Donegal-Kerry rematch about more than just the league
National Football League Division One final: Donegal v Kerry (Sunday, Croke Park, 4pm, live on TG4)WITH an eye the size of a watermelon and the colour of a plum, a bandage flung around to protect his stitched left orb, Neil Gallagher is beaming from ear-to-ear as he raises the Division One trophy. When he brings it back pitchside, the Donegal players embark on a lap of honour around Croke Park.A lap of honour? For the league?Win or lose on Sunday, there will be no lap of honour.Michael Langan and Shane O’Donnell may, if circumstances allow, be permitted to smile should they be the ones to raise the Micheal Ó Muircheartaigh trophy above their heads.The way we treat this thing called the league is an unusual dynamic that started at the very top of the GAA and runs right to the very bottom.‘Leagues are for playing, championships are for winning’ runs the refrain.No self-respecting junior club footballer is taking the Monday off after winning a league, lest the neighbours hear of it and hopes of adding a championship to it be ridiculed into oblivion.Jim McGuinness’s words at the mouth of the Hyde Park dressing room two weeks ago were the oral equivalent of a shoulder shrug.“We’re not that bothered.”Donegal’s performances against Roscommon and particularly Monaghan tell you that there was a large degree of truth in that statement.Did Kerry trounce Mayo and dog out a draw away to Armagh in their last two outings to get to a league final, or did they do it just to do it?The Jack Slam, where every league he’s won has begat another Sam, will become his legacy the day his crankiness departs his soul and he knows it’s time.Do Kerry set out to win leagues, or do they just win them?Neither team would have started the year particularly bothered about reaching the league final.Donegal manager Jim McGuinness shares a moment with Kerry manager Jack O'Connor following the National Football League Div 1 match played at Ballyshannon on Sunday 1st of February 2026. PICTURE: MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN (MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN COPYRIGHT / ) That they are facing each other in Croke Park eight months on from their All-Ireland meeting ought to elevate this to blockbuster material.Why, then, for a double-header with Meath and Cork, neither of them exactly bored of lifting national silverware this last 30 years, is the crowd expected to be a little over 30,000?And why, like most modern Division One finals, is the expectation that it will be almost entirely contactless?Go back to that All-Ireland final. The tone was set in the 60 seconds between the end of Amhran na bhFiann and Dylan Geaney kicking the game’s first score.Gavin White’s burst on to the ball was so instructive. Ciaran Thompson had just shaken his hand milliseconds and was still facing his walk towards the Donegal attack. By the time he turned, White was gone.Brendan McCole is like an anti-full-back. He is probably the cleanest number three ever to reach the standards of defending he’s reached without hauling and ripping and tearing at men.As he came in to meet an already-in-position Clifford, he was met by the Fossa phenomenon’s bodyweight. A version of the same events happened in at least half-a-dozen of the other individual contests.The tussles only lasted seconds but it showed the difference in Gaelic football’s two national finals.Brendan McCole will mark David Clifford for a second time on Sunday.They were expected to meet in Ballyshannon eight weeks ago but Clifford stayed home with the feet up.In his game time this spring, you get a true measure of what Kerry think of the league, regardless of the final.Other than that and the first 55 minutes against a Monaghan side they were always going to beat, Clifford has played every minute.So have Sean O’Shea, Joe O’Connor, Jason Foley, Dylan Casey and relative newbie Armin Heinrich, who’s been defensively sound in keeping Gavin White’s seat warm.If the soundings are correct then Paudie Clifford will be kept in reserve. His impact last July off four squillion possessions and absence here feed a lot of the sense of ‘sure what we will learn from it anyway?’And if there’s no Paudie, do Donegal start Finnbarr Roarty? He played the full 60 minutes for the U20s in midweek. Kerry’s Paudie Clifford during Sunday’s All Ireland Football Final in Croke Park.
PICTURE COLM LENAGHAN What everyone is looking to see in Croke Park is how Donegal will defend.They took between the edge of the arc and the 45 as their line of engagement. Kerry scored five two-pointers but the more telling statistic is that they took 14 attempts at it.Donegal were 0/3.Time and again, there were openings, particularly as they chased the second half and Kerry fell ever deeper in front of their own goal. And so while we’re all looking to see how Donegal defend, the real learning might be in how they attack.Before last weekend’s final round games, analyst Darren Devine (@DarrenDevine92 on X) posted the numbers around two-point attempts. Donegal had taken 26 in their six games and were on 50%, a pretty decent conversion rate.Kerry had taken only 18 two-point attempts – but scored 13 of them.Before last year’s league final, where Kerry walloped Mayo, much of the focus was on Clifford. Kevin McStay came out afterwards and, aside from his comments about the ref being kind to the big man, also lauded his side’s defensive record.But the real clue was in them scoring only 1-12. That struggle in front of goal was a long-running theme that Andy Moran has quickly set about trying to correct. Even in a heavy defeat in Tralee, they got to 0-19 and kicked six two-pointers. That gave them something positive to take home.We are left to guess a bit in terms of how Donegal will attack and with what personnel.Shane O’Donnell came on at half-time in Monaghan having missed the previous two-and-a-half games.Ciaran Moore and Oisin Gallen have both missed the last three.Michael Murphy has played just one full game.Daire Ó Baoill hasn’t kicked a ball since round two.Conor McCahill hurt his hamstring on U20 duty and is out.Outside of Conor O’Donnell and probably now Shea Malone, who hit 2-3 against Monaghan and has done pretty well, along with Jason McGee coming out from 14, it’s hard to know.McGee’s presence around the middle changes the kickout battle.1st March 2026
Jason McGee of Donegal in action against Liam O’Conghale of Galway in the National League round 4 game at Ballyshannon Co Donegaln. Picture Oliver McVeigh Donegal would stand over a lot of what they did in last year’s final and argue the dominos just tipped the wrong way against a ruthlessly efficient opponent.Most days, that plan works.But in Hugh McFadden having played all 490 minutes of the league, there is perhaps an admission that taking him out of the starting team last year was the one big error. They will not make that mistake again.So the kickout battle becomes interesting too. Joe O’Connor preyed on Ciaran Moore in the air last year but Donegal are bigger in enough areas to avoid that rematch.In the absence of the Cliffords, O’Connor became the target for the bumping and thumping in a Ballyshannon clash that, without ever getting too spicy, added to the sense of dislike between the two sides.Aside from the eye-catching stuff, O’Connor defends the head of the Kerry arc as though any attempted intruders were trying to steal his family from in behind him.Ultimately, Kerry’s level of aggression won them the All-Ireland. That, even more than whatever you thought of Donegal’s defensive shape, gave them the possession that gave them the chances that gave them the scores that gave them the trophy.And that is where Donegal have to get this league final right.If they are bullied out of a second straight Croke Park meeting with Kerry, the third becomes a whole lot more difficult whenever it almost inevitably arrives.In terms of that shape, they stepped out much higher in their sole return to HQ since for the first round of the league with Dublin here in January.Donegal have had the National League trophy in their hands on even fewer occasions than they’ve had Sam Maguire. Whatever about not being bothered about reaching the final, they will want it back on the bus with them now they’re here.Will the game be worth watching as a spectacle? Maybe, just about.Will we learn from it? Absolutely we will.
