Training camp focuses Donegal

Jim McGuinness admitted he used the training camp at Lough Erne last week to try prepare his side for every eventuality Kerry could throw at them in Sunday’s All-Ireland final.

The Donegal team spent five days at the Lough Erne Golf Resort in neighbouring Fermanagh to prepare for the game against Kerry.

“There’s a saying in psychology that fear lies in the unknown,” he told celticfc.tv yesterday.

“What we try to do is make every known possibility that can happen on the day clear in the players’ minds, and make sure that what we’re trying to do with our own game plan, that they are very comfortable with that.

“It’s just about delivering that. Our lads will not be thinking about the crowd or Croke Park or the significance of winning a third All-Ireland or anything like that. It’s just about what we need to do to win the game and focus on that.”

He added: “The key thing is preparations and once they are good, I’m happy. If we prepare really well and go in with a good mindset, that’s all we’re looking for. After that, it’s about the performance and 100% we’re just trying to nail that performance. There’s no guarantees and you could nail your performance and do everything 100% and you could still meet a top-class Kerry team that maybe just pip you at the post. If we nail the performance, you will be competitive and if you’re competitive, you’ve always got a chance of winning. That’s the key thing for us. We want to do ourselves justice and the county justice and deliver that big performance.”

McGuinness was in Glasgow yesterday catching up on the day job at Celtic Park and admitted he was enjoying the escape from Donegal in the build-up to Sunday’s final.

“It’s nice to be here. It gives you the chance to reflect. When you get to a final you want to take that opportunity so we’re looking forward to the match,” he said.

“There’s a lot of demands on the management and players in the build- up to the game but we were away last week for a few days and got a really good training camp under our belt. We got a lot of opportunities to prepare the team. Kerry will present a massive challenge for us and hopefully we’ll have the answers on Sunday.”