Getting Jim McGuinness back in the managerial hotseat was key to Donegal’s success, says captain Paddy McBrearty.
The Kilcar man came off the bench at Croke Park yesterday and showed why he has been a huge part of Donegal’s success this season.
McBrearty says Donegal have massively under-achieved in recent years despite the huge talent in the squad.
He admits that he never thought it would be more than a decade when Donegal left Croke Park after the 2014 final that Donegal woudl be back amongst the bigger hitters.
“When we left here 2014, I didn’t think it would be 2024 until we reached our next semi-final,” McBrearty admits, seated alongside his manager in Sunday’s post-match press conference.
“We massively, massively underachieved from ’14 to ’24, 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 Ulsters, teams were tipping us to go on and win All-Irelands and we couldn’t do it on the big days.
“Getting this man (McGuinness) back obviously (was key) and getting back to days like this final in two weeks is gonna be massive.”
