Marksmen: How the Donegal players rated against Antrim?\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\nBut ever since the group got back together, they\u2019ve been itching to get back to competitive action.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last weekend\u2019s false start, when the cold snap accounted for their scheduled opener against Derry in Letterkenny, prolonged that wait.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Jim McGuinness\u2019 side finally got back down to competitive action on Sunday with a fine 1-15 to 0-7 win over Antrim in Cargin.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an experimental starting XV, the Donegal debutants were Ultan Doherty, Kieran Gallagher, Max Campbell and Shea Malone from Naomh Conaill, Paul O’Hare of Naomh Columba and Four Masters duo Turlough Carr and Conor McCahill.<\/p>\n
And with the likes of another Donegal Town native, Kevin Muldoon, Cormac Gallagher from Termon and St Eunan\u2019s Eoin McGeehin all coming into the action as well, it was a very productive afternoon for the winners.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McFadden says it was difficult avoid stewing in the aftermath of that 1-26 to 0-19 defeat to the Kingdom at Croke Park back in July.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, a competitive return to action means Donegal can now finally begin to look forward instead of back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a long winter,\u201d McFadden conceded. \u201cThere were a lot of dark days since the All-Ireland final. We just have to put that to the back of the mind now and move on to what hopefully will be an exciting 2026\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McGuinness was able to dish out ten debuts over the hour and it\u2019s fair to say that despite the conditions, they all acquitted themselves well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And while it was a poor enough Saffron effort, McFadden says it was an experience that will stand them well as bigger hurdles now loom on the horizon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Donegal tackle Derry in the McKenna Cup semi-final on Wednesday night away from home while on Saturday week, it\u2019s a NFL opener with Dublin at Croke Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are a talented bunch and it\u2019s going to be good now to see how they push on at this level. It\u2019s making me feel a little old if I\u2019m being honest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the lads that came on there, Conor McCahill, I had taught him in fifth class at Killymard National School!\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSeriously though, it brings a freshness and an energy to it. As well as being very talented, they are great lads and really eager to learn\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hugh McFadden says Donegal are moving into the new 2026 season refocused, recharged and, thanks to an influx…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6342,61,60,13018,43],"class_list":["post-240018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-donegal-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jim-mcguinness","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}