It's not right teams should want to avoid being in a league final - McGuinness

Jim McGuinness says Donegal ‘will do what’s best for them’ as he begins to now seriously weigh up his side’s NFL run-in and the possibility of a potential Division 1 final appearance. 

The issue for the Donegal boss is that a place in the Allianz showpiece would mean a difficult outing at Croke Park just a week out from their huge Ulster SFC opener with Derry in Ballybofey. 

Speaking right after Donegal’s 1-22 to 1-19 victory over the Oak Leafers in Ballyshannon, McGuinness admitted that his team’s interests might be best served avoiding that scenario. 

And the difficulty for the GAA right now is that his rationale is difficult, almost impossible really, to deny. 

“You shouldn’t be looking to avoid a league final,” he explained.  

“Everybody that is in Division 1 wants to be in Division 1 and they are fighting tooth and nail to stay in Division 1. 

“I do believe that that’s the case. I also do believe that maybe 50 per cent of the cohort don’t want to be in the league final and I think that does diminish the competition. 

“We now will not be thinking about the league final. We now will be thinking about what’s best for us. 

“If that means being in the league final, it means being in the league final. That will be a consideration when we make those decisions. 

“It won’t be us going: ‘We want to be there and we need to be there’. Obviously, you run the risk then of going round 7, the League final and then Derry in Ballybofey.” 

McGuinness says that if there was breathing room the other side of the league decider, sides would look and approach it with a very different mindset. 

“We played Dublin in 1993 and there wasn’t a seat in Croke Park. There were 55,000 people at the game. That was capacity at the time. 

“It was a brilliant experience to run out at a full house in Croke Park for a league final. It’s kind of disingenuous to create a format that doesn’t allow people to go after it properly. 

“It will probably, depending on decisions that we make, come back to me in terms of disrespecting the competition and we’re taking things into disrepute and all. 

“But the reality is that myself and other managers have to do the best for your players. 

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“If you’re saying there was a two-week break and there was an opportunity there to go in, even the travel and stuff…Michael Murphy played today because he didn’t travel last week. 

“All of these things factor in when you’re going on the bounce, on the bounce, on the bounce. I would, obviously, love to see opportunities in the league for a league final and in the Championship. 

“If they do it properly, they could have two weeks between every game. Hopefully the GAA will work towards that. 

“Managers shouldn’t be put in a situation where they are playing games and families going to the games shouldn’t be put in that situation either. 

“But we will do what’s right for our players.”