JIM McGuinness believes Donegal will have to be “creative” and need to “find a way” to becoming a contender for Gaelic football’s top prizes again.
McGuinness has long been recognised as one of Gaelic football’s great innovators – changing the face of the game in the previous decade and leading his native county to the 2012 All-Ireland title.
Returning to the managerial role he last held in 2014, the Glenties clubman insists there is still plenty of space for innovation.
“The job of the coach is to understand what the game is and how you can take advantage of it,” McGuinness said after Wednesday night’s opening McKenna Cup win over Armagh in Ballybofey.
“I think that’s a very important piece moving forward. We don’t want to be the same as everybody else, that’s for sure because in that situation the status quo will remain and the teams that are winning All-Irelands will continue to win All-Irelands – and that has been proven in history.
“So, for us, we know who we are – we are a team that’s normally in Division One and if we’re in Division Two, we’re not happy being in Division Two.”
He added: “We’re a top eight, top 10, top 12 team, historically. We have to find a way to six, then to four, to two and to one, that’s the reality - and we’re going to have to think long and hard about that and we’re going to have to be creative and come up with strategies and gameplans that puts us in that position, if at all possible.”
During the intervening nine years, Donegal captured two Ulster titles – 2018 and 2019 – but never got beyond the All-Ireland quarter-final stages, or the Super 8s.
McGuinness returns to find Donegal in Division Two and facing a tough pathway to an Ulster final with defending champions Derry their opening opponent.
Indeed, there are some similarities between the time he first took over in Donegal in late 2009 and now. At both junctures, Donegal football was at a low ebb.
Had the senior footballers in the county experienced a different, more encouraging trajectory over the last couple of seasons, McGuinness suspects he would never have returned to the job.
“It probably wouldn’t have happened other than Donegal were where they were,” he said.
“So, all I want to do is stop answering questions like this with journalists [smiling] and just get down to the nitty gritty and working hard – and I think that’s where we’re at as a county.
“We are actually back in the same spot in that regard. It’s time to get the heads down and see where that takes us. If we can do that and bring that to the people of Donegal, regardless of how the thing works out, and try and tap into the players that we have make them the best versions of themselves.”
Despite embarking on a soccer coaching career for the best part of the last decade, McGuinness has been involved in various Gaelic football coaching roles and his media work while away also proved beneficial.
“I think the work with the paper [McGuinness wrote a Gaelic football column for The Irish Times] and the TV [Sky Sports] keeps you close to the action and even with your own kids you’re coaching and stuff.”
With a new county board in place after a turbulent 2023, the ‘McGuinness factor’, in the early stages at least, has brought great optimism to Donegal again.
“Everybody wants the best for Donegal football and the people that are coming in now will – please God – all work together,” he said.
“We will work together with the board and, hopefully, vice-versa. I think the clubs working very closely with the board is going to be very important.
“There’s a young team here and we’ve to develop them, try and get the group to grow, but there’s a lot to be done off the pitch as well in terms of the development of underage structures in the county, facilities and resources, the female game is exploding, all those things. That’s to be taken care of.”
