The 2018 Donegal Senior Football Championship was the 96th official edition of

Donegal GAA The Donegal County Board () or Donegal GAA is one of 32 county boards of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in Ireland, and is responsible for the administration of Gaelic games in County Donegal. The County Board is responsible for prepari ...

's premier

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

tournament for senior graded clubs in

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

. Sixteen teams competed, with the winner representing Donegal in the

Ulster Senior Club Football Championship The Ulster Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football tournament organised by Ulster GAA. It is played between the Senior championship winners from each of the nine counties of Ulster. The competition was first held in 1968 an ...

. The championship began with four groups of four, and continued with a knock-out format. The draws were made on 24 March 2018. The defending champion was Cill Chartha, which defeated Naomh Conaill by a scoreline of 0–7 to 0–4 in the 2017 final. However, the club had to play the competition without two of its county stars,

Patrick McBrearty Patrick McBrearty (born 5 August 1993) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for CLG Chill Chartha, Cill Chartha and the Donegal county football team, Donegal county team, which he has captained since 2023. He is usually selected in the full ...

and

Ryan McHugh Ryan McHugh (born 11 April 1994) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for Cill Chartha and the Donegal county team. He is the brother of Mark and the son of Martin. A former county minor, McHugh propelled himself onto the national stage in ...

. On 26 September 2018, it was announced that McHugh had accepted medical advice and would be sidelined for the remainder of the year due to

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include headache, dizziness, difficulty with thinking and concentration, sleep disturbances, a brief ...

. His injury came while playing for his club in a challenge match against Dublin champions St Vincents in Cavan in late August 2018 — he received a blow to the head during that match. Concussion had also caused McHugh to spend six weeks on the sideline following a 2018 National Football League game (against Kildare or Tyrone depending on which report you read) earlier that year. The injury meant he could take no part in the 2018 Donegal SFC (of which his club was defending champion), news which was worsened when taken in the context of the earlier loss of McHugh's club and county teammate McBrearty to a

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint, wrist joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in ...

injury. This was the year

Oisín Gallen Oisín Gallen (born 1999/2000) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for Seán Mac Cumhaills and the Donegal county team. He plays as a forward. Playing career Club 2018 was when Gallen first played for his club in the senior championship. ...

made his senior club championship debut. This was Milford's return to the senior grade following

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

in the mid-1990s, after claiming the 2017 Donegal I.F.C. title. On 21 October 2018, Gaoth Dobhair claimed its 15th S.F.C. title by defeating Naomh Conaill by a scoreline of 0–17 to 1–7 at

MacCumhaill Park MacCumhaill Park () is a GAA stadium in Ballybofey, County Donegal, Ireland. It is the home ground of the Seán MacCumhaills club and Donegal's Gaelic football and hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient ...

. Burt was relegated back to the 2019 I.F.C. after just two seasons in the top-flight, when losing its relegation final to newly promoted Milford.

Team changes

The following teams changed division since the 2017 championship season.

To S.F.C.

Promoted from 2017 Donegal I.F.C. * Milford - (I.F.C. Champions)

From S.F.C.

Relegated to 2018 Donegal I.F.C. * Naomh Muire

Format

The 2018 championship took the same format as previous championships, in which there were four groups of four clubs, with the top two clubs qualifying for the quarter-finals. The club finishing bottom in each group contested relegation play-offs to determine which team would be relegated to the 2019

Donegal Intermediate Football Championship The Donegal Intermediate Football Championship (abbreviated as Donegal IFC) is an annual football competition organised by Donegal GAA. Termon are the title holders (2024) defeating Naomh Columba in the Final. History The competition has been ...

Group stage

All 16 clubs entered the competition at this stage. The top two clubs in each group advanced to the quarter-finals, while the club that finished bottom in each group entered a relegation play-off. This year, all clubs played one home match, one away match and one match at a neutral venue.

Group A

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3

Group B

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3

Group C

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3

Group D

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3

Knock-out stage

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Relegation play-offs

Relegation semi-finals

Relegation final

Ulster Senior Club Football Championship

Gradam Shéamuis Mhic Géidigh

Odhrán Mac Niallais Odhrán Mac Niallais (born 17 August 1992) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for CLG Ghaoth Dobhair, Gaoth Dobhair and, formerly, for the Donegal county football team, Donegal county team. With two Ulster Senior Football Championships to ...

was named as the recipient of the annual Gradam Shéamuis Mhic Géidigh.

References

{{Donegal Senior Football Champions 2018

Donegal Senior Football Championship The Donegal Senior Football Championship (abbreviated as Donegal SFC) is an annual football competition organised by Donegal GAA and contested by the highest-level clubs, to determine the best team in County Donegal. Since 2016, it has been know ...

Donegal SFC Donegal Senior Football Championship