{"id":513276,"date":"2026-06-22T21:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/513276\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T21:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:40:09","slug":"devenney-donegal-got-approach-wrong-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/513276\/","title":{"rendered":"Devenney: Donegal got approach wrong this season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Donegal attacker Brendan Devenney feels the Tir Chonaill County got their approach to the season all wrong with last year’s All-Ireland finalists suffering a shock Round 3 exit to Dublin<\/a> at Croke Park on Sunday.<\/p>\n

On their last visit to the venue in March, Jim McGuinness\u2019 side took Kerry apart <\/a>as they strolled to a 13-point win and seemingly copper-fastened their status as genuine Sam Maguire contenders.<\/p>\n

However, their eventual four-game championship season included losses to Down, Cork and Dublin, bringing their season to a shuddering halt.<\/p>\n

Devenney, speaking to RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s Inside Sport, said that Donegal\u2019s full tilt at the league title was a mistake.<\/p>\n

“Derry a couple of seasons ago under Mickey Harte, flying in the league, touted as All-Ireland champions and fell flat on their face.<\/p>\n

“Roscommon did it a couple of seasons before, got the league final and really looked like they were going to do something in the championship.<\/p>\n

“You\u2019d have to say Donegal did the same.<\/p>\n

“I think there was a wee bit of a hangover from the All-Ireland (final) and instead of Donegal maybe finding their way into the season, they came in at very hard.<\/p>\n

“They won the McKenna Cup and when they won that league final in the manner that they did in the back of my mind, I was thinking, ‘here, we’re going too high tempo here. This is not the time for this type of a game.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Donegal
\nJim McGuinness’ side lose three of their four championship games this season<\/p>\n

“You\u2019re glad you won the match but, really, if you look at it now, every second half [in the championship], it was terrible.<\/p>\n

“Down, absolutely terrible.<\/p>\n

“We wouldn\u2019t know what would have happened in Kerry because the man (Micheal Burns) was sent off.<\/p>\n

“Second half against Cork, absolutely shocking.<\/p>\n

“If the energy isn\u2019t there then everything else is gone. I thought it was really telling in extra-time, (Ois\u00edn) Gallen got a ball around the middle and he was swamped by four Dublin players. They were all over him.<\/p>\n

“If the energy isn’t there then everything else is gone”<\/p>\n

“Then (Charlie) McMorrow comes through for that goal chance and he hits the post. He waltzed through the Donegal defence and I thought to myself \u2018there it is.\u2019<\/p>\n

“Donegal were gone. They were out on their feet and they were gone and Dublin were bringing the energy.<\/p>\n

“Donegal completely overcooked the league and got it wrong this season, you’d have to say, in terms of a team that was supposed to have a tilt at an All-Ireland.”<\/p>\n

All eyes in Donegal are now on the future of Michael Murphy and, to a lesser extent, Jim McGuinness.<\/p>\n

The Glenswilly ace sensationally came out of retirement ahead of the 2025 season and won a fourth All-Star as he helped Donegal to last year\u2019s All-Ireland final, where they lost out to the Kingdom.<\/p>\n

McGuinness, meanwhile, has completed the three-year term handed to him on his return to the hot-seat with the county, although he has the option of the fourth year should he wish to exercise it.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a big ask to come back (for Murphy), particularly as it\u2019s not like last year,” Devenney continued.<\/p>\n

“Jim took the job for three years with a possible fourth year, so we’re not sure how that’s all going to break down.<\/p>\n

“It would be a massive thing for him to come back again because the levels have just gone up and up every year.<\/p>\n

“It’s been huge for him to be in the last two years and get his body back in that shape.”<\/p>\n

Watch The Saturday Game on catch-up on RT\u00c9 Player and The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RT\u00c9 One and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow our live blog on all matches on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app and listen to commentary on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n

Watch two All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-finals, Louth v Monaghan (1.45pm) and Galway v Dublin (4pm), on Sunday from 1.15pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow our live blog on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app and listen to commentary on Sunday Sport on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Donegal attacker Brendan Devenney feels the Tir Chonaill County got their approach to the season all wrong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-513276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513276","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=513276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}