IM McGuinness hailed ‘brilliant’ Brendan McCole after he made his 100th appearance for Donegal on Sunday.
The bainisteoir wasn’t aware that the St Naul’s man had hit the milestone.
McCole is a vital part of the team as he often marks the opposition’s most dangerous player.
He showed his strong defensive instincts by getting back on the line and saving Oisin Conaty’s shot in the 78th minute.
“I didn’t have him down as a goalkeeper, definitely not. But there you go. No, listen, he’s been brilliant.
“He’s in a good vein of form and he has a tough job. Every day he goes out to play. So I was unaware of that.
“So I’ll have to make sure to congratulate him when I get inside.”
McCole has shown great consistency to be fit to play 100 games when he has only been a regular for five seasons.
McGuinness was quick to acknowledge the effort that goes in, not just from McCole but all intercounty players.
“Listen, it’s not just Brendan to be fair. I think everybody in the Armagh dressing room, everybody in the Donegal dressing room they’re putting their life on hold to play for their county.
“It’s a seven-day-a-week vocation. It’s probably the best word to describe it. They’re doing everything to make sure that they give it their best for their county.
“So hats off to them. It’s a completely different world on that front.
“They’ll be in the gym tomorrow morning, most of them at six o’clock after a game today.
And they’ll be watching every bite they eat. So yeah, that’s across the country at the moment.”
Much was made of Kieran McGeeney’s comments in the lead-up to the match about ‘piggery’ in the middle of the field.
McGeeney feels there is no skill in battling for the breaking ball in the middle of the field.
Donegal came out on top in that regard on Sunday and McGuinness was asked afterwards how he viewed the subject.
“Well, we had that conversation on the sideline at one stage during the game that it’s happening. And I think it’s a fair comment. It does be distilled down to that.
“We had a pod out here on the left-hand side and Ciarán Moore done brilliant work for us. Hughie did brilliant work. Jason McGee did brilliant work. Michael Langan. And that’s what won us the game. At the end of the day, that’s what won us the game.
“Going back to Kieran’s comments last week. Is there any skill involved in that? He probably has a point. It’s there to be won.
“But there’s definitely a lot of heart involved in it. And there’s a lot of determination involved in it. But in terms of his point, he does have a point in that regard.
“It’s a game of chance. And the ball’s going to bounce one way or another.
He added: “We always say we’ll coach the rules.
“That’s the bottom line. We’ll coach the rules. So if that is the case, that’s fine.
“I suppose managers want to be better than that. They want more control. They want to be involved in a process that doesn’t ultimately end up in a 50-50 chance.
“I think that’s probably where he’s coming from. And obviously there’s a physical aspect. The counties that have big men, we’re fortunate we have a couple of big men at the minute.
“And they’re all on the pitch at the one time and they’re not injured. And that gives us a slight advantage. Because they’re able to get together and they’re able to get involved in that battle.
And some counties don’t have those players available. And some counties could have picked 10 players like that. So that’s the way it is.”
Michael Murphy didn’t make the journey to Armagh but McGuinness was quick to point out that he’s not injured.
“We just didn’t travel him.
“We did that last year. In the away games, he normally doesn’t travel. We’ll get him ready for next week all going well.
“He’s in a good place. We’re just the same as Jason. We’re conscious of the fact that he’s come out of surgery himself.
“We’re building him up. We’re trying to get his minutes up. We’re trying to get his fitness up.
“He’s going to be good to go for the next game.”
