Alternative View: Donegal is leading the way in this new era of our Beautiful Game

There might still be over 200 premises throughout the country without power thanks to the devastating effect of Storm Éowyn, but the old Met Éireann excuse won’t cut it this time. Whether it’s by trains, planes or automobiles, it’s off to Killarney you go.  

A 10-hour all-round journey made even sweeter by the fact that Donegal landed their first win in Kerry since 1988 … and only those of us mad enough to make the journey got to see history in the making. For others, we hope the reports and radio commentary were detailed enough. 

It’s great to savour this moment for a day or two until our attention turns to Armagh. What does a victory over Kerry mean in the overall scale of the 2025 season? A step closer to safety, at least, but ask the average punter what the score in Killarney was come May or June when we’re bone deep into sunny championship season.  

The major analysis following the final whistle in Killarney – sorry hooter-type big buzzer I’m told -  wouldn't it be great if Gaelic football was like this all the time? For now, it is.  

READ NEXT: Ryan McHugh named GAA.ie Footballer of the Week following Kerry win

From what we saw on Saturday, we’ve witnessed a glimpse of our very own Beautiful Game. It will take a bit of understanding, for sure, a bit of ironing out some details, but the spectacle is what we’ve all been waiting for over the winter months.  

Several years ago, we believed that the cautious, sideways-passing, and blanket defence style — one that has left many spectators frustrated — was simply the natural progression of the game, an unavoidable evolution.   

Fast forward to 2025, and we see that there is another way.  

Donegal embraced this faster, more expansive game with relish. At the start of this decade, they could be seen as a team often defined by their defensive solidity and tactical discipline, against Kerry, they were more than just the sum of those parts.   

This wasn’t the Donegal of old, where a patient, defensive strategy ground opponents into submission, they are moving with the times.   

On Saturday, they were dynamic and direct — qualities that are fast becoming the hallmark of the second Jim McGuinness era.  

Ryan McHugh, one of Donegal’s most influential players, was the perfect embodiment of this shift. He admitted that the new rules take a toll on players. It’s not just about how quickly you move the ball or how fast you recover after losing possession. The demands are physical, mental, and relentless.   

Yet McHugh remains unapologetic about the intensity that the rules have introduced. "It’s chaos, but it’s the kind of chaos that keeps the game alive," he said after the match. "You’ve got to adapt or get left behind."  

Yes, we’re in a new dawn, but that doesn’t mean some old problems remain, thankfully those problems didn’t occur on the field. It’s come to my attention from Killarney that two of the most pleasant aspects of life in the press box are you are gifted with some of the best seats in the house, and you need not waste €3 on match programmes.   

I became increasingly grateful for the latter point on Saturday when the local and national media in Killarney scurred into a frenzy when realising that the team news provided in the booklet was as factual as a sci-fi movie plot.  

Spare a thought for the average fan or collector who threw their money away on this.  

Donegal’s teamsheet read eight players alone named out of position, Kerry had seven. It eventually led to one local journalist from Kerry to state: “These are the team sheets from two weeks ago, they never bothered to change them”.  

A small thing that might only concern your local cranky journalist, I know, but in a game that never stopped, literally tit-for-tat from start to finish, you want all your ducks in a row.   

In the game itself, Donegal were brave, maybe because they had a brave man in charge – a pragmatist and an adventurer. Of course, McGuinness is not going to show his on-field hand this early in the season, he’s not naive, but that doesn’t mean he can’t express how he feels about the game off the field.  

McGuinness himself has been outspoken in some areas of the new direction Gaelic football is taking. He’s not hitting the pulpit; far from it, he’s just drawing attention to certain areas that need looking at.   

He described the game as “crazy transitional” and pointed to the growing difficulty for defenders who are left with little time to organise in a game that’s increasingly dominated by fast transitions and rapid ball movement.   

Any manager worries that while the game might be more exciting, the strategic depth that once defined the sport is being pushed aside.  

Defenders, once the bedrock of every successful team, are now forced into almost impossible positions. Where once they could control the tempo, now they are perpetually reacting. That’s been the most difficult adjustment for many.  

McGuinness may lament the transition, but for now, Donegal are thriving in it. They’ve embraced the chaos and found a way to control it.   

For Kerry, their game has long been rooted in patient build-ups, in moving the ball with precision and purpose, before making the decisive move. Under the new rules, such an approach is becoming more difficult to execute. There’s little room for such measured play when the game is in constant motion and when the space to execute a plan is ever-shrinking.  

It was Donegal’s understanding of how to turn these new rules to their advantage.   

The pace of the match — faster than anything we would have seen in previous years — suited Donegal’s athleticism. The relentless nature of it played into their hands. Donegal’s ability to control the game in the midst of that chaos was what made their victory so impressive.  

There is an inevitability about all this. Rules are introduced to shake things up, and, for the most part, they succeed. Donegal’s win in Killarney was the perfect illustration of this – particularly in the two-point area that proved to be the winning of the game with McHugh, Patrick McBrearty, and Oisin Gallen all finding distance, while Sean O’Shea hit one of his own.   

We also have the presence and nagging question of how our goalkeeper will play. From Saturday’s second-half kick-out performance, it doesn’t look like anyone will fill that No 1 position this season come championship time other than Shaun Patton.  

The debate still centred on Shaun not being the most comfortable at bombing forward with the ball and playing outfield like Niall Morgan or Rory Beggan.   

It was an interesting point to make considering on the very same day less than an hour before a 20-year-old Antrim man named Jamie Donley shot from his halfway line in an FA Cup clash between Manchester City and Leyton Orient resulting in Champions League medal holder Stefan Ortega to scramble back to his goalline but accidentally hit the ball into his own net to give the third-tier English side a 1-0 lead. 

Sometimes, sticking to the basics isn’t such a bad thing either. 

Whether the pace of the new game can be maintained or if the players can handle it is a different question entirely. The reality of these new rules will be felt over time, in the wear and tear on players, in the injuries that inevitably follow such a frenetic pace, and in the continued push and pull between tradition and innovation.  

Thankfully, there is depth in McGuinness’s side too. Finnbarr Roarty looks to be the Ciaran Moore of 2025, he’s there to cause bother and disruption to the strong backline from last season and so far, is making himself be heard.  

Conor O’Donnell nailed three all-important points under pressure and is back in real form, while Jamie Brennan was key in Donegal’s victory off the bench on Saturday and was present in his side’s last three scores, two of which he nailed himself.  

Then you have the men waiting in the bleachers. Eoin McHugh has already made his presence felt with a strong running game off the bench as he fits comfortably back into the side he was last a part of in 2021.  

In case you’ve forgotten there’s more - Jason McGee, Niall O’Donnell, Caolan McColgan, Eoghan McGettigan, Odhran McFadden-Ferry and a certain Michael Murphy are to be shoehorned in somewhere too.  

The main objective is to manage these players for the championship. Safety in the league is important, but it’s not the ultimate goal. A league final doesn’t even look to be the aim in anybody's mind when you take into the fact that Donegal will be out in the first round of the Ulster championship the following week.  

In the 17 years since the National Football League was restructured, the narrowest gap between top and bottom in Division 1 has been seven points, occurring five times. The highest points tally for an eighth-placed finisher has been four. It has never been higher.  

Some seasons had clear relegation candidates, while others, like 2016, saw Cork relegated with six points. But 2025 is different. No team has a distinct edge, but Donegal are certainly in a comfortable position for now.  

Kerry, on the other hand, may need more time. The Kingdom’s domination of Gaelic football may no longer be a foregone conclusion, but we may just have to wait until the great David Clifford returns.  

If last Saturday’s match is any indication, we may be witnessing the dawn of a new era in Gaelic football — one where the ability to adapt to chaos is as important as any tactical masterstroke. Donegal are ahead of the curve for now.  

The last two rounds have shown that for the first time in years, courage makes the difference between winning and losing. This 2025 season could be the year that Gaelic football finally sets the summer alight.