CAOLAN McGonagle was happy to round off a ‘good campaign’ with the Division 1 title last weekend.
Donegal bridged a 19-year-gap to their last first league success in 2007.
At that time, the county had lost 13 finals in-a-row and there was a homecoming in Donegal Town when they returned to the county.
It was much more low-key after Sunday’s match but there was still satisfaction with how the last two months have gone.
“It’s a national title at the end of the day and we’re happy with the result.
“We’re happy with how the league went as a whole.
“We have been building for the whole league and trying to find new players.
“Max and Shea were in from the start and the players who have been playing well kept our momentum going.
“Conor (O’Donnell) got another goal, and Michael (Murphy) was back in from the start.
“A good campaign and a good performance (in the final) to top it off.”
McGonagle picked up Joe O’Connor at times on Sunday and helped Donegal to dictate matters on the Kerry kick-out.
“If you watch any games these days with the new rules, you see the kick-outs are becoming more and more important,” said the 30-year-old.
“A lot of them are going out to the middle and they are 50-50 with breaking ball and stuff.
“Teams have their different ways of trying to get their hands on the ball and for us in the second half, it paid dividends.”
There was much debate in the county in recent days over whether or not McGonagle was going for a point or a goal when his right-footed effort lobbed over Shane Murphy and nestled into the net.
“I don’t know if I would call it a nice lobbed effort or a bad shot!
“We will take it anyway.
“Conor’s goal was a big score in the tie. We kept the ball for a while and he got on the end of it and finished it well.
“The goals are obviously big scores in any game.”