Going down not the end of the world, it’s all about the summer, says McGuinness

Jim McGuinness reiterated the championship is his only competition of concern after his Donegal side were relegated from Division 1 of the Allianz Football League yesterday when Dublin left Ballybofey with a draw.

It looked as though the All-Ireland champions were going to avoid the drop as they led Jim Gavin’s Dublin 1-9 to 0-10 in stoppage time. However, Dublin levelled thanks to the only two points from play in the second-half, through Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion.

“It isn’t the end of the world for us,” McGuinness said afterwards. “It doesn’t make a difference for us. We don’t really like the league to be honest. We like to have them ready for the summer. It is very hard to balance that with winning games, particularly in Division 1. It isn’t a big issue for us. We’ll rebuild in Division 2, not that we’ll be rebuilding but it’ll be a wee bit easier on us in terms of the opposition we’ll be playing. It’ll give us a chance to roll out our annual plan easier than it has been this year and last year. We have no problem with being relegated – it is just the manner it unfolded in.”