Coughlan expects McGuinness and Donegal to finalise backroom replacements soon 

Mary Coughlan says she expects Jim McGuinness to have his replenished Donegal backroom team confirmed inside the coming days. 

The departures of Luke Barrett, as well as physiotherapists Shane McClean and Joseph O’Donnell, were confirmed last month. 

READ NEXT: Donegal GAA fixtures for this weekend have been released 

Speculation has linked former Fermanagh boss Kieran Donnelly with replacing Barrett as a selector but Coughlan says she’s been out of the country the past fortnight and will only know more when she meets up with McGuinness once again to plot the way ahead in 2026.  

The Ulster champions and All-Ireland runners-up returned from their team holiday in Cancun, Mexico, late last Friday night so Coughlan anticipates progress on all of that real soon.

“The last time I spoke to Jim, he was busy with that backroom team additions work,” she said. “He’s spoken to different people and I understand all that preliminary work is now done. We’ll meet again now soon and I expect those decisions will have been made”.

Meanwhile, Coughlan says Donegal are still awaiting provisional 2026 NFL fixtures.

With MacCumhaill Park currently out of commission and with the McKenna Cup back on the table as well, she says the sooner they receive draft schedules, the sooner the Donegal board can go about planning their home outings in both competitions. 

“We don’t have NFL fixtures just yet. The issue for us is that in January, and with nighttime games at MacCumhaill Park off the table, we’re going to be split between O’Donnell Park and Fr Tierney Park for our home games. 

“So when we do get those, we’ll know more on the logistics of all of that. Of course, the McKenna Cup fixtures will be released soon too and we’ll have to look at those. Wednesday night, under lights, obviously won’t be possible so we’ll have some planning to do there too.

“We’ve spoken to Brian McAvoy (Ulster GAA secretary)  and we’ll probably be away more than we’re at home when those fixtures do get released”.

Coughlan also confirmed McGuinness and his players will be in attendance at the Donegal GAA awards event, to be held at the Abbey Hotel, on Saturday night, to pick up their Ulster SFC medals. 

And there will also be a host of individual club awards presented, including the Gradam Shéamuis Mhic Géidigh award, with Naomh Conaill’s Finnbarr Roarty confirmed on Wednesday as this season’s winner. 

“We’ll have the presentation of both the Ulster winning and All-Ireland runners-up medals and there will also be the various club championship Player of the Year awards.

“It’ll be a nice way to sign off on a very successful 2025 and, indeed, look ahead with excitement towards 2026”.