McFadden says new mentality means no more negative thought

After losing last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, the reaction to Donegal’s set-up against the subsequent champions was much like that normally reserved for a serial killer.

An evil had been visited on football and something had to be done to stamp it and its purveyors out of the game. It was rubbish of course, symptomatic of the knee-jerk sensationalism – analysis would not be an accurate description – that Kieran Shannon wrote about in this newspaper recently.

Donegal had won a first Ulster title in 19 years, beat Kildare in the quarter-final and then suffocated one of the most exciting attacking units in the land.