EWAN MACKENNA: Lots of bling but no bang

It took just a few sentences, but in those few seconds Jimmy McGuinness managed to depressingly sum up the next three months.

Standing in a cramped corridor under the Cusack Stand on Saturday night, the first real game of 2013 had barely drawn its final breath and the Donegal manager wore a gentle smile as he spoke. This is a man that hates losing so much he’d essentially been unemployed for the past two years, devoting all his time to winning. But here and now, defeat didn’t bother him, and little wonder. “We’re probably at 65-to-70%,” he said. “It’s not something to get overly carried away with. We want to get enough points to stay in the division.”

His honesty had just launched the league — one of the most pointless competitions in sport.