By Ryan Ferry

DONEGAL senior football manager Jim McGuinness says strength-in-depth will be needed this year as county teams get to grips with a new faster and more demanding game of gaelic football.

With three players on each side having to stay at either side of the field, there is going to be a heavy workload for the players in the middle third who will be expected to transition the ball up and down the field.

McGuinness is surprised the number of substitutes permitted hasn’t been increased as he feels fatigue is going to be a prevalent issue and that could lead to more injuries over the spring.

“I think that definitely will have to be looked at because I don’t know if it’s going to be possible for the demands of the game and keeping the fellas safe.

“We’re seeing it already in our metrics. It’s a different game and there are much more questions being asked of them.

“This is the middle of winter and when you get into the dry sod and competitive championship matches – there’s just no hiding place.

“They could be doing 30-35% more running than they were doing – more intensive running – and as I say, there’s nowhere to hide.

“The ball can go in the kick-out or the transition or the turnover – it’s going to be very, very hard to defend, and it’s going to be incredibly difficult to defend under fatigue.

“I’m not sure five subs are enough. We got a document sent out prior to the rules coming through, and one of the pages at the end was taking about six subs.

“I don’t think that came up in the motions and I would have thought that would have been one of the first ones.

“I’m very surprised that the GPA didn’t have their finger on the pulse there from a player welfare point of view. You’re going to see it in the next couple of weeks because it is heavy going.”

McGuinness is delighted that Michael Murphy, pictured left, was persuaded to come back onto the panel for the 2025 season, and while he is now 35, the bainisteoir still feels the Glenswilly man has a lot to offer.

“He’s obviously dangerous and he carries a big presence.

“One thing that he has shown down through the years is his versatility. He can do a number of jobs and that’s what you want and what you need.

“I think that’s going to be the same for a lot of them.

“The capacity to do a couple of different jobs is going to be important, whether that’s defensively or attacking.

“People are going to have to be able at times play inside, and full-forwards are going to have to be able to give players a breather.

“All these things are going to come into play. The truth of the matter is that we don’t know.

“I think counties are going to be learning off each other as the National League goes on.

“We will be sitting having conversations about things that we think will make a difference, Tyrone will be having a different conversation, Derry, Kerry – they’ll be doing things in games, and they’ll be saying that’s interesting or that’s interesting, and how would that suit us.

“That’s the way it happens anyway but I think because we are all starting in the dark, and that has been amplified this year because everyone is trying to work it out.

“Personally what I would like by the end of the league is that the game has settled.

“We had a conversation with Tony McEntee after the Sligo (challenge) game and we were talking about the fact that the game never really settled at any stage.

“He said they had experienced that in all of their friendlies up to this point.

“Will it end up settling in a certain pattern by the end of the league or is the new reality that the game is relentless and we’re playing a version of hurling.

“That could very well be the case because the scores (are going to increase). You have two-pointers and far more transitional football, and defending against less players who have the smarts of trying to break down 15.

“I expect the scoring numbers to be going way up.”

McGuinness kept his cards close to his chest when asked who might feature in Killarney and didn’t rule anyone out of contention.

He said Murphy could feature but there won’t be taking any risks with anyone, with the Ulster Championship opener with Derry never far from the manager’s thoughts.

“He (Murphy) did nick his hamstring when he came in originally but he’s fine now and he’s back training.

“He’s in that same phase as Odhran McFadden-Ferry, Eoghan McGettigan and a lot of those players where we are building them up and getting them ready for action.

“He could (be selected) for Kerry but we won’t take any chances with anybody.

“If we have to hold people back and play them for the last 25 minutes so we don’t go over their minutes, or we don’t play them at all or we hold them back for a couple of weeks, that’s what we are going to do.

“We got out of Division 2, we’re in Division 1 and we’re going to get seven brilliant games.

“That’s what we know and we have to use the seven games for as many people as possible to leave ourselves in the best spot for Derry.

“It will never change for us. There are two championships.

“Derry in the Ulster Championship and once that’s over, it’s the All-Ireland.

“We’re not thinking about anything else other than Derry and getting boys ready for that.”

Meanwhile, McGuinness took the opportunity to wish his county player Caolan McColgan and the Naomh Pádraig, Uisce Chaoin club well in Saturday’s All-Ireland Club Junior Final.

McColgan won’t be available for the trip to Killarney but he has been keeping in touch with the county squad and was on the training camp to Abu Dhabi.

McGuinness says it would be a great achievement if Muff could land the All-Ireland title.

“It’s amazing and it’s huge that it’s an Inishowen club.

“We had Ryan Bradley back in the day and Paul McGonigle was probably the one before that who played Championship football regularly and came from Inishowen.

“You had Declan Walsh, and now you have Conor O’Donnell, Caolan McGonagle and Caolan McColgan and they are all serious players.

“I think that’s only going to go in one direction which is fantastic.

“That wasn’t a thing when I was coming through.

“You can see it at underage level. Colm is coaching young lads at underage level, and some of the best teams in the county are coming from Inishowen, and Moville in particular bringing some good teams through.

“It’s very positive and hopefully now they get the right result and we wish them all the luck in the world.”