{"id":431849,"date":"2026-05-04T14:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/431849\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T14:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:17:08","slug":"donegal-handed-the-toughest-possible-draw-in-all-ireland-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/431849\/","title":{"rendered":"Donegal handed the toughest possible draw in All-Ireland series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Donegal will open their All-Ireland series with a fixture against All-Ireland champions Kerry.<\/p>\n<p>The side managed by Jim McGuinness was defeated 3-21 to 1-21 by Down in the Ulster SFC quarter-final and knew ahead of the draw they would be on the road, with only the eight provincial finalists guaranteed home fixtures.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegallive.ie\/search?q=Donegal&amp;idcanale=6&amp;idcanalericerca=6&amp;sortElement=data_pubblicazione,true&amp;page=1&amp;sortDefault=false\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Donegal<\/a> will face the Kingdom on the weekend of May 23\/24. The rest of the draw sees Dublin welcome Louth; Cork are at home to Meath; Monaghan will face Mayo; Westmeath take on Cavan; Galway have an appointment with Kildare and Armagh Derry, while Roscommon are due to clash with Tyrone.<\/p>\n<p>Kerry defeated Donegal 1-26 to 0-19 to win Sam Maguire last July, although Donegal have won the two meetings since, 1-22 to 1-18 in the National League Division 1 in Ballyshannon, and again in the final at Croke Park, 3-20 to 2-10.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It will be the fifth ever championship meeting of the sides, with Kerry having won both last year&#8217;s and the 2014 All-Ireland final. There was a draw in the Super Eights in 2019 at Croke Park, and Donegal won the 2012 All-Ireland quarter-final 1-12 to 1-10.<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegallive.ie\/news\/gaa-lgfa\/2075979\/mark-mchugh-excited-to-lead-westmeath-into-leinster-decider-against-dublin.html\" style=\"color: #0000ff;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mark McHugh &#8216;excited&#8217; to lead Westmeath into Leinster decider against Dublin<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Westmeath, managed by Donegal\u2019s 2012 All-Ireland winner Mark McHugh from Kilcar, beat Kildare in an epic 1-21 to 0-23 Leinster semi-final to set up a final in two weeks against Dublin, who toppled holders Louth 0-20 to 0-10.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In Ulster, Armagh were comfortable 3-33 to 0-14 semi-final winners over Down, putting up a record score in the Ulster SFC in the process and Monaghan came through an unbelievable last four tie against Derry, 1-30 to 3-23 in extra-time.<\/p>\n<p>Round 1 of the All-Ireland series will take place on two weekends: May 23\/24 and May 30\/31. The finalists from the Munster and Connacht provincial finals will play their Round 1 games on May 23\/24, and the finalists from Ulster and Leinster will play their Round 1 games on May 30\/31.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Eight Round 1 winners advance to Round 2A, with the losers going to Round 2B. The four Round 2A winners will qualify directly for the All-Ireland quarter-final stage. Round 2A losers will meet Round 2B winners in Round 3, which is the last 12, the preliminary quarter-finals.<\/p>\n<p>Basically, two wins from two means a direct passage to the All-Ireland SFC quarters, one win from either of the two means a preliminary quarter-final and two defeats and it&#8217;s all over.<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donegal will open their All-Ireland series with a fixture against All-Ireland champions Kerry. The side managed by Jim&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30496,1485,61,60,13018,43],"class_list":["post-431849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-all-ireland-championships","tag-donegal","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jim-mcguinness","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431849","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=431849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}