‘We don’t go in for stress’

If ever a manager was built to take the heat off his players, it’s Jim McGuinness.

Having a clutch of sports psychology degrees must help when he says his Donegal lads “don’t do stress” and insists the prospect of winning Ulster titles back-to-back for the first time is no burden.

“It’s something that hasn’t been done before but we don’t go in for stress.

“Ultimately what we’re trying to do is execute our own game-plan in relation to the work we’ve done on the training field, where’s the stress in that?

“It’s a positive goal for the players to try and achieve.

“The fact that they’ve come through into a second final two years running is a great reward for the work they’ve done, so hopefully they can produce a performance worthy of it.”

But Down have sprung from the pack before and won when no-one fancied them. Their best hope of sowing seeds of doubt in the ultra confident Donegal players is to play with the famous Down swagger. It is a long shot but McGuinness acknowledges everything is possible.

“Any day we go out, any team can win. For us, it’s about trying to nail down our game-plan and it’s up to the other management teams to do the same.

“I know for a fact that Down will come with a very strong game-plan. Traditionally and historically, they come with a lot of confidence into an Ulster final.

“They play with a lot of flair when they get to finals and ask a lot of questions.”