By Shaun Casey

WHEN Jim McGuinness made his long-awaited return to the Donegal hotseat ahead of the 2024 season, Tir Chonaill fans began to dream. Could he repeat the heroics of 2011 and take a team that was lost in the abyss and create an All-Ireland contender out of them?

Outsiders may have had their doubts and questioned if it was possible. Lightning doesn’t strike twice after all. But as the season has progressed and silverware has been collected, others around the country have started to believe.

They reached the McKenna Cup final but lost to Derry. Big deal. They cruised through an unbeaten Division Two campaign and claimed the league title. But that was only in Division Two.

But once it came to the business end of things, McGuinnes began to prove the doubters wrong. On their way to lifting the Anglo Celt cup, they beat arguably the three best teams in the province in Division One champions Derry, Tyrone and Armagh.

And with Galway knocking reigning All-Ireland champions Dublin off their perch, perhaps the stars have aligned for McGuinness and his men. The prospect of seeing off Galway for a place in the All-Ireland final surely isn’t as challenging as the Dubs would have been.

In repeating the trick 13 years on, McGuinness has changed a thing or two as well. During his initial stint in charge, it was very much safety first, with defensive solidarity the priority on his to-do list.

His second coming saw that defensive structure return as pretty much every team in the country retreats with 15 men behind the ball when out of possession, but it’s going forward where Donegal have impressed.

In just two of their seven championship games to date, Donegal have failed to reach the 20-point mark. The first one was against Tyrone in the Ulster semi-final, when they hit 0-18, and the second was in their group stage defeat to Cork, where they racked up 0-16.

In the other five outings, including the Ulster final which went to extra-time, they’ve put up at least 20 points, if not more. Of the four All-Ireland quarter-finals two weeks ago, no team scored as much as Donegal did when they chalked up 1-23 against Louth.

Their scoring return has been incredible so far and what is also worth noting is the sheer volume of scorers they’ve had in the championship.

Take their last three games, against non-Ulster opposition, and Donegal have registered 16 different scorers – 11 against Louth alone.

It must be said that those games were against teams operating outside of Division One in Cork, Clare and Louth, but still, that’s impressive scoring and shows they aren’t reliant on just one player to raise flags at the top end of the field.

But they’re now facing into the All-Ireland semi-final and McGuinness will know all too well that Galway pose a much bigger threat to their credentials than the aforementioned trio. And confidence is at an all-time high in the Galway changing room.

They’ve just upset the odds and possibly retired some of the greatest players we’ve ever seen in James McCarthy, Michael Fitzsimmons and Stephen Cluxton. But question marks remain over the fitness of some of Pádraic Joyce’s key men.

Shane Walsh was visibly struggling the last day out despite producing perhaps his best performance since the 2022 All-Ireland final. Sean Kelly has been a pale shadow of the leader and warrior he once was.

Damian Comer, Cillian McDaid and Robert Finnerty all played massive roles in seeing the Tribesmen through to the last four, but all three have spent time on the sidelines this year for various different reasons.

That’s the negatives from a Galway point of view, but they’ve still plenty to be happy about of course. One major positive has been their concession rate right throughout the championship. Joyce’s side have only had one championship goal scored against them.

That was in the final round of the group stages against Armagh and Conor Turbitt’s major ultimately cost the men in maroon top spot, but it made little difference as they’ll have enjoyed their well-deserved two-week break post the quarter-final.

There’s an aura around McGuinness that seems to spook a lot of opposition players and manager, but Joyce won’t fear coming up against his old college teammate. The pair won Sigerson Cups together in Tralee IT during their playing days.

The two men know each other really well, which makes the sideline battle and the tactical end of things all the more intriguing. On the field, things maybe just aren’t as familiar among the players as they haven’t clashed in the championship since 2017.

It’s an impossible game to call and both counties will see this as a fabulous opportunity to not only reach a final but to get their hands on the Sam Maguire itself. McGuinness has made the country believe, now it’s time to deliver.