Kilcar U21 manager John McNulty is disillusioned at the direction club football in Donegal is heading.

McNulty claimed clubs are being 'punished' for developing players of inter-county standard after his side were forced to line out without county minor panellists Brian O'Donnell, Daniel Lyons and Gary Molloy in their Donegal U21FC loss to Buncrana on Thursday night.

None of the county minors featured in the round of U21 championship games because of Donegal's involvement in next Saturday's All-Ireland MFC quarter-final against Cork.

"The loss of the boys was massive for us," a frustrated McNulty told Donegal Sport Hub.

"We tried to get some sense to the thing. We sent an email and I spoke to a member of the CCC myself, but there was no changing. It's annoying to lose in the championship this way.

"It would make you so annoyed the way club football is going. The ordinary GAA person is going to be lost very soon if it stays like this. My burning thing is that this is the death of club football and the relevant people are ignoring the issue rather than attempting to address it."

He added: "You're basically raising players now to not play for you.You're punished for having and for developing a good player who is county standard.

"It's not only that, but there are players here in Donegal who have hardly played a game of football in a couple of months.

"This isn't sitting well with club people. If you look now and managing a club team, why would you bother? Club football is getting very dark in Donegal.

"There is a question of fairness here for every club. This isn't about Kilcar or about us losing; it's about fairness, about what's right and about the state of club football in Donegal."

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