Jim McGuinness

Nicky Byrne, yeah.

It was just like someone put in a thing recently there into another WhatsApp group that I'm in with Jimmy McGuinness staying on as Donegal manager.

And Mary Coughlin, the Donegal GA chairperson, was quoted.

And I'm there, is that Mary? It's Mary Coughlin,

And I think what happened is her husband died young enough she wouldn't be that old or whatever her husband and she was asked to do some committee in Donegal she would be of GA stock now to be fair and she was in to chair some subcommittee maybe it's sort of like a

thing after her husband died

and she just went all the way at the top as chairperson and she dared deal with Jimmy McGuinness that's and it's Tom Parolin chairman over in Offaly and Limerick had John Cregan who was a former Fianna Fáil TD in that as well it's just anyway this is a pick and mix podcast I thoroughly enjoyed the Katie Taylor I thought it was some show that they put on and I'd have no time for the ring before the fight for Katie Taylor some walk on everything I think the French one that they brought over for the match who'd never fought for more than 500 people God help

me Even though, I'd say she got plenty of money.

Jimmy Guinness is going to stay.

He will, so Jim McGuinness will stay in charge of the Donegal senior footballers for the 2027 season.

Donegal's county board have confirmed that the 2012 All-Ireland winning boss will remain on for the fourth year of his second spell at the helm.

He's led the team to a Division 1 league title and two Ulster titles since returning to the role in 2024.

So I'd be very surprised by that.

Wouldn't be overly surprised that maybe a Mark McHugh, like does he get his head turned this early from the Westmeath job or is, again, is he biding his time for potentially being Jim McGuinness' replacement up at Donegal? So, I mean, there's a couple of very exciting young coaches in Ireland that would be looking to step into that job.

It should be noted that, you know, Andy Morin didn't go straight into the Mayo job.

He bided his time.

No, and there's also another aspect at play here as well, Darren, which is the tactical aspect.

And Jim McGuinness was the manager who was on the record about it this summer that the condensed season means you don't actually get a whole pile of time with the players to work on opposition game plans, for example.

But if you're short on a few players, then that opportunity gets lessened again.

So there was this real sense in the final that Mayo had a tactical plan off to a tee and Kerry's tactics went out the window or they just did not work.

So it can be frustrating.

But some of the best, you know, I think some of the best talking points of the entire year has been Kieran McGeaney, Jim McGuinness, Ben O'Connor, all these managers.

They get, they set the tone because the game is the game.

But them coming out with something interesting, that's what people chat about in the pubs later on.

I don't think managers understand the kind of influence that they have and how they can promote the game just from their interviews.

At the moment, we have McGuinness and McGuinney I would have up as the best in football, Ben O'Connor in the hurling.

Some of them can be quite boring.

I find the players quite boring, if I'm being honest.

Before we talk about the games themselves this weekend, I'm just keen to get a player's perspective on how the Championship has been this year.

Because obviously it's been a little bit different and Jim McGuinness particularly was at Croke Park after the Dublin game and he said it was very, very tricky because of how condensed the fixtures were together.

It was hard to do more training and particularly if you're coming off the back of a loss to try and maybe recover your steam a week later can be quite tricky.

Can you just give me a player's perspective on how this new Championship with Round 1, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, how has it been?