Evolution rather than revolution key to Donegal bouncing back - John Gildea

Donegal have some bathwater to dump, but John Gildea says they need to make sure that the baby stays in the tub.

The former county midfielder, teammate and clubmate of Jim McGuinness, says there are a lot of people able to now point to where Donegal got it wrong in Sunday’s 1-26 to 0-19 All-Ireland final loss to Kerry.

READ NEXT: Seven things for Donegal to ponder after All-Ireland final loss to Kerry 

But everyone is an expert with the benefit of hindsight. And Gildea says that while Donegal will need to evolve next term, there is still so much of what they brought to the table in 2025 that works.

“We’ve all been there where games just run away from you,” he said. “And you have a team like Kerry, where almost every provision they made went well for them.

“And Donegal, regardless of how they set up or whatever, they were misfiring ever so slightly on Sunday and there were individual mistakes they made that were severely punished.

“Donegal, even though they got so much wrong, weren’t a million miles away. And while there were ten points in it at the end, there were key moments where Donegal contributed to their own woes.

“We gifted Kerry some big two-pointers, and the one before half-time was particularly impacting as we’d seemed to finally find a foothold in the game.

“Sunday was bitterly disappointing, but look just how far they’ve come in such a short window. There is so much to be hopeful and optimistic about.

“That was a very experienced Kerry outfit - and by that I mean on an All-Ireland stage, their third final in four seasons.

“So Donegal need to learn from the weekend, park it, and quickly move on to 2026 as there is plenty to be excited about.”

McGuinness has shown in the past - 2012, 2014 and even 2025 - that he has the ability to park setbacks and and then go to the next level.

Subjectively, though, there are some loose ends that the management, and indeed supporters, will want tied up sooner rather than later.

There is an assumption that McGuinness will see out his third and final season of what we were told was an initial three-year term.

And there was nothing to suggest in his comments after that he was suddenly thinking of veering away from that.

But it’s what the intentions are of the likes of veterans Michael Murphy, Patrick McBrearty, and even Ryan McHugh that supporters will probably be more interested in.

Retirement announcements never land in the aftermath of a big championship defeat, and that’s the same reason the question wasn’t asked on Sunday.

Those kinds of decisions usually catch you off guard on some random October or November afternoon. 

Murphy’s previous retirement did and, recalling the likes of Neil McGee and Paddy McGrath’s checkouts, they followed a similar pattern.

“There will be some soul-searching done by some of the older players, no doubt. It’s a huge commitment and people need to understand they’ve basically sacrificed their lives for the past two years.

“So for Michael, Patrick and Ryan to come back after that disappointment, it’ll be something they’ll have to think about and decide for themselves and their families.

“Will they all be back? Who is to say. But whatever they decide to do, there is no doubt that they’ve served Donegal with absolute distinction. Michael really was a revelation this season. To come back like he did - it was just phenomenal.

“The only ones that will really know the answer to that, when they do eventually sit down, will be those lads themselves.

“But what I will say is that if they do stick around, it’ll be a huge plus for Donegal. If it goes the other way, it’s then up to others to put to use the valuable experience they’ll have gained serving beside those same boys. Time will tell, and it’ll be quite a few weeks - months even - before any of that comes to light.

“In Jim’s case, just the language he used and just knowing how much he likes a challenge - and this is another challenge now - but he didn’t strike me as someone contemplating walking away.

“He’ll already be thinking about what went wrong and how we bounce back from this.”

A lot has been made of Donegal’s zonal shape and how easily Kerry picked it apart, but Gildea says man-to-man, in that same kind of environment against that same kind of Kerry, might not have been that pretty either.

“Zonal defending, the way Donegal did it, has proved to have been successful nine out of 11 occasions in championship this season. In any other walk of life, that’s a pretty good place to be.

“It just so happened that Kerry’s path - and even though it was a difficult one - lent itself perfectly to be leading into a final against Donegal.

“Armagh and Tyrone, those sides are pretty similar to Donegal so that was akin to eight weeks of sparring, if you like, and it just left Kerry primed and zoned in on how to dismantle that zonal template.

“The other thing they did - and it was very unique - was that they engaged our zonal defence. They didn’t allow two-on-one. They made every contest a one-to-one.

“And when that happens, and you have the quality that Kerry have, they will go right for you. So even with that zone there, the likes of Dylan Geaney, the Cliffords, Gavin White, Seanie O’Shea and Joe O’Connor - the pace and directness they have - they are going to punch real holes.

“I’m not too hung up on that zonal versus man-to-man debate as who am I, or anyone else in Donegal, to question Jim McGuinness, Neil McGee and Colm Anthony McFadden.

“The only thing I’d like to see progress, with certainty, is our return on two-pointers. Because the game has evolved now to the point that a two-pointer has this galvanising effect, it’s almost like a goal in old money.

“They landed two-pointers at pivotal moments, often times when we seemed to be on the verge of getting a handle on things.

“We didn’t look like doing that at any stage of the game. So that’s something that it’s fair to say we have to look at. Now, the other side of the equation is that Ciaran Thompson was a huge loss.

“Look at the Monaghan game, when Donegal were out on their feet in the first half, Ciaran was the one stepping up to kick two huge two-pointers to keep us in the game.”

Gildea is stating the obvious when he says only one team was better than Donegal this season. But he adds, the benchmark set by Jack O’Connor’s men - especially in the knockout stages of the All-Ireland - was seriously impressive.

“Kerry went to another level in the business end of the season, we saw that against Armagh, Tyrone and then Donegal. They were just ruthless.

“So for Donegal and the other sides eying up Kerry’s scalp in 2026, they’er going to have to put in a huge effort in bridging that gap”.