Paddy McBrearty sits next to Jim McGuinness in the press conference room and talks about Donegal’s barren years. This, clearly, is not one of them.
Out on the pitch Donegal had just laid waste to a team billed by many as the story of the 2025 championship. But it took the Ulster champions just 70 minutes to reduce Meath’s role in the narrative of the summer to a mere subplot.
Donegal are now threatening to assume the title of lead character again. They are back in an All-Ireland final for the first time since 2014, their fourth of all time. McGuinness has been involved in all four, as a player in 1992 and manager in 2012, 2014 and now 2025.
This is the second year of his second stint as Donegal boss. They have won Ulster both seasons since his return to the helm, exited the championship at the All-Ireland semi-final stage last year and are now back in the decider.
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“When we left here in 2014 [after losing to Kerry], I didn’t think it would be 2024 until we reached our next semi-final,” says McBrearty. “We massively, massively underachieved from 2014 to 2024 basically, in our eyes. When Jim came back, standards were raised back to where they were and we’re just delighted to be back here, but you know they were a barren couple of years.
“We were winning Ulster championships, [people] were tipping us to go on and win All-Irelands but we couldn’t do it on the big days. Getting this man back obviously for that and getting back to days like this in two weeks is massive.”
McGuinness, of course, is the “this man” in question.
His team had the luxury of dropping down through the gears and freewheeling to victory over Meath at Croke Park on Sunday.
“We knew we had trained well, I suppose without covering old ground again, the difference between a one-week turnaround and a two-week turnaround really is probably that you’re going to get one session done in a one-week turnaround, and I would say with a two-week turnaround you’re looking at five or six,” says McGuinness.
“That’s massive from a coaching point of view.”
Donegal won the toss but opted to play against the wind in the first half and still led by five points at the turnaround. The gap at the final whistle was 20 points, the largest All-Ireland semi-final victory since Cork beat Mayo by the same margin in 1993.
Donegal had 12 different scorers from play on Sunday, their deep runners wreaking havoc and tearing apart the Meath defence time and time again. For Meath, there were simply too many fires and not enough hydrants.
“I suppose when you’re playing a running game and a support game, everybody needs to be able to do that [score],” adds McGuinness.
“Listen, the game has changed dramatically over the last number of months. We just felt that it was important to see how those changes would grow, if you like, and then bring our own template to how we want to play the game.
“Everybody’s got their own principles and how they see the game. For me it’s important just to keep what it is to be from your county very close to the centre, and then move with the rules, and I think we’ve done quite a good job on that front.”
For Meath, this was a disheartening end to what had been a season of renewed hope after championship wins over Dublin, Cork, Kerry and Galway had lifted the footballing soul of the county out of the shadows after 20 years of mediocrity.
“Obviously, it’s really disappointing when you have such a big crowd and atmosphere behind it and everything like that,” says manager Robbie Brennan.
“It’s disappointing for the lads really because I’m absolutely convinced we’re better than that.”
The challenge for Brennan and his management team now is to ensure the nature of their championship exit does not extract too much of the air from what had been a rising green-and-gold balloon.
“Yeah, that’s huge for us. And it’s the lads who’ve helped to fill Croke Park because of the way they’ve played and the bit of abandonment and freedom they’ve gone with and the way they’ve approached the whole thing,” adds the Meath manager.
[ Vibes and victories: how Robbie Brennan put smiles on Meath facesOpens in new window ]
“I hope we’ve reawakened that drive and love for Meath football in the county because I think we’ve been crying out for it and today showed it. It was a complete sell-out, I think.
“But it’s important we take that now and keep building that towards the future. You’re not going to win every match, as we always know, but we can’t drop off now. We have to keep pushing.”
But all the heavy lifting was done by Donegal on Sunday. The Ulster champions push on. They will meet the Munster champions in the final, a repeat of the 2014 decider.
“They’ve just a lot of quality, they have a lot of a lot of skill level, they’re playing for each other,” says McGuinness. “You can see that they’re very united and they’re very together.”
As McGuinness talks of Kerry, sitting beside him McBrearty allows himself a brief smile because his manager could just as easily be describing Donegal.
The barren years are becoming a distant memory. First McGuinness returned. Then Michael Murphy. And now the county returns to grace Gaelic football’s biggest day. It’s all starting to feel like another part of the Sam Maguire master plan.
