‘You're dreaming about moments, coaching or bringing people together’

Donegal is a wash of green and gold ahead of the All-Ireland SFC final against Kerry on Sunday.

Support has been shown for the team all around the county with flags and signs hanging up at all given opportunities, such as Letterkenny’s Polestar roundabout lighting up county colours in support of the senior team. 

The Twin Towns have shown their support for the team through glowing green and gold.

There are displays of support such as Daly’s in Lifford hanging cardboard cutouts of Jim McGuinness, Oisin Gallen and Michael Murphy, while Glenties is looking as sharp as ever in the hope the manager will keep winning matches. 

A stone replica of Sam Maguire is available to see in Newtoncunningham, with county colours draped on the sides. Even Patrick the Pilgrim is gone green and gold to support Donegal's quest to win Sam Maguire!

“We're just delighted that we put in a performance that managed to put us in this position now,”  McGuinness said ahead of the final. 

“The sun's shining, we're still in the Championship and there are only two teams left. And that's where we wanted to be and hopefully now we can make it count. You're dreaming about moments or coaching or bringing people together - or tactics and you're living in that world in your mind constantly. It's all for moments like this.”

Donegal has been in three All-Ireland finals and there was a great sense of euphoria in both 1992 and 2012, following respective wins over Dublin and Mayo. 

In 2014, the team made it to the final but Kerry took the Sam Maguire home, with the overriding emotion being pride, albeit in defeat. McGuinness, once as a player and three times as a manager, is the only person to have his fingerprints on all four finals.

Win or lose, the Donegal panel will be welcomed back to the county on Monday night, with the journey expected to follow that of 2012, where the McGuinness family-owned coaches left Dublin and went through Navan, then Cavan to roll into Donegal at Pettigo.

Twenty years beforehand, and despite the best utterances of Margo in the build-up in Walking Tall in Donegal, the team didn’t cross the bridge at Lifford with the Sam Maguire Cup, but instead took it by foot over the River Drowes, having taken the train into Sligo. 

The year saw Donegal defeat Dublin 0-18 to 0-14, claiming their first All-Ireland senior title. 

The team was managed by Brian McEniff and captained by Anthony Molloy, with Manus Boyle awarded Man of the Match at the Banquet afterwards in Malahide. 

Donegal’s next appearance in a final was in 2012, when they took on Mayo and won 2-11 to 0-13. Captain Michael Murphy, who was a goalscorer along with Colm McFadden, was crowned Man of the Match at the banquet in the Burlington Hotel. 

Donegal will hold their All-Ireland final banquet on Sunday night at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Golden Lane.

McGuinness stepped aside after four years in charge after 2014, with Donegal not making it as far as an All-Ireland semi-final before his return last season. Having returned to the hotseat in late 2023, McGuinness has taken Donegal to back-to-back Ulster titles and now is eyeing the biggest prize of all again. 

Live coverage of the match will be streamed on RTÉ One at 2:15pm or BBC Two at 3pm on Sunday. The teams' banquet will also be streamed as part of RTÉ’s The Sunday Game later that evening. The team's homecoming will take place in Donegal Town at the pier car park area on Monday.

“Kerry and Dublin wake up on the first of January and if they don't win the All-Ireland, they'll be disappointed,” McGuinness added. “So that mindset is going to be difficult for our lads to overcome because that's what they're going to be facing. As soon as the ball is thrown in, they're going to be facing fellas that have been there, done that and know how to do that.”

Kerry has won 38 All-Ireland titles and lost 24 times in the final. The final takes place at the 82,300-capacity Croke Park on Sunday with the throw-in at 3:30pm.