McHugh and Boyle suggest avoiding the league final is better for championship prep

Former Donegal players Martin McHugh and Manus Boyle have both weighed in on the debate over the Allianz Football League final, with both suggesting the competition should be decided by the overall league standings rather than a final match.  

Speaking to Paddy McGill on the Donegal GAA Podcast, McHugh believes this change would alleviate the conflict many counties face when the league final clashes with the side’s preparation for the provincial championship. 

“I think we should get rid of the league final in Division 1 and possibly even Division 2,” McHugh remarked.  

“With the championship so close, teams might not want to be playing in league finals.” 

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He pointed to the example from 2023 when Mayo triumphed over Galway in the Division 1 final but suffered a defeat to Roscommon in the Connacht championship just one week later. 

Derry won the Division 1 league title last season, before being eliminated in the first round of the championship to Donegal in Celtic Park. 

Jim McGuinness’s side are currently on track for a Division 1 final, having secured three consecutive wins to start the season. However, with their Ulster championship clash against Derry looming just a week later at MacCumhaill Park, McHugh worries that the league final could become a burden. 

“Given the split season, I don’t think teams will want to reach a league decider,” McHugh explained.  

“They’ll be more focused on staying safe in Division 1. That’s why I think it would be better if there was no league final, and the team finishing at the top of Division 1 and Division 2 would simply win the league.” 

He went on to suggest that such a change would increase the excitement surrounding the final day of the league.  

“It would create great drama,” he said. “People may argue about sponsorships, but I believe sponsors would get more value from something like having a helicopter fly the league cup from somewhere between Galway and Dublin – or even Donegal – and deliver it to the venue.” 

McHugh feels that with six points on the board, it will now come to the stage where rest and rotation will become McGuinness’s primary tactic to get as much gametime out of several members of his panel. 

“We are going to need a squad,” he said. “Coming out of the Galway game last year one of the members of the management said to me that we hadn’t enough on the bench to come off and make a difference. 

“My own nephew Eoin McHugh, Niall O’Donnell, they’re going to need game time, so he’s going to have to give the likes of those players game time. Another game would do Conor O’Donnell, Coalon McGonagle is improving with every game, and Michael Murphy too, so, the squad is going to be important. 

Boyle agreed with his former teammate regarding the closeness between the league final and the provincial championship, speaking from his own experience as a player. 

“Having played in a National League final and a championship match within a week in 1995, it took something special. To be fair to the lads, we lifted it having lost the league final, to put in a good performance a week later but it’s not the ideal preparation,” he said. 

“To continuously keep getting yourself up and motivated for the game, at that time, it took a lot out of the legs.” 

The Killybegs man focuses on the large number of games in the coming weeks and avoiding the league final gives that extra bit of time to rest players. 

“I think it’s the fact that if we get to a league final, we’re playing nine games in 10 weeks, which is a serious amount of football,” he said. 

“If you’re winning those games and you want to continue winning those games, then the players that you’re depending on, the main players, eight or 10 main players that you’re going to take the energy out of and they’re going to need that energy as the summer goes on. 

“The way it is now and the way it’s set up, they’ve done a lot of work. When they go to Galway, I think you will see different performers. Jim is going to use the big squad that he has because he needs to get a few more minutes into some of the other players’ legs. 

“The way the game is now, you will see more injuries, so you will now probably see some players given a half one day and then they’ll start the next game, so that energy is always consistent. Jim, no doubt, will do that and the players will have bought into that.”