These players do the simple things right, that's why we're in a semi-final' - Boyle

Donegal legend Manus Boyle has praised the county players for their exceptional work and hunger which has now guided them back to an All-Ireland semi-final for the first time since 2014. 

It has been a dream year for the Donegal men since the return of Jim McGuinness to the managerial hot seat. 

Division 2 league honours were followed by an Ulster crown via a treacherous route as McGuinness quickly worked the oracle in his second coming in his hope of guiding the county back to the promised land. 

That continued on Sunday with Donegal’s 1-23 to 0-18 point win over Louth in Croke Park in the All-Ireland quarter-final. 

And while Donegal entered the game hot favourites, Boyle admires the work the players did for 70 minutes as they refused to take their foot off the accelerator. 

“We came up with the expectations that we were going to win, I think maybe the only worry was that we might have taken Louth for granted,” said the 1992 All-Ireland winner.  

“But with 1-23 . . . it was a great bit of scoring. They’ve been excellent throughout the year and they never took their foot off the gas, and to do what they did in an All-Ireland quarter-final, they’ll be delighted with that and they’ll take the positives from it.” 

McGuinness' men led from pillar to post in Croke Park with an upset never on the cards for Ger Brennan's Louth side as Donegal put the foot on the throttle from the start as they finished with 11 different scorers.  

And while they will prove formidable opponents in the final four as they chase their first Sam Maguire triumph since McGuinness led them to success in 2012, Boyle feels there are still a lot of learnings to take out of Sunday’s game if they wish to overcome Galway in the semi-final. 

“Donegal will probably get back to work on Tuesday night, they’ll look at the good things they’ve done, but they’ll also look at the fact that they conceded 0-18 points and that’ll be something that Jim will look at, and work on,” said the Killybegs man. 

“There was also very little physicality in this game, I wouldn’t expect the same against Galway, I would expect a much more physical game, intense game, but if we continue to play to Jim’s template which sees very little wides, shooting when we have the opportunity, and settling down quickly, then we should be fine.  

“It’s basically doing all the simple things right. That’s what has brought us to our first All-Ireland semi-final in 10 years and Jim will build on that in the next few weeks.” 

With Peadar Mogan leading the way for the county with 0-5 points scored against Louth, no doubt he will be on show as the county’s leading contender for an All-Star award, but Boyle feels that the thinking behind the players’ minds will be very much on winning games over individual awards. 

“I’m not sure that Peadar’s goal will be about winning individual awards, I don’t think players go out to do that, but he’s been excellent all year, but we all know it’s about the team and you can see that when a player is taken off, there’s no throwing the toys out of the pram. It’s about the process and it’s about winning and getting to the next round,” Boyle said. 

“That’s what Jim and his management team are all about and Peadar Mogan expresses that more than anyone else.” 

It’s hard to believe how far Donegal has come in the last year since their poor 2023 season on and off the pitch, but Boyle remarks that the talent in the players was always there and for years the players have been learning and progressing their game to match the top teams in Ireland. 

“I suppose in the last four or five years, we have been in the midst of a Dublin era, that will probably never be achieved again. We had Declan Bonner for five years and in that time, it was either Dublin or Kerry winning because they were so strong. But this same group of players were learning what they needed to do to progress to be at the same level as Dublin,” he said. 

“Last year we had a dark summer, the way we handled the Paddy Carr situation and the way the players went out on a number of occasions, and probably didn’t do themselves justice. But now Jim coming in, it was either going to be, get back to the hard work or forget about it, and he gave everyone a massive boost. 

“The players have knuckled down, they’ve worked hard and Jim as we know, asks for everything, he doesn’t ask for 99pc and fair play to the players, they have given that.”