IT mightn't have been sufficiently heart stopping to cure Joe Brolly's ennui at the frequency of the teams' meetings, but at least it was better than last year's encounter.

Yesterday's final of the Church & General National Football League also featured an impressive performance by Derry, who comfortably retained their League title by comprehensively out gunning Donegal before a crowd of 24,298 at Croke Park.

Brolly caused an absurd overreaction by his comments, after the semi final against Cork, to the general effect that another Derry Donegal final was `boring, boring'. Nonetheless, he wasn't proved entirely wrong by a game that, although pretty ill tempered at times, was maintained as a contest by the artificial life support system of a give away goal. In the end, Derry pulled away much as they pleased.

There was much pre match activity as Derry filled the two vacancies in their half forward line and Donegal re arranged their defence. Damien Barton emerged from the ranks of the injured to resume his customary position at centre forward and Eamonn Burns came in on the right wing for Derry.

Donegal moved centre back Mark Crossan back to the left corner to mark Brolly, with John Cunningham moving out to pivot the defence, while Matt Gallagher and JJ Doherty were shifted to full back and right corner respectively.

The main surprise, however, was the player who wasn't moved. Gary Coleman, exceptional at wing back on Derry's All Ireland winning side of three years ago, was named at full back. As outings by the full back line haven't provided Coleman with his happiest moments, a switch with Tony Scullion in the left corner was thought likely.

Nowhere was the switch more expected than in the ITs preview which described the selection as `comical'. As it turned out, Coleman's positioning occasioned precious little amusement for Donegal and their normally influential full forward, Tony Boyle.

Boyle looked peculiarly out of sorts and was starved of good ball to an even greater extent than usual. Whereas this shortfall is normally caused by his teammates fascination with running the laces off the ball, yesterday they seemed curiously reluctant to use him.

To be fair to Coleman, he used his assets of speed, intelligence and aggression to shut out most attempts to bring Boyle into the game. His only previous match at full back was in Chicago where he also marked Boyle - and with equal effectiveness. If this was a `horses for courses' policy, it worked very well.

Coleman has an implacable nature that served him well in the League final four years ago when he cleaned out Adrian Cush - who had gone into the match with a big reputation - so effectively that the Tyrone wing forward was still psyched out for the counties' championship meeting a fortnight later.

If this confrontation went badly for Donegal, there was better news in the performance of Manus Boyle whose tussle with Kieran McKeever was always interesting. Equipped with decent ball, the Donegal corner forward can generally run up a good score and yesterday he got the jump on McKeever sufficiently often to score three points from play, but the Derryman still played well, winning ball and tidying up.

Overall, though, Derry were on top nearly everywhere on the field. However, their half forward line was its usual unproductive self. Even allowing for the fact that they were disrupted by injuries, and that the line has never been a high scoring one, the return of one point was poor.

The full forwards fared better. Brolly didn't quite justify his advance billing, but wasn't given much ball to try. When he was supplied, he caused great difficulty for Crossan, who had to be switched, and somewhat less for Barry McGowan who was shuttled in.

Brolly took two sweetly finished points in the first half, but after the break seemed a bit carried away, and in an effort to replicate his semi final goal against Mayo was guilty of ignoring an unmarked Enda Gormley on the inside. Gormley wasn't free from the same taint of selfishness and the net effect was to deprive Derry of a substantial winning margin.

Maybe the match wasn't close enough at the time, but both corner forwards will need to display greater vision in the championship. Seamus Downey was generally well held, but slipped free for two points in the closing moments, before being substituted.

Yet again, Anthony Tohill provided the bulk of the scoring. In fact, his contribution of 1-5 neatly covered the difference between the teams. He may still be coming back to full match fitness, but his energy was impressive in the areas between the 40s. The power and accuracy of his place kicking is a huge asset to the team and he was on hand to score Derry's only goal in the 13th minute.

That goal turned the match. Up until then, Donegal had much of the game and were moving the ball swiftly and effectively from defence through midfield. The finish wasn't a great deal better than usual, but it did look like being one of their better days.

Brian Roper was even giving Tony Scullion a hard time - temporarily as it turned out - and if little came directly of his efforts, the young Donegal corner forward was causing apprehension on the ball. He did set up Manus Boyle to give Donegal the lead for the only time, just two minutes before Tohill struck.

His burst into a good position was well timed and he was close enough to bury the ball, but Gary Walsh - who had an excellent afternoon in the Donegal goal - saved. Tohill was lucky with the rebound and didn't slip.

Having had so much of the match for so little reward, there was a sense that Donegal would now struggle and they did. A string of Derry points pushed them four points clear, 1-6 to 0-5.

If there had been an element of luck about Derry's goal, Donegal's reply was a jackpot. Coleman had made a brilliant interception and turned to handpass back to his goalkeeper, Jonathan Kelly. Kelly managed to slip and Noel Hegarty, who had been moved to full forward where he had been having little joy with Coleman, stole in to slide the ball to the net.

At half time, with Derry leading 1-7 to 1-5, the thought persisted that Derry would have to hand over a couple more goals to make a match of it. That was how it went, despite a spirited opening by Donegal for whom James McHugh was introduced after the break. His ability to run at the defence caused a flicker of hope for his team, but that didn't last.

James Ruane at midfield had an eye catching afternoon on Tohill and came through the test with credit. His athleticism and enthusiasm marked him as a certainty for Donegal's championship team, but yesterday he was fighting a losing battle with only Manus Boyle, among the forwards, posing a scoring threat.

One point was as near as Donegal got, and from there Gormley stepped in and with Tohill, place kicked Derry to victory. Not a single free was missed all afternoon.

Brian Mullins and his selectors will be well pleased. They have come through the League with minimal difficulty. The defence is tight and there is menace in attack. Midfield can only, get better as Tohill regains his full powers and, as mentioned, you foul their forwards at your peril.

They have yet to be tested under pressure, but the question is: who'll be able to put them under that sort of pressure?