BY RYAN FERRY

PAUL Brennan says Donegal will have to earn their spot in the All-Ireland Final by bringing the right level of intensity to Sunday’s semi-final with Meath.
Brennan soldiered alongside many of the current Donegal panel during his seven seasons with the panel.
Only four members of the panel – Michael Murphy, Patrick McBrearty, Ryan McHugh, and Hugh McFadden – have experienced being part of the senior set-up on All-Ireland Final Day before.
A large cohort of the squad are now in their mid-twenties and Brennan feels they are primed and ready to take the next step.
“I believe Donegal have the perfect mix with Michael (Murphy) and Paddy (McBrearty) of the older generation and then good young players coming through like Finnbarr Roarty and Shane O’Donnell.
“But there is a big chunk that would have come through during Declan’s (Bonner) time – Shaun Patton, Peadar Mogan, Michael Langan, Jason McGee, Jamie Brennan, Caolan McGonagle, Eoghan ‘Ban’ (Gallagher) – and to me they are in the prime of their football careers now.
“They know now that they have an opportunity on their hands to really go after what every intercounty footballers wants.
“Everything is in place to help them. They have the management team and the medical team and it’s just up to those players now to go and take the chance with both hands.
“There is a bunch of core lads that know what is at stake here and they have to go and grab it and say ‘it’s our day today’.
“Semi-finals are there to be won, and it doesn’t matter how it happens.
“You just have to get yourself in the position where you can contend to go and win the All-Ireland.
“But they’ll have to earn it. You aren’t just given the right to play in the final.
“You have to earn it by playing with the intensity that they know they can play at, and doing it for seventy minutes.
“You have to go and earn it by doing whatever it takes to beat Meath.”
It has been confirmed that Donegal will wear in Sunday’s semi-final while Meath will also don an alternative kit.
At the time of going to print, over 55,000 tickets had already been sold for the match and that figure is expected to grow over the coming days.