The Alternative View: Donegal ‘ar mhuin na muice’ after winning the ‘piggery’ battle

After a week of talk about ‘piggery’ in regard to kick-outs, it would be fair to say Donegal are on the pig's back, or ‘ar mhuin na muice’, after their four-point win over Armagh in the Athletic Grounds to keep up their 100% record in Division 1 this season.

Armagh’s league woes continue with a third defeat on the bounce, having lost to Connacht pair Galway and Roscommon in previous weeks.

After the defeat to the Rossies, Kieran McGeeney was asked about winning the 50/50 ball from kickouts.

Trailing by 2-14 to 0-8 in the first half, Armagh came back against Roscommon and lost by 3-18 to 0-24, with the Ulster side getting on top of the kickouts in the second half.

‘There’s no skill in it, just pure piggery, just get in and get it’ was the assessment from the Orchard County boss.

Jim McGuinness didn’t disagree with those comments after Sunday’s 1-20 to 0-19 win, but that was where the game was to be won and lost as Donegal came out with the win.

Jason McGee was influential in that battle, as he won Man of the Match and was subsequently nominated for Player of the Week for his aerial battle supremacy.

A huge percentage of Gavin Mulreany’s kick-outs went towards the left sideline, where the former Cloughaneely man got stuck in along with Hugh McFadden, Michael Langan, and Ciarán Moore.

In a typical battle between these two sides in recent years, there looked to be no love lost on the pitch, or off it, for that matter.
Armagh’s first point of the game came through a free from Oisin O’Neill, as Conor McCahill fouled Jarly Óg Burns.

A home steward in the stands remarked, ‘an ignorant sort of foul, but one you’d expect from Donegal’, and that was before any real ferocity was added to the game.

The young Four Masters lad was in from the start and got stuck in, kicking one off his weak foot and fisting one over the bar in the second half, although he was quickly introduced to the Orange Wall in the early stages of the game.

After an early Donegal wide, Moore won the kick out, and Langan played in the Abbey Vocational School student who ran into Ben Crealey, and was soon surrounded by four Armagh men.

That’s typical of the meetings between this pair, hunting in packs being a usual method of turning over possession.

It might not have had the same tenacity as when this pair have met in the three finals they have in the past two years, but there were still handbags and rows, and Ross McQuillan certainly felt the full force of Caolán McGonagle in the first half as the Buncrana man halted the wing back in his tracks and picked up a yellow card for his troubles.

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McGuinness may have been worried about how Armagh got in for shots at goal during the game, although Mulreany was equal to any that were put under the posts, while McGonagle could only give away a penalty with three minutes to go to halt the momentum of Burns on the hunt for a goal.

Oisin Conaty’s effort was tipped onto the post by the St Naul’s goalkeeper, and it was his clubmate, Brendan McCole, who helped him keep that clean sheet as he got back on the line to deny the rebound from Conaty.

On his 100th appearance for Donegal, it seemed fitting that the 2025 All-Star recipient would be the man to save Donegal’s bacon, as he has done in recent years, being a pivotal part of that defence.

Conaty’s efforts at goal were alluded to by McGeeney after the game, as the forward had a couple of shots below the bar, while Cian McConville blasted over when a goal chance was on.

Another win for McGuinness over McGeeney

Both McCole and McGuinness mentioned that it was the biggest margin of victory between the pair in a number of meetings, specifically in McGuinness’s second tenure in charge.

Donegal did win easily in MacCumhaill Park last year during the league on Michael Murphy’s return, with Aidan Forker instantly getting sent off.

But of the league and championship meetings that McGuinness and McGeeney have met in, a draw in the Division 2 meeting was followed by a one-point win in the final that season for Donegal.

The Ulster final then went to penalties, and the decider in 2025 went to extra-time too, before a one-point win.

So it was a bit of a surprise to have kept the hosts at arm's length for long periods of the game, as they never got within two points of Donegal from the 30th minute on, as Mulreany nailed a two-point free.

Granted, Armagh were wasteful and had 25 shots in the second half, but Donegal’s pressure on the kicks did have an impact on that.

Armagh penalty woes and Mulreany saves

But even going back to the penalty, one could almost still feel confident in Mulreany being able to thwart Conaty’s effort.
Armagh’s penalty woes have been circulating for years, and they almost seem to have a curse à la Mayo and their seemingly never-ending hunt to reclaim the Sam Maguire.

The Orchard men lost out to Galway in the 2022 All-Ireland quarter-final as Stefan ‘Soupy’ Campbell and Conor Turbitt, two of their most reliable men, missed as the Tribesmen won 4-1 in the shootout.

Fast forward eleven months to the Ulster final against Derry, again they scored just one of their spot kicks, this time from four attempts as Derry went back-to-back in Ulster.

Callum Cumiskey was the only man who scored that day for them, but his woes followed in the All-Ireland quarters seven weeks later, missing their only two penalties in a 9-8 loss to Monaghan.

And then the most recent defeat and the most memorable win for Donegal fans, Jim McGuinness won the Anglo-Celt Cup in his first year back, saw Shaun Patton save from Shane McPartlan to win 6-5 in the Ulster final in 2024.

Mulreany very honestly spoke before last year’s Ulster final about how he told Patton he was jealous it was the St. Eunan’s man that got all the plaudits after that game and not himself as he watched on from the bench.

But the injury woes to Patton has allowed Mulreany to get more game time than he ever has for the Green and Gold.
And the smile was almost tattooed on his face after full-time in the Athletic Grounds as he got his own moment in the sun, albeit at a lower stakes level.

Galway and a possible league final

McGuinness mentioned that Shaun Patton isn’t expected to return any time soon, while Michael Murphy is again being wrapped in cotton wool for the away journeys, as was done last year, but is expected to come back into the panel for the visit of Galway in Ballyshannon next Sunday.

McGuinness again went back to the point of how he is using this campaign to help develop some of the younger players, and the more ‘inexperienced’ players got minutes on Sunday as McCahill started, while Turlough Carr, Shea Malone, and Paul O’Hare got decent minutes.

Domhnall Mac Giolla Bhríde also came off the bench as Moore also rolled his ankle in the second half with five minutes to go and is expected to miss out next week.

A lot has been made about whether Donegal will want to make a Division 1 final, or if they just want to secure their spot in the Division for another season and keep players' fitness up to a high level for the championship.

Even a draw with the Tribesmen would mean only three other teams outside of Donegal can still make a league final, in Mayo, Kerry, and Roscommon.

Stipulations are where it could get tricky, but Mayo still have to play the other aforementioned pair, while Roscommon host Donegal in round six.

With Donegal already on eight, they may have already sealed their spot in the final (Mayo finished top with nine points last year - although Tyrone got relegated with seven points), but another win would most likely do the trick.

Donegal haven’t made a league final since they won it in 2007 and they tend to be more than happy with consolidating their place in the top tier.

Last year, that was made very vocal as a league final for Donegal would have left just a seven-day break between the final and their Ulster preliminary quarter-final with Derry.

But, with a four-week break between the league final this year and Donegal’s home quarter-final in the Ulster Championship against Down, there is plenty of room for recovery in between the end of the league and the start of the championship.

It’s unlikely that it will be high up in Jim McGuinness’ list of priorities for 2026, with a hat-trick of Ulster titles being sought first and foremost, but it’s something that the Glenties native will now be thinking about, having got into this position with three games still to play.

With Monaghan looking well off the pace so far, they could already be relegated by the time they host Donegal in round seven in Clones.