BY MATTHEW WILSON
FORMER Donegal selector and Sligo player Brendan Kilcoyne feels that neither Donegal or Kerry will hold anything back when they face-off in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship this Saturday.
Jim McGuinness’s side will make the long trip to Killarney for this weekend’s encounter in a repeat of last term’s All-Ireland decider and the recent Division 1 National League showpiece.
It’s been four weeks since Donegal exited the Ulster Senior Championship following a quarter-final defeat to Down at O’Donnell Park.
They’ll have been spending the weeks since preparing for the start of this competition and the task at hand this Saturday at Fitzgerald Stadium.
A loss for either side this weekend isn’t the be all and end all, as it is not a straight knockout clash.
However, Kilcoyne expects both teams to leave very little in reserve when they take to the field as they aim to make a positive start to their campaign.
“I don’t think anything will be held back. Both these sides have ambitions in being there for the All-Ireland Final or the latter stages of the All-Ireland Championships.
“Particularly Donegal, coming in on the back of that defeat, it would be a major body blow maybe to take two defeats in-a-row after going so well early on in the league.
“You don’t know what sort of draw you’re going to get after that. There’s plenty of other counties out there waiting for Donegal on the back of a loss, as they could be on a win too.
“If there are niggling injuries in either camp, maybe they won’t be risked with the outlook of the next game to get them fully fit.
“If you go back to the Down game, there’s areas that need to be tightened up. From kick-outs, with Odhran Murdock dominating in the middle of the field.
“Also if you look back at the league, you were counting up Donegal’s board at the end of the day and you were looking at 11 or 12 different scorers.
“We didn’t get that against Down, we were very reliant on the inside line of Conor (O’Donnell), Michael (Murphy) and Oisin (Gallen) to get the bulk of our scores. There are loads of areas that I’m sure Jim and the management team will be looking at since then to tidy up.
“Knowing Jim McGuinness and knowing this Donegal team, they’re going to go all guns blazing on Saturday and if they’re good enough then they come away with a wind and if they’re not then they’ll have to regroup again and be ready for the next day.”