The semifinalists for the 2021 Michael Murphy Sports and Leisure Senior Hurling Championship, also known as the Donegal SHC, have been confirmed after six rounds of league play, with the top four progressing.
Defending champions Setanta, record champions Burt, St Eunan’s and Buncrana have been confirmed as the semifinalists of this year’s championship.
Based on their placings in the final league table, the semi-finals will see Setanta play Buncrana and Burt play St Eunans for a spot in the county final.
However, dates and times are yet to be announced for these fixtures as well as the date and time of the county final.
Setanta came into this year’s instalment of the competition having won the previous two and continued their dominant run of form with five wins from five.
The Donegal senior hurling champions dominated proceedings in the round-robin format, winning every game by double digits.
The reigning champions have been a dominant force and do not look like stopping anytime soon.
The Killygordon club also had one of the best defences in the early stages, conceding only 66 points across all five games.
On top of this, the side have only conceded one goal in the championship so far the season – the least of any team.
However, Burt did concede less points across the five games, averaging only 12 points conceded per game.
4-35 of their final 4-48 total were conceded in the first two games to fellow semi-finalists Setanta and Buncrana.
Setanta were the only side to put over 20 points past them, scoring 3-20 in a statement win over the 38-time champions.
If they want to win a first county title in three years, they will need to improve on that first.
St Eunans have shown flashes of brilliance throughout the competition but have not done it as often as they would like to.
The Letterkenny side have scored three goals on two occasions in the competitions, as much as high-scorers Setanta and Buncrana, but have failed to be consistent.
The side also scored less than ten points on two occasions and were poor defensively in the final few games in the league section strong start to the championship.
Buncrana have been consistently brilliant in attack, on the other hand, but have conceded at least two goals in four of their five games so far.
Their attack is second only to Setanta’s and they are the only other side to have scored over 100 points in their five round-robin games.
However, they are also the only semi-finalists to have conceded over 100 points too, with the rest of the top four putting 88 past them combined.
All sides are only two games away from glory but the reigning champions seem best placed to achieve county dominance in Donegal once more.
