Donegal ‘a different animal’ from ’09 slaughtering

Most of his colleagues can still only wince at the mention of their 2009 All-Ireland quarter-final hammering by Cork but Rory Kavanagh chuckles.

He’s been plugging away with Donegal for a full decade now and knows this is how the media roles in the lead-in to big games: with the ashes of previous meetings raked for embers that may still smoulder months or years later.

It takes little digging through the events of three years ago in order to find a talking point. The scoreline said it all. Cork 1-27, Donegal 2-10. Only two goals in garbage time allowed the men from Ulster return north with even a modicum of respect. Kavanagh scored one of them but the majority of his afternoon was spent holding down an unfamiliar sweeper role.