Risk reaps reward but a balance has to be struck - Jim McGuinness 

Jim McGuinness says he’s encouraging his side to be ‘’aggressive’ as Donegal continue to hone their approach under the new boss. 

The first real step in McGuinness’ second tenure in charge was taken on Sunday in Ballybofey as they impressively defeated Cork by 1-20 to 2-6.

Donegal’s desire to commit players forward in numbers was, for the most part, productive and really hurt the Leesiders - especially against the wind in the second-half. 

The manager says the group is trying to marry a kicking element to Donegal’s more traditional running of the ball. And while that process remains very much in its infancy there were real fashes of exactly where McGuinness wants to bring that process to in MacCumhaill Park. 

However, there were occasions at the weekend where those intentions broke down, allowing Cork to counter with little or no cover in behind. 

Another element that reaped its reward for the winners was their desire to engage in contact and break lines. 

After Cork had hit Donegal for 1-1 in quick succession in the second-half - scores that were direct results of unforced turnovers because of stray foot passes into the breeze, McGuinness’ men changed tact. 

First Ciaran Thompson carried ball into contact to win a free while Jamie Brennan did likewise soon after allowing Patrick McBrearty to nail two points from frees. 

Carrying ball into traffic hasn’t exactly been in vogue in recent seasons, but McGuinness insists directness, and aggression in that transition, still has a place in modern Gaelic football.  

“Without going too deep into it, one of my things looking at Donegal in recent times was that when the ball was won it went lateral. 

“Even today we could have done that better and been more dangerous. I speak about ‘transitional football’ and that’s very, very closely linked to it. 

“We want to be aggressive, get up the field and ask questions of teams. It wasn’t perfect today but in the second half those spaces started opening up and we were able to make good quality incisions and get the ball over the bar.

“Listen, the bottom line is that the way teams set up nowadays, you have to be able to do both. 

“In the second half, the closing stages of the game, we did do that well – we kept the ball well, controlled the game whenever they needed the ball. 

“You do have to do both but you also have to have your own belief system and values about how you want to play the game.”