Durcan delights in Donegal’s return to the top table

Another 70 minutes separates Donegal from a second All-Ireland title but Paul Durcan believes that whatever happens now, they have finally shed the image of unruly party animals that stalked them for so many years.

Jim McGuinness touched on that very subject after Sunday’s defeat of Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final. The manager mentioned how people said he was “off my rocker” to take over a bunch of players whose late-night exploits so often overshadowed their Sunday afternoons. “That idea was out there. I live and work in Dublin and it was always said to me about the partying in Donegal. Anyone that lives up there knows what the lads are like. We enjoy ourselves and have a good time but it was blown out of proportion. We have put that to bed.”

Another unwanted moniker — that of perennial underachievers — is all but set to join it under the covers. Then again, perhaps it already has given their back-to-back provincial titles and the years of disappointment that had preceded them. Durcan was there through most of them: the Ulster final defeats to Armagh in 2004 and ‘06, the false dawn that was the 2007 National League title and the three-year span from 2008 to 2010 when they couldn’t even win a game in their provincial championship.