Gaoth Dobhair will be the proudest GAA club in the country on Sunday afternoon as they have no fewer than nine players representing Donegal at Croke Park.

Six members of the club are part of Declan Bonner's minor squad that will play Dublin in the All-Ireland football championship semi-final, while three more are part of the senior squad.

Neil and Eamon McGee are joined by newcomer Odhran MacNiallais on the senior panel, while Ciaran Gillespie, Cian Mulligan, Michael Carroll, Niall Friel, Gavin McBride and Gary McFadden are on the minor squad.

Gaoth Dobhair minor manager Tom Beag Gillespie admitted to the Donegal Democrat that the club's decision to place a greater emphasise on their underage structure has paid off.

"We sat down, Brendan O'Baoill, Donnchadh MacNiallais and myself," said Gillespie. "Brendan is the Bord na nOg chairman and Donnchadh brought a great background as a PE teacher. We wanted to help lay the foundations at the club.

"It started basically at under-8 and we trained up coaches and got them involved in the schools. A lot of coaches put in a lot of hard work and every one of them brought something unique and worthwhile.

"They bought into what we were trying to do. So too did the children and their parents, who we couldn't have done without."

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