Jim McGuinness: We're now starting from zero again to go as hard as we can at Cork

Donegal manager Jim McGuinness is not taking anything for granted this weekend when his side travel to Leeside to face Cork in Páirc Uí Rinn for round two of the All-Ireland Series. 

Despite entering the game as favourites following their seven-point victory over Tyrone in MacCumhaill Park last Saturday.

But McGuinness is only thinking about how his team can conjure up a win against the Rebels, with a victory this weekend almost guaranteeing his side top spot in the group with just Clare to play in the final round at a neutral venue two weeks later. 

“Trying to top the group, ultimately you get a two-week break so that’s a massive carrot,” McGuinness admitted.

“But for us, we’re not thinking that way, we’re thinking about the next game. We’re delighted to have gotten over the line against Tyrone, but I played a lot of games down in Cork and I don’t remember coming out of Cork too many times with a victory. 

“It’s the same as a manager, it’s not an easy place to go. The journey is long but we know where we’re going, and we know what we’re heading for.

“So we just have to do as much as we can now. It’s about starting from zero again and go as hard as we can. We’ll get a couple of sessions under the belt before we head into this weekend’s game.” 

Having already played the Munster county earlier this season, Donegal made an impressive start to their 2024 league campaign with an eleven-point victory over Cork at MacCumhaill Park back in January.

But McGuinness says that the league game at the start of the year can in no way be compared to what he expects his side to face this Saturday.

“The first league game against Cork this year was probably in the middle of a hurricane. We had the wind in our back in the first half and we were panicking in the first 15 minutes because we needed nine or 10 points by half time in order to win that game, but we hit a couple of unreal scorers that day.

“I expect a completely different game this weekend. I think it’s great to be going to Cork to play a championship match. I think it’s very novel in that sense. They’re an extremely proud county that will be ready for us, we just have to be ready for them”. 

With the team expected to travel to Cork on Friday night after most of the players finish work, they will stay overnight before playing in Páirc Uí Rinn, as opposed to Páirc Uí Chaoimhe due to the Bruce Springsteen concert.

But McGuinness said he is not fazed by where the team plays and all he is doing is looking for a performance. 

“We played in Páirc Uí Rinn a lot before. Actually, the last time I was managing Donegal we played there and I think Cork beat us so we know what’s ahead of us.  

“I have massive respect for the coaching team down there, they’re taking Cork up through the levels and for them, it’s a completely new day. So we need to build our boys up again to get ready for that challenge.” 

Analysing the championship so far, McGuinness sees the campaign structured into three phases with Ulster being phase one, or as he calls it ‘Ground Zero’, and now the team playing in phase two which McGuinness admits places its own challenges. 

And while he acknowledges that the Ulster championship will always be the most important thing to his side, he knows he has to park that campaign now and look forward. 

“Cork will be a different game of football and we have to get our heads around that and go with that and ride that wave as much as we can. But ‘Ground Zero’ for us will always be the Ulster championship, that’ll be our number one competition.

“Now that’s done and we’ve achieved that goal, we have to throw ourselves into this phase of the championship.”