Defender Neil McGee hails Donegal’s squad depth

Neil McGee believes Donegal have more depth than at any other time in the previous five seasons under Jim McGuinness and Rory Gallagher.

In 2014, McGuinness started just 16 players in Donegal’s first five Division 2 games. In the same period in Division 1 last year, Gallagher gave starting berths to 18 men.

Eamon McGee for Michael Carroll was the only change from the Down game for the latest win over Cork but then the likes of Rory Kavanagh, Martin McElhinney and Neil Gallagher have been coming off the bench, while Mark McHugh, Leo McLoone, and veterans Karl Lacey, Colm McFadden, and Christy Toye have yet to feature.

“It is well known when Jim was there we used probably 19 or 20 players and that was the core of the players that were used in the championship,” says McGee.

“Looking down through the squad now, if we can get 24 or 25 players competing for a place, that will be our big target coming into the summer.

“It is a positive the strength in depth that we have at the minute. You see Rory Kavanagh came in and he is in good shape; big Neil came on and Leo is there as well, and you have McFadden and Lacey to come back.”

McGee can’t see it being a case of the seasoned players being held in reserve.

“I don’t think those boys – they are very proud – will want to sit on the bench. But that is what you want, to see the boys pushing on, the likes of Marty Reilly, Ryan McHugh, Eoin McHugh, and (Odhrán) MacNiallais, they have taken it on to another level too.

“They all have great legs about them, they have pace. It is good to have that mixture of pace and strength around the team.”