHugh as well, have moved him further up the pitch into the half-forward line this year. Yes, Ashing. And it's kind of, he's added a real bit of punch to their forward line. So he has by playing in a more advanced position. And, you know, we know how good a footballer Ryan is. And he's been superb for Dunny Gull, anti-Kar down the years. But he seems to be enjoying the new lease of life that he's getting up in the forwards after playing a lot of his football, kind of in the half-back line for Dunny Gull, for both Dunny Gull and Kilkar. So he is another threat that teams are going to have to cope with. And that's something that Dave Connell, you know, you can have so many good markers on your team. And the more players or the more threats you have in that area, and what Stephen McCrearty's returned to form. And I'm not sure about the availability of Mark Matthew McLean. We saw how superb he was in that second half against St. Juniors out in O'Donnell Park in the first round game. So, you know, he definitely will add another bit of bump to their forward line. And also, I think what was positive from a Kilkar point of view was the return of Brian O'Donnell, who's been out for, you know, he's been out for the guts of 12 months or over 12 months now with an injury. And he came on as a sub the last day, so he did. So he'll be another sort of tool in the artillery that they'll be welcome to have back, Ashene. Yeah. And listen, there's going to be a lot of fire in the belly of these two sides as they go into the game as there always is. But what's the added factor on here and how big an impact is there going to be of all the stuff that went on after the CoD final away from the pitch, Brent? It's bound to have a factor in the scheme, isn't it? Listen, Ashene, I suppose from, there's no doubt about it. Board camps will use it as motivation, I suppose, you know, on the lead up to the match at the weekend. But ultimately, it's about going out in the pitch and performing and doing the business and channeling that energy correctly and not getting overhyped about something like that. Yes, it's something that the lads themselves will discuss and Nate Connell will feel aggrieved, Kilkar will feel aggrieved and both of them may use that as added motivation. But once the ball is thrown in, I'm not sure if it really will have an impact because both these teams are so evenly matched that, you know, if both teams are going to be hyped up about it, it's just going to cancel each other out. But they do need to power up that basically when they get out in the pitch because, you know, haven't then, you know, you need to concentrate on the game in hand, Ashene. The game in hand is a massive game between two of the best sides in Donegal. And, you know, they don't need that extra motivation. There's a county final at stake. They have Connell going for three in a row. Kilkar, I suppose, you know, a vengeance defeat ultimately in the 2020 county finals. So both of them have enough incentive and reasons to win this game without using that. But listen, it's something that we talk about and I'm sure in the camps they'll talk about themselves, but come through in time. I'm not sure it'll have that much of an effect, Ashene. Are you going to commit at all to who's going to win this one? It's really as difficult. Like, I've gone with Naive Connell on these games from the point of view that they know they win these games that are down to the wire and they have a great knack of just grinding out the results when it's in the melting pot going down the final stretch. So if I was pushed, I would probably go on Naive Connell. But like, it's a toss of a coin. I know a huge, huge reason other than the one I've given you there in that, Ashene. Yeah, as we know, there's two Donegal senior championship relegations, semi-finals as well. Kelly Beggs against Glen Funnin for Masters against Termin, with Bundorn and Glen Swilly, respectively, awaiting the losers in the semi-finals of those two matches. But we're going up over into the intermediate, Brendan, where there's, of course, two huge semi-finals as well. The first of those is done low against Naive Colomba, seen in one of the local papers this week. I think it was the Democrat that was a piece from way back in the 90s, where it was a senior championship semi-final. These two clubs are now meeting in an intermediate championship final. And probably the two form sites in fairness in the intermediate championship this year, Brendan? Yeah, well, I think to be fair, the four best sites have got to the semi-finals in the intermediate. And, you know, Naive Colomba definitely have been the form site the whole way through the championship, you know, spearheaded by that man, Aaron Darvey, again, he scored eight points last week, three from Frieze. But there's more than Aaron Darvey, from what I understand to this team, you know, you're Brian Gillespie kicked four points, Chris Byrne kicked two points, and Landy Malloy kicked two points. And also, they're driven on by, you know, the Paci, Eric Carrick at centre-half back and the experienced Michael McGuire. So, you know, they're a team that have played at this level and they've nearly got to the final over the last couple of years and haven't thrown up a nine-point lead to St. Naus in 2019 to lose. And I think it was a six-point lead to Eru with Bally Shannon, both eventual winners in the previous two semi-finals. I'm sure they were hugely motivated to, you know, to get over this semi-final and to take that monthly off their back. They obviously have a lot of quality throughout their team and, you know, they've come through the tougher side of the draw to Ashin. And then you look at Don Lowe, who have played senior for the last number of years and the same revitalised after going through a tough time in the senior ranks down an intermediate. And, you know, they've a good mixture of youth in that team too. And, you know, if the current brothers at the back and Ashin Bonner, Dara Gallagher, Barney Kern doing the majority of the scoring for them last week. So, Don Lowe, they've a good, strong physical side around the middle third too. So, you know, you would feel at this level, that Naive Colomba have more experience of playing Don Lowe. I know they have struggled at senior level, but they've got a new lease of life now in intermediate and there's a great buzz down around Don Lowe about their progression in the intermediate championship, which you just feel that Naive Colomba will really, really be pushing hard for this. And, you know, with their form and the fact that they've come through the tougher side of the draw, you would have to fancy that they will just have probably too much and just about get over Don Lowe on that game, Ashin. Yeah, what about Kloughane Lea against Bonkrana Kloughane Lea, the side which has won an intermediate final in recent years, Brendan, and it's starting to annoy the men from down in Fulcara. But they've got a tough game on Sunday evening and Ballet Buffet against the English home boys. They have indeed and, you know, they've been beaten in the last two intermediate finals, you know, they've suffered that heartbreak and like I know myself, I was involved with Junans back in the mid-noughties and we lost two senior finals in a row and it's hard to take, like it's hard to keep bouncing back, but to be fair to them, they're back in the semi-final again. Unfortunately for them though, they seem to have picked up a lot of injuries to key players and, you know, the likes of Kevin Mulhern, I think is out, Shane Kern, John Fitzgerald, who will be their kind of talismatic forward as such, Darren McGeaver, who player on the middle of the field and Darren Furry and, you know, that's a lengthy injury list for any Klough, but, you know, for an intermediate Klough going into a semi-final, it's a big hit. Now, I have kind of, you know, the Paul Sweeney has knocked in with the scores as Young Blake McGarby, who's involved in the county minor squad a couple of years ago and Jason McGee obviously in the middle of the park, so they're gonna need a huge game from the likes of Jason and Connor Coyle, Mark Harley and coming through from the back kind of thing, but they have great experience again at this level, but I just, you know, them injuries are, it's a big long injury list, so it is, and they do very well to get over a bunkrani side that seem to be just going through the gears. There's a lot of quality in the side bunkrani, like, you know, Big John Campbell, you know, playing full forward, scored 1-3 last week, Ashing Hagerty, Jigger, then you pick Keelan McGonigal in the middle of the field, and again, they have two of the minor squad from two years ago, Sean Dopp and Ashing Crawford as defenders kind of thing, two good lads that work with them, so, you know, I know Clough and Ealy have been strong favorites going into this one, but if they can't get a couple of them injured lads back on the field, you know, might just tilt it in bunkrani's favor, you know, Peter McLaughlin in the middle of the field, too, for bunkrani, Bruce Waldron at full back, so, you know, they have a good mixture of experience in youth in this bunkrani team, and if they can up their game another level again, going into it, they'll fancy their chances against Clough and Ealy, but it really is a difficult one to call again kind of thing, Ashing. Yeah, okay, listen, away from that, there's an event happening, as we know in Croke Park, Brendan Kong, Special Congress taking place. It's all about proposal A and proposal B. The country sort of divided on it, but indications are that it looks like proposal B could be brought over the line with a bit of tweaking, a bit of clarity is still required over the next couple of days ahead of Saturday. What's Brendan Kilcoins thinking on it? Would you agree with either proposal or would you be just quite happy to go along with how the championship's been played at the moment? I suppose I'm a bit of a traditionalist in that respect, Ashing, and I haven't played with Sligo for over 10 years. The dream for me was always to win a kind of championship. Now, we came up short in 1997, we all beat us by a point that year, but that was the dream for me, and I just, I don't know, proposal B, which seems to be the agenda of proposal B seems to be pushed hard from the top, and I'm just not as convinced as a lot of people on it, Ashing, from the point of view, how devalued are the provincial championships going to be? We look at the Ulster Championship and the excitement and that generates every year, and you've probably four or five teams going into it into the 21 championship that feel they have a right good chance of winning it. And that's gonna take away a lot of the allure of that championship sort of is. And proposal B, it will afford more games to teams through the summer and through the key period. But how attractive is it for a footballer from Leedsrom or for Manna to win the Tatchel Cup or Sligo as opposed to going on and having a realistic opportunity of winning a provincial championship? We saw for Manna getting to the Ulster final a couple of years, okay, we all blew them away in a day, but that dream of winning a provincial championship, I think is gonna be lost under this proposal B, and I do appreciate that there are issues and these are predominantly in the Leinster Championship or Dublin have dominated. But in any sport, you look at any sport throughout the world and you look at soccer in Europe, you look at American football, you look at all these different sports and there are teams that dominate for a period of time. And that domination ends as a phase that it goes through and I don't need, I just think that there's a lot of thinking with both the rules of the game and the structures of the game. And I don't know if it's usually necessary. I think if heads were to come together that a better scenario could come up with Ashin. Yeah, well, they've knocked a few heads together, right, Brenda, and the so-called experts have come up with proposal A and proposal B. But will any of these benefit Donegal, do you think? Aside from talking about maybe, and so disrespect to the likes of Slago, the likes of Leitrim who are seen as weaker counties, is it in any way gonna benefit Donegal? Well, it does afford Donegal the opportunity of seven competitive games as it's in the summer, Ashin, and that definitely is, you know, that is a plus. You can see the advantage in that. And does it benefit them from the point of view that where is the Ulster Championship gonna stand in all this? Is it gonna be basically addressed up McKenna Cup in the springtime? That's not gonna generate the same excitement or the same revado that any man can go, any Donegal man and, you know, Donegal have been successful in the Ulster Championship of Leit can say I have five Ulster Championship medals or, you know, where is the allure of that gonna go as opposed to saying what value will be on an Ulster Championship would be my question after it, Ashin, and listen, I don't have the answers here, Ashin. I'm just not sure that the question in relation is proposal B, the right scenario going forward. I don't think so, as I don't think proposal A will work either because that involves moving counties around kind of thing, you know, so. I don't have the answers, Ashin, but I just don't like, I'm just not fully sold on proposal B. Yeah, well, there's a lot of people like yourself, Brendan, that don't have the answer. We'd like to hear the answers or get a more clear picture before they give the answer, but we'll find out more on that at the weekend. Listen, Brendan, thanks for joining us as always and enjoy the football the next couple of days. Thanks, Ashin.