Donegal pose questions Kerry must answer in the championship
Donegal go back up the road with only a second ever National Football League Division 1 title while Kerry scuttle off towards the championship with some air let out of the back-to-back hype balloon. But neither party appear particularly bothered by any possible long-term repercussions from Sunday’s one-sided final.Midway through the second half of the top flight decider at Croke Park, Kerry trailed by 21 points. Twenty One!And yet there was little sense among the 35,071 in attendance that the cute Kerry boys had intentionally come to play possum. Because even in a display of shadow boxing you’d at least try land a punch or two.[ Donegal turn the tables on Kerry to secure emphatic 13-point final victoryOpens in new window ]Donegal scored 3-6 without reply during that period of the second half – the trio of goals coming in a remarkable 158 seconds. Of all the scenarios envisaged before this repeat of last year’s All-Ireland final, Kerry tiptoeing around Croke Park like meek first-time visitors wasn’t one of them. READ MOREFrom North Macedonia to Munster, it doesn’t pay for teams to be hopeless for longDonegal play down victory over Kerry team who may be trying to kid rivalsDonegal turn the tables on Kerry to secure emphatic 13-point final victory Donegal beat Kerry at their own game in dominating the kick-out battleSeán O’Shea had more wides than scores, David Clifford registered 1-1 but there was 60 barren minutes between his two scores, and rarely has a Kerry team ever looked as passive in Croke Park. As a spectacle, it was more than just a tad odd. A late spurt, when the game as a contest was long over, ultimately reduced the gap to 13 points, though the 3-20 to 2-10 defeat still stands as Kerry’s heaviest league final loss.Kerry’s Seán O'Shea after the game. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Kerry had the same energy and vigour you’d have found in the arrivals hall of Dublin Airport last Friday after planes arrived from Prague. Only the damage for Kerry wasn’t done in the Czech Republic midweek, seemingly it was done in Armagh last Sunday.“My instinct is that we were tired and lethargic, and I think the game last week against Armagh took a bit more out of us than we realised,” said Kerry manager Jack O’Connor.“The writing was on the wall during the week, the lads didn’t appear to have regained their energy by Thursday night, and Croke Park is a bad place to come if you haven’t energy.”Their fixture against Armagh had indeed been a ferocious physical battle, but the preamble here suggested more of the same might be in store.Before the ball was thrown-in, Ryan McHugh and Mike Breen tested the resolve of each other’s jerseys. There were several shoving matches across the pitch and the stage was set for a high-octane final.But it never materialised. From the moment Michael Langan swung over his second two-pointer of the afternoon on the quarter-hour mark, Donegal led all the way to the long whistle, a second league title to join their maiden 2007 success never looking in doubt.Conor O'Donnell scores Donegal's opening goal. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho They were 0-13 to 1-2 ahead at the turnaround, and by the 56th minute their lead had stretched to a barely believable 3-19 to 1-4.The remainder of the game was just filler. Clifford got in for a late goal but Caolan McColgan can be pleased by his day’s work shadowing the special one. Donegal’s decision to start McColgan rather than Brendan McCole on Clifford was an unexpected matchup.When asked to talk about that tactical experiment, McGuinness smiled: “I don’t really want to, to be honest with you.“Caolan is very athletic, David Clifford is a very athletic player as well. Caolan’s got really good agility, it’s a big ask for him, obviously, but he stuck to the task really well. “He didn’t foul, he tried to do the job correctly. He passed the test today, I suppose, is the way to look at it. “I suppose there’s less pressure on today in some respects. Like Max (Campbell) going in at centre half back. You can take a risk or a gamble like that. The consequences can be big, but they’re not serious or season-ending.”Because, as the old adage goes, ‘it’s only the league.’ And that is the asterisk both parties seemed content to paste beside the full-time score.Kerry's David Clifford is challenged by Donegal's Caolan McColgan. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho Meath (Division 2), Down (Division 3) and Carlow (Division 4) all enjoyed league final wins over the weekend, but the stretch in the evenings also heralds in the shift of focus to the championship.Both Donegal and Kerry will head away on training camps to Portugal next week. It’s unlikely Donegal will have the league title in their packed luggage. “It’s a good time for us to go now to get a reset,” said O’Connor.“It finished on a bad note there, but it’s been a decent enough league for us, we’ve found a few new lads and so on, so it’s not all doom and gloom.“At the end of the day it’s still the league. It’s an important competition but it’s not the end of the world. “Outside the camp there was a lot of stuff going on there that we were a shoe-in for the All-Ireland and whatever. There’s a lot of football to be played, so it brings everybody back down to earth, which is no bad thing this time of year.”In his acceptance speech on the steps of the Hogan Stand, Donegal joint-captain Shane O’Donnell thanked the supporters for making the trip to Croke Park.“We wish you a safe journey back to the hills,” he said. “Up Donegal.”And with that, the opening strains of Jimmy’s Winning Matches bounced out from the PA system.The league might be over, but the real business of 2026 is about to get motoring.
