The Alternative View: Jim McGuinness and the media, a storm in a teacup

Jim McGuinness’ reaction to a particular line of questioning following Donegal’s NFL opening win over Dublin on Saturday night is garnering a lot of attention. 

‘Spikey’, ‘Bullish’, ‘fiery’; those are just some of the words used to describe the Glenties’ man’s comments when pressed on his side’s shortfalls in last July’s ten-point All-Ireland final loss to Kerry. 

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Some said after that McGuinness’ words suggested he was beyond reproach, especially when the line of questioning was coming from individuals who’d never managed or who probably couldn’t kick snow off a rope. 

Journalists, to be precise. But leaving the interview room deep in the bowls of Croke Park, I wasn’t offended. Indeed, I understood his response because it was an honest one. 

Journalists are allowed to question a manager’s methods, even one as successful as McGuinness. But he too is entitled to give his honest opinion. 

And, in the end, McGuinness’ words, like they always do, made for excellent copy. So I’m pretty sure none of the other media felt all that slighted either.

The questions fired at McGuinness after the weekend’s 1-20 to 0-20 win over the Dubs weren’t anything new. 

They had, in one form or another, already been asked of the Donegal boss in the weeks prior. 

They were asked in Cargin, Celtic Park and, after the McKenna Cup final, asked in Omagh. He probably feels he’s given looking back on all of that enough time and attention. 

We’re four games into the new campaign now, but many of the capital-based reporters were eye-to-eye with McGuinness for the first time since last July. 

With Kerry set to come to Ballyshannon this weekend, attention was always going to immediately retrain back on the events of last July. 

And McGuinness is very much unique now in the sense that he’s an intercounty manager who always gives you something meaningful and honest. 

There are no soft soundbites, sporting idioms or clichés when a microphone is in front of his face. 

I see on social media where some Donegal supporters are saying it was a mischievous line of questioning designed to get a response on the eve of that NFL Round 2 encounter with the All-Ireland champions. 

Not true either. 

Plenty of critics and pundits have pinpointed Donegal’s zonal approach against Kerry in the All-Ireland final as the almost definitive reason for both defeat and the manner of it. 

So that was the bone of contention that sparked Saturday night’s animated exchange between McGuinness and the media. 

If going back-to-back in Ulster and reaching the All-Ireland final is the baby, then coming up short by double digits in the All-Ireland final must be the bathwater. 

But McGuinness will be very careful with what he actually tosses out headed into 2026. 

In the there and then, I remember coming away from Croke Park thinking that game felt over almost as soon as it had started. 

But watching it back over Christmas, and with the benefit of hindsight, it felt a little different. 

I don’t think it’s a simple argument when it comes to zonal defence versus man-to-man and, even the sort of hybrid scenarios that are very much fluid across many championship matches. 

Sometimes, it comes down to the personnel involved, not the actual structure around how a team does or doesn’t set up. 

Do Donegal even have the personnel or calibre of defender to go man-to-man?

And to be brutally honest, Donegal made some really careless mistakes at times in the All-Ireland final. 

In possession and coming forward with the ball, Donegal’s current back six are brilliant. But without being personal here, how many of them would actually start ahead of the 2012 vintage? 

And Paudie  Clifford’s 76 possessions does sound bonkers over the course of 70 or so minutes. But digging out the actual impact that had reads as three points with a direct hand in five more. 

I’d say McGuinness can live with the other 68 touches. I understand the fuss made about not directly picking him up but if they did, they’d probably have had to cut Sean O’Shea loose. 

If Donegal had decided to assign chaperones to all three, the two Cliffords and O’Shea, then we could well be sitting after saying Gavin White had the freedom of Croke Park. 

That’s four man-marking jobs already and that might have been fine under the old rules. But under the new ones, you simply can’t do that anymore. 

Where do you actually stop with fretting about the opposition?  

Kerry would happily have pulled all four to the sides, like they did with David Clifford and left it a seven-on-seven in the middle and that would have been an even bigger massacre. 

There are so many facets to all of this, that it’s just too simplistic to, excuse the pun, zone in on Donegal’s zonal shape, whenever they employ it, as being redundant and the complete reason they came unglued against Kerry. 

To me, under the lights of the Christmas tree at home back in December, it looked like it was the concession of five two-pointers and a goal that really killed off Donegal. 

We’re also talking about a Kerry side with a generational talent, a player that may well go down as the greatest ever. David Clifford is to Gaelic football what Michael Jordan was to basketball. 

That’s no exaggeration. He’s that good. 

The first quarter of an hour was a complete disaster and it was a start they just couldn’t recover from. 

Now, they got close and managed to pull the gap back to four on a number of occasions. But again, individuals choosing the wrong options killed the opportunity to further narrow that margin.

Jason McGee’s fitness issues denied Donegal his presence around the middle from the off and it was an area McGuinness’s side just couldn’t get a foothold in. 

Hugh McFadden eventually came in, as did McGee, and Donegal finally started to break even but, at that stage, the damage was already done. 

Joe O’Connor, often outnumbered by Donegal bodies in the first 35 minutes, was still able to win primary possession and the odd time he did break it, Kerry players were the ones reacting first. That has little or nothing to do with how McGuinness set his team up. 

We’ll be the last to hear but it would be fascinating to know the exact details of the Al-Ireland debriefing McGuinness had with his squad, both individually and collectively. 

Because he’s on record, for weeks now, as saying he took the time to speak to them all on their own about the final. 

Forgetting about goals and two-pointers for a moment, Kerry only outscored Donegal by three efforts. And the green flag was raised when a gassed Donegal finally threw in the towel. 

Therefore, if McGuinness and Donegal are to tweak anything is has to be their ambition around the arc. If Donegal can plump their scoring return with more two-point efforts, it’ll make a real difference. 

Loads of stats flashed across the screen during the post-match analysis and a lot of them made for similar reading. 

But one that did jump out was the tackles count with Kerry outworking Donegal 87-61. That was surprising as I don't remember too many making that much fuss about that statistic at the time. 

But addressing the above, not registering a two-pointer and pressing and harrying Kerry much more, can any of that make the ultimate difference? 

Only time will tell. But stopping David Clifford and Kerry isn’t just Jim McGuinness’s responsibility. 

And there are no guarantees Donegal make it all the way back to the last four, never mind the final. So plenty of other teams and managements have a conundrum of sorts to look to figure out. 

The margins between Donegal, Tyrone and Armagh are wafer-thin. We’ve seen that in the recent championship clashes between Ulster’s big three. And Kerry accounted for all of those teams in a very similar fashion in 2025. 

So regardless of what McGuinness, Malachy O’Rourke or Kieran McGeeney try to do next time out should paths cross, maybe the cold, hard truth is it still won’t be good enough. 

Going back to my late-night Christmas rewatch, Donegal struck an iceberg so early I believe their best laid plans went to waste quite quickly. 

At 13-4 down, it was such a long way back. But with 11 minutes to go they were somehow back to within four. 

And had Conor O'Donnell cleared the crossbar from the edge of the D at that stage, just a single goal would have split matters.

As poor as Donegal were, and with the previous 62 or so minutes played almost completely on Kerry’s terms, the Ulster champions were still in it, albeit just about. 

So McGuinness probably would have referenced those types of points over the winter back at base in Convoy. 

So  I’d love to see Donegal get another crack at the Kingdom when it really matters in the All-Ireland series. 

I still think they, and their manager in particular, are best placed to make sure Sam Maguire doesn’t stay with Jack O’Connor’s men this season.

The conditions on Saturday night were simply horrendous and, even as they begin to improve in the league, I don’t think we’ll see too much that hints at what direction summer will take.  

So we’re going to have to sit tight and see how all that opens up. But there will be an edge to Sunday and the clash with Kerry in Fr Tierney Park - that’s unavoidable. 

And a win for Donegal would stand for something. There will be needle in Ballyshannon and I know we knocked clichés a little earlier on in this Alternative View. 

But Donegal can look to lay a marker of sorts on Sunday and if they can pick up a win, and at the same time, get under both Kerry and Jack O’Connor’s skin, it’ll plant a seed that, please god, rears its head once more at the business end of summer.

MATCH DETAILS

Dublin scorers: Con O’Callaghan 0-8, 1’45, 1tp, 1tpf, 4f; Luke Breathnach 0-6; Paddy Small, Nathan Doran and Conor Tyrrell 0-2 each. 

Donegal scorers: Michael Langan 0-6, 1tpf, 1tp, 1f; Gavin Mulreany 0-4, 2tpf; Shea Malone 1-0; Daire Ó Baoill 0-3, 1tp; Conor O’Donnell 0-2; Shane O’Donnell, Jason McGee, Caolan McGonagle, Ryan McHugh, Finnbarr Roarty 0-1 each.

Dublin: Evan Comerford, Eoin Murchan, Seán MacMahon, David Byrne, Robert Shaw, Nathan Doran, Eoin Kennedy, Ethan Dunne, Tom Lahiff, Killian McGinnis, Niall Scully, Brian Howard, Paddy Small, Con O’Callaghan, Lorcan O’Dell

Subs: Cian O’Connor, Luke Breathnach and Sean Bugler for Shaw, Lahiff and O’Dell (all ht); Conor Tyrrell for Kennedy (46), Páidí White for Dunne (58).

Donegal: Gavin Mulreany; Caolan McColgan, Brendan McCole, Finnbarr Roarty; Ryan McHugh, Caolan McGonagle, Peadar Mogan; Hugh McFadden, Jason McGee; Dáire Ó Baoill, Shane O' Donnell, Ciarán Moore; Conor O' Donnell, Michael Langan, Shea Malone.

Subs: Eoghan Ban Gallagher for McColgan (48), Turlough Carr for Ó Baoill (63); Conor McCahill for C O’Donnell (67).

Referee: Noel Mooney (Cavan).