BY RYAN FERRY

SHANE O’Donnell says his team are entering new territory after they booked their spot in the All-Ireland Football Final.

Only four members of the panel – Michael Murphy, Patrick McBrearty, Hugh McFadden, and Ryan McHugh – have been part of a dressing room in the All-Ireland Senior Final before.

After losing by two points to Galway in last year’s semi-final, it wouldn’t have been easy to come back again if Donegal came up short on Sunday.

However, in the end, it turned out to be quite a comfortable victory for the team.

O’Donnell has been in great form this season, and contributed another point in the semi-final.

Kerry will be keen to negate his influence in the final, but O’Donnell will be doing everything in his power to try and bring Sam back to the Hills.

“It’s new territory for us which is great.

“We wanted to get there last year but we just fell short in the end.

“We’re happy to be there and it’s going to be a mental two weeks now.

“It will be busy with training and all that sort of craic.

“We will just get the heads down now and train hard and try and get ready for it.”

Donegal were tipped to win the match but Meath had produced a good body of work this season.

O’Donnell and his teammates gave the Royals their full respect and they didn’t take the foot off the gas in the second half.

“We knew it wasn’t going easy.

“We were five points up at half-time but we said that the game wasn’t over.

“We knew they would come back and throw everything at us.

“We knew we would just have to dig deep for the twenty minutes after half-time.

“Oisin’s goal was brilliant and that put us on our way really.

“The boys that came on like Daire (Ó Baoill) and Paddy (McBrearty) did very well.

“They got a couple of points each and that’s what you need.

“I’m sure training will be very tough over the next two weeks because everyone will want to play in the final.”