It must be tempting for Donegal manager Brian McIver to rave about their National Football League title, but it seems he's too honest for that. The reality is no one expects Donegal to be the force they were this time last year, and that includes McIver.

Between injuries and the lack of pre-season training, McIver is understandably anxious about Saturday's opening game against All-Ireland champions Kerry. However, while winning a first league title last year was great, McIver is playing things differently this time around. Having gone unbeaten last spring, culminating in the league final win over Mayo, Donegal lost form when they needed it most, starting with the Ulster semi-final loss to Tyrone and the qualifier loss to Monaghan.

"For us, last year, the league was very important, in order to achieve something," says McIver. "There were senior players there in Donegal who had played nearly their whole senior career without winning a national title. So to win the league was great for them.

"We would have hoped that having gone through last year undefeated, playing the top teams in the country, would have given us that winning mentality. Unfortunately it didn't do us much good in the Monaghan and Tyrone games, but hopefully we'll have learned again from that, and another good league campaign will stand us in good stead for the championship."

There is a difference, however, between a good league campaign, and a great league campaign - and McIver is thinking more along the lines of the former: "We did very little before Christmas, simply because the leagues ran on so late in Donegal. So we're definitely not as well prepared as we would have liked. Still we've a big game to start with, so it certainly won't be difficult to get the boys motivated. It's a great game to look forward to, and will show us, early on, exactly where we're standing."

McIver then details the lengthy list of players missing for Saturday's game in Ballybofey, and in some cases for most of the league - Barry Dunnion, Leon Thompson, Johnny Gallagher, Stephen McDermott, Tommy Donoghue and Brendan Devenney; the suspended Rory Kavanagh, and the absent Michael Hegarty (on holiday) and Adrian Sweeney (on hiatus).

"We took a look at quite a few new faces in the McKenna Cup, and we'll certainly be availing of those on Saturday night. We're still going to have to perform."

At one stage it appeared McIver himself would be absent this year, having originally stepped down in the immediate aftermath of the Monaghan defeat. On reflection, he let his name go forward again, and that resulted in a new three-year contract.

"I wasn't too happy with the way things went that evening in Omagh. But the backroom team and selectors met me again a few weeks later, felt we'd a lot of good work done, and that we should build on it. So, maybe it was a spur-of-the-moment thing for me. I wear my heart on my sleeve, I have to say, and I felt that was a game we were in a position to win at half-time, and yet didn't do it.

"On the other side, the selectors were tremendous in terms of their commitment and, to be fair, when I met the players afterwards they felt exactly the same. So I was happy enough to give it another shot."

So the aim this season, clearly, is to get a better balance between their league and championship performances, even if that means ultimately surrendering their league title.

"The league is still the second major national competition in football, and we're still keen to do as well as humanly possible." said McIver. "We've no intentions of not giving our best. But we had to give the players a good rest, and we'll be forced to try lots of new players, simply because we've so many players out at the minute.

"Hopefully come the end of the league we'll have our strongest panel in place, and aiming then to have as good a shot at the championship as we can."