Mac's View: Donegal fans gear up for exciting 2025 football season

First of all, this week, I hope everybody had a happy Christmas and I want to wish all a happy and healthy New Year. 

After being housebound for so long, I’m really looking forward to January and especially to the last Sunday of the month when we will see action once again with the start of the Allianz National League. 

We have to make the long journey to Killarney for the opening game against the Kingdom on Sunday, January 26 and that will be followed by the visit of Dublin to MacCumhaill Park on Saturday, February 1 under the lights. 

We have missed the football so badly with nothing happening for most of us at county or club level since October. It is not an easy start with the two big powerhouses, but that is what you expect at the top level in Division 1. 

With the league being played under new rules, there is great anticipation about how teams will adapt and it seems that all counties are arranging challenge matches in order to get up to speed. 

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I gather that Donegal was in action at the weekend in Convoy with two challenge games, one against Leinster side Westmeath, with whom Mark McHugh is coaching for 2025. And I gather that the rest of the Donegal panel had an outing against a London side. 

Information from the games is sparse but I believe that they were high-scoring.  

It would be interesting to know how many ‘two pointers’ were kicked and I was surprised that there were not more goals. But by the sounds of it, the tallies were pretty high, which would be as a result of the new rules. It should make the game much more exciting for spectators 

CHALLENGE GAMES 

I would love to see one of these challenge games being made open to the Donegal public. Imagine the crowd that would turn out in Ballybofey at present after being housebound over Christmas. But I suppose that will be Jim’s (McGuinness) call. He might want to keep his cards close to his chest. 

He will be plotting how best to use the new rules to profit Donegal and no better man than Jim to do that. Every team will be doing the same although some are advertising their challenge games. 

I gather that Galway played Derry in one of those challenge games also at the weekend and the Tribesmen have a tough opener in the league as they host All-Ireland champions, Armagh, in a repeat of the All-Ireland final. 

There will be no easy games in Division 1 this year. Normally there might be one or two games that you could consider soft but nothing seems soft this year, and when you add in the new rules, I would expect that every team will be going hell for leather from the start. 

Dublin will have a number of things to deal with, especially some key retirements including Brian Fenton and James McCarthy. They will probably be missing the Cuala lads also as they will likely take a break after their All-Ireland club campaign finishes, whether that be in the semi-final or final.  

If you look at what happened in Derry last year when Glen won the All-Ireland club and they didn’t take a break, it probably was a big mistake. 

On the Donegal front, there were reports that Michael Murphy got hurt in training, which would be rather sad. Hopefully, it is not a long-term injury. While he has played a lot of club football, it will take him that little while to get up to inter-county fitness again and any setback would not be helpful. 

But as of now, all that we are thinking about is getting on the road to Killarney on the last Sunday of the month.  

I’m assuming that there will be a Supporters’ Bus going although it is not easy getting overnight accommodation at the moment. And it is pretty costly to pay for a hotel and also cover the cost of tickets, meals, etc.  

After the Christmas expenses, it is never easy for supporters, but I expect that they will travel in big numbers. They did so last year when Donegal played Cork in Páirc Uí Rinn in the championship and it is a great lift to the team to have that support. 

On the home front, a good number of teams have now got club managers in place. In Bundoran Ciaran McCaughey, who is injured at the moment, is taking over along with Barry McGowan, and I see that Ballyshannon have got their man also, former Grange manager, Jimmy Langan. I gather that Liam Gilmartin from Kinlough, another good football man, will be joining him. 

CONGRATULATIONS 

My congratulations to the Four Masters minors on their magnificent achievement of winning the Ulster Minor title won at St Paul’s for a second year in-a-row. They had to fight all the way against O'Donovan Rossa Magherafelt but held out for a deserved win.  

Congratulations to all involved and it was another good day for the Donegal Town club.