Getting Donegal ready for championship is the main priority - Jim McGuinness

Jim McGuinness admits that his side received the toughest draw possible as he reacted to the news that Donegal will face reigning Ulster title holders Derry in the first round of the provincial championship in 2024. 

McGuinness said Donegal would be going up against a team he described as the third best in the country. 

Speaking after watching his native Naomh Conaill easily beat Gaoth Dobhair by 1-16 to 1-8 in the Donegal SFC decider, McGuinness said: “All we know is that we are going to have to beat everybody if we want to try and win the Ulster title, that is the bottom line. 

“It certainly does focus the mind. We know where we’re at and we know where we want to get to. Derry have been the third best team in the country for the last two years and they were very close to being in the final this year. 

“We know what we are up against and it is going to be a huge challenge for us.” 

And while the weekend’s draw garnered alot of talk as McGuinness once again gets ready to pit his wits against Mickey Harte, the 2012 All-Ireland winning boss says Donegal has so much work to get through between then and right now. 

“We have players to find, a style of play to work on and we have a lot of things we need to get our head around over the next number of weeks and months. 

“We are still trawling the county and we identified a lot of players through the club championship. 

“I suppose there was a lot of criticism over the championship from the amount of games they were playing for not much gain. 

“But the good thing from my point of view was that there were a lot of games to go and see. And there is not really a player in the county that we have not had a chance to look at.” 

And McGuinness explains that he has been impressed with what he has seen. 

“We will focus on Division Two first and foremost and there are a lot of good teams in there as well and big managers too. 

“But our priority is to get a team ready for the Ulster Championship and to use the league to try and get promotion if we can and if not, get a good foundation for the next few years.” 

McGuinness has been watching Derry over the past few seasons and is impressed with what he’s seen. Making sure his squad is in rude health for the start of the new season is also a real priority. 

“We have had alot of injuries over the past number of years and that is something we will have to look at. 

“We have a lot of players who have had long-term injuries like Michael Langan, Peadar Mogan and Patrick McBrearty. 

“We have a lot of players that we have to build up and that is going to take time as well. We have some big lads but most teams have that athletic profile now and for us we have just got to find a way to bring them all together to improve.” 

Meanwhile, McGuinness was a very proud son of Glenties as he had his picture taken with his nephew Charles after Naomh Conaill’s comprehensive victory on Sunday - their seventh SFC title since 2005’s original breakthrough.  

“I was trying to explain to my own children coming up the road what it means. We spent our whole life trying to win one and now, eighteen years later, we have seven county titles and we have competed in seven county finals in a row. 

“It is fairytale stuff really for a lot of the older generation and the younger ones don’t know any different. 

“It is a fantastic achievement and I am just so proud of them all. Once we broke the ceiling in 2005 a lot of things followed like confidence, structures and everybody wanting to help and that is what the club has done. 

“And the important thing is that they have not sat back on it, they have built on it.”

And he saluted the five senior citizens of the group, Leo McLoone, Anthony Thompson, Brendan McDyer, Eoin Waide and Marty Boyle who now have seven county championship medals each. 

“The younger players who have also come in have fitted in unbelievably well so credit to Martin Regan and his management team”.