Jim McGuinness not averse to Donegal league final appearance this time out

Jim McGuinness says that if Donegal’s current form continues, he’ll be content enough if it eventually guides the side to an NFL Division 1 appearance. 

Donegal made it three wins from three on Sunday in Letterkenny as McGuinness’ men easily accounted for Mayo 1-19 to 0-14. 

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That means the current Ulster champions are the only team left in the top flight with a one hundred percent record going into Round 4. 

For McGuinness and his players, that means a trip to the Athletic Grounds next Sunday where Kieran McGeeney and Armagh lie in wait. 

“We know where we’re at, we know what we want to try and do,” McGuinness explained. 

“We know who we want to have a look at over the next couple of games. We’ll just keep working through that. If that takes us there, it takes us there”.

Donegal made a similar start to last season’s league campaign but, after accumulating six points, seemed to ease off down the stretch. 

With just a week’s respite between the 2025 league decider and an Ulster preliminary opener with Derry, McGuinness cut his cloth to suit. 

And he was quite candid and honest in his reasoning for that. This time out Donegal, if they did make the final, would still have the guts of a month to prepare for the start of the defence of their provincial crown against Down.

So McGuinness’ stance on all of that is much different this time out.  

“It's not a negative, he said on a potential final berth. “It's not a negative because we have time out the back because there's an extra weekend.

“Plus the fact we have an extra week as well in terms of we're out last in Ulster. So it's not a negative if we end up there. 

“We're just going to keep working and building to try and get everybody ready for the championship. That's the ultimate goal”.