BY RYAN FERRY
DONEGAL midfielder Jason McGee feels he has always been playing catch-up in previous campaigns when he missed out on pre-season so he’s delighted to get a good run at things this January.
McGee has missed most of the 2024 National Football League and didn’t play at all in the ’25 instalment.
Jim McGuinness said last year that they had ‘a plan’ to get McGee back to full fitness and apart from a small blip in the All-Ireland Series, he was able to return and play meaningful minutes as Donegal reached the decider.
However, he was never able to nail down a regular starting spot and the fact that others had more training done than him had to be a factor.
This year already he has played four games for Donegal and impressed in the middle of the field and his team are the better for it.
“It’s (pre-season) probably something I’ve missed out on over the last two or three years,” McGee told the Donegal News.
“My pre-season really hasn’t been starting until the end of the league and the lads are flying at that stage so I’ve been playing catch up in a way.
“So I’m just glad now I’ve got a full pre-season behind me and a good chunk of work done with the club (Corduff) and the body’s holding up alright so please to God now we can keep it that way.”
McGee has a huge frame and there aren’t many bigger men playing inter-county football.
However, that has presented challenges with a hip injury particularly problematic while it’s been difficult to stave off soft tissue complaints as well.
He’s had to play through the pain barrier for his county but thankfully that’s not an issue this year.
“I probably had a very slow two years there in terms of injuries especially this time of year we’re kind of nursing myself back to health.
“I don’t think I started a league campaign now in a long time so for me it’s very, very positive especially getting three games in the McKenna cup and being fit to play a full game.”
He added: “Probably at the end of last year my body started coming into itself.
“I was starting to become injury free and started to get on top of things and working really closely with the medical team and they got me in good shape and suppose I got a good block of work in with the club over the club season and I think that stood to me big time going into pre-season.”
The fact that Donegal won the Dr McKenna Cup for the first time since 2018 certainly augers well for the team.
However, the pace and intensity will always lift for the National Football League.
That was the case and while Donegal dominated Dublin for long periods, the Boys in Blue had some good subs on the bench and finished strongly.
McGee and his teammates were delighted to leave Headquarters with a three-point win and two league points to their name.
“The first league game away to Dublin in Croke Park is never going to be easy and it’s nice to get off the mark with two points and we’ll be strong from here hopefully.
“The boys started very well and we were in a good position going in at half-time and we knew that we knew that the push was going to come from Dublin in the second half and it did.
“I suppose we had a few things to brush up on our own kick-out and things like that there and we maybe won’t be as happy with the second half performance as we were going in at half-time.
“Look it’s two points at the end of the day and we’re off to a good start.”
Donegal have strength in the middle sector with McGee, Michael Langan, Hugh McFadden and Kieran Gallagher all vying for starting spots while Caolan McGonagle looks nailed on to play at number six.
In general, they dominated Dublin in the aerial exchanges in the first half and that allowed them a platform to race ahead.
It wasn’t quite as convincing in the second half but it was wet night and a scrappy affair at times.
When Donegal reflect back on the All-Ireland Final, a failure to win their own kick-outs in the first half was undoubtedly damaging.
The new rules have brought high fielding back into vogue which suits McGee but he sees scope for improvement.
“For sure it’s nice to know the ball is coming long as often as possible but as I keep going back to we’ve a lot to do to try and utilise the big men around the middle and get the better of these kick-outs for us.”
Shea Malone, Kieran Gallagher, Turlough Carr and Conor McCahill all made their league debuts last week and there are others who are eager to get a chance to show what they can do.
McGee is enthused by what he has seen from the young players breaking through this year.
“Hugh (McFadden) mentioned there last week that it’s exciting.
“They nearly give the older lads in the squad a lease of life as well when they’re coming in and they’re comfortable playing there and they’re putting up big scores.
“Shea Malone has been exceptional there for the last few weeks and you know then you don’t have to rush the likes of Oisin (Gallen) and (Michael) Murphy back into it. You see Shea there came in again it’s like second nature to him and there wasn’t a bother on him.
“I find with all the young fellas coming in, they’re winners.
“They’re used to winning a lot of them boys are winning all around them at underage level and it’s just good to see. It’s exciting.”
Kerry are the visitors to Fr Tierney Park this week and it’s understandable that minds drift back to the All-Ireland Final in July.
Donegal feel they didn’t do themselves justice on that occasion.
The Falcarragh man admits that it was a defeat that cut deep.
“I think it would have been playing on a lot of boys’ minds throughout the club season and coming into pre-season looking back it’s hard to sweep that one under the carpet.
“I’d say that one is going to sting our group for a long, long time and I suppose we have a chance next week… we’re not going to rectify it as such but we can give it a good rattle.”
Kerry are down a host of regulars but they always have fresh talent coming through and McGee anticipates a big battle on Sunday.
“Kerry are coming up and there’s probably going to be a couple of lads looking to nail down places early in the league going into the summer. Kerry always have that depth. They always produce good footballers.
“It’s good we can go up and give them a good rattle next week in Ballyshannon.
He added: “I suppose Ballyshannon probably isn’t the easiest of places for teams to come into and I wouldn’t say we’re overly used to it but we’ve a good record and we’re still going to treat it as a home game.
“You’ve got to try and target these home games in Division 1 to try get points on the board.”
