There’s a natural disappointment around the county this week following Sunday’s All-Ireland Final defeat against Kerry.

We went to Dublin in huge numbers with such great belief.

But it just wasn’t our day. Kerry were the better team and deservedly lifted Sam.

We had hoped we would have the party hats on all week but it just didn’t work out.

Nobody will be hurting more than the players. They invested a massive amount of time and energy into the season chasing the dream.

They got over a big hurdle when they reached the final but they came out second best.

Now you’re back down at the bottom of the hill and it feels like a long way up to the summit.

The buzz in Dublin on Sunday morning was truly fantastic.

I thought Donegal people outnumbered Kerry fans significantly, and they were up good and early to enjoy the day.

There was a big roar in the stadium when the team came out but unfortunately Donegal weren’t able to get the best from their huge support.

If we had scored a goal or a two-pointer, I think the fans would have taken the roof off.

However, Kerry’s phenomenal start meant that we were chasing the game from very early on.

Kerry captain Gavin White set the tone from the first whistle as he charged forward to win the break from the throw-in and set up Dylan Geaney for a point after 11 seconds.

To be fair to Donegal, they kicked some nice early points from Oisin Gallen and Caolan McGonagle but there was a fast pace to the start and we probably needed to calm things down.

We were 0-5 to 0-3 down and had the ball when we gave it away cheaply and Kerry worked the play quickly to David Clifford who swung over a great two-pointer.

Donegal’s Ciaran Moore in action against Kerry in today’s All-Ireland final

It was David’s first involvement, and it was tough on Brendan McCole as he was able to get his eye in when Donegal probably should have been up at the other side of the field on the attack.

The next ten minutes was the key period of the match for Kerry.

They were able to dominate and pen Donegal in and they made it count on the scoreboard.

We found ourselves 0-13 to 0-4 down after 18 minutes and that’s a long way back against a hungry Kerry side.

In fairness to the Donegal players, they were able to work their way into the match.

Conor O’Donnell, Oisin Gallen, and Michael Murphy all kicked scores and they were able to get through the Kerry defence quickly. There wasn’t as much working the ball around the ‘D’ with our half-backs and half-forwards as you might have thought.

The play before half-time was probably a big one as Donegal were five points down in the 34th minute.

You have to be brave and Daire Ó Baoill felt there was a one-on-one close to goal and fired a ball into Michael Murphy but it was wayward.

Kerry then took their time and after the hooter, David Clifford timed his run superbly and curled over a brilliant two-pointer and then raced off the pitch.

Seven down at the break soon went to nine but the introduction of Hugh McFadden and Jason McGee made a huge difference.

We started to get a foothold in midfield and with 15 minutes to go, we were back to within four.

For me, Michael Murphy was to the fore during that period too. He won a free and forced Paul Murphy to collect a kick-out inside the arc, and Michael kicked some tricky placed balls.

Unfortunately when the game was pulled back to four, there were a couple of wides in-a-row which could have reduced the deficit further.

If Kerry saw their lead cut to one or two points, then pressure would have come on.

But Sean O’Shea’s two-point free was massive and Kerry were able to control the game after that.

Joe O’Connor’s goal rubbed salt into the wounds but to be fair to the Donegal players, I thought they kept battling until the full-time whistle.

It’s a tough place to be in those couple of minutes after the match when the opposition players are celebrating and you have to watch on as they lift the trophy.

Analysis

I know how tough it is after you lose a big match and every decision that was made is under scrutiny.

There’s so much media these days and every pundit is zoning in on some point or the other.

We are very lucky in Donegal to have a man of the calibre of Jim McGuinness in charge of his county team.

He’s a deep-thinker of the game and he would have done hours and hours of analysis on Kerry ahead of the final as would his backroom team.

I have no doubt that they felt their team was primed and ready to go and win the All-Ireland.

It didn’t work out and their ability to change things wasn’t helped by the fact that both Ciaran Thompson and Ryan McHugh had to go off with injuries.

Probably the big talking point was the decision not to man-mark Paudie Clifford.

The Fossa man was able to drift out the field and dictate affairs, having 76 touches over the course of the match.

Maybe with Brendan McCole on David Clifford, the management thought Paudie would take himself out to the fringes and make Donegal try and defend with nine players if he was shadowed closely.

When you look at the stats from the game, Donegal weren’t far off Kerry and had a higher scoring efficiency than them.

However, I would say Donegal would feel they could have done better on kick-outs, especially in terms of breaking ball.

Against a quality team like Kerry, it’s going to be hard to stop them if they are dominating possession.

You have to hand it to Jack O’Connor and the Kerry management team because tactically they did very well.

There was variety to their kick-outs and they got away a lot short.

And they didn’t want David Clifford being swallowed up inside.

I felt Brendan McCole did as well as anyone could have on David. We have seen him have other days when his shooting just wasn’t quite on it.

However, his kicking was superb on Sunday. He was the only player to score two-pointers from play and some of them were really outstanding efforts.

Conor O’Donnell was our best player on the day. He drove at Kerry scoring four points from play and also cleared an effort off the line.

Oisin Gallen was also lively on the day before he went off.

Others didn’t quite get into it in the way they would have liked and that’s disappointing because everyone wants to get that performance in the biggest game of their careers.

Kerry are deserving champions and some people are saying they could go on to win three or four in-a-row now.

They have a good age profile but it just doesn’t always play out like that.

A number of teams including Donegal will be keen to stop them.

This is the first year with the new rules and the top teams like Armagh, Tyrone, Galway and Donegal will be looking to devise a way to stop the Kingdom going forward.

It’s a huge commitment to be involved with a senior intercounty team and there will always be some changes from one year to the next.

However, I hope that the bulk of the panel sticks together now and gives it another go next year. They have played to a strong, consistent level over the last two years but they can kick on again in 2026.

Sport can be cruel and this will have been a tough week.

However, it has been absolutely fantastic following the team this year.

They have given us some great days out, and so many youngsters will be inspired to play Gaelic football after watching our county stars in action.

Hopefully they can get a well-earned break now and some down time before gearing up for the Club Championship.