Gallagher Hoping His ‘New Donegal' Can Ask A Different Type Of Question Of Tyrone

The decisive margins from Donegal’s Ulster final loss to Tyrone last year were as thin as they get.

- Frank Craig

But the reality was that particular Tir Chonaill group, and their Red Hand counterparts, were sides passing each other going in two very different directions. That Donegal, decorated but deteriorated, were rolling the dice for the very last time.

They’d earned the right to do so. But Rory Gallagher knew that for many, it was the final occasion they’d grace the Clones turf battling for the Anglo Celt Cup. Mickey Harte had been there before.

Back in 2011, Harte watched a side he’d assembled, a team that ruled Ulster and delivered three All-Ireland titles along the way, being overrun by Jim McGuinness’ upstarts from the Hills. It was the genesis of a seismic power shift inside the province.

That pendulum seemed to crash back the other direction last July when Tyrone came from behind to win their first Ulster SFC title since 2010, as late points from Peter Harte and Kieran McGeary ended not just Donegal on the day, but Donegal in that era.

Reflecting back to that boiling afternoon at St. Tiernach’s Park, Gallagher, openly and very honestly, dissects the variables and whether it was a game and an Ulster title they left behind.

He said: “Listen, every tight game you lose there are regrets. Absolutely. We as a group, over the last two years, we’d be very disappointed to have lost two Ulster finals. We’d be very disappointed going back to 2016, we were in a very strong position. Having not started the game that well, to go 0-7:0-4 up at half-time and get the first score of the second-half, we were very disappointed we didn’t push on.”