Senior Men 2011

Manager: Jim McGuiness
Selector: Rory Gallagher
Captain: Michael Murphy

Jim McGuiness was appointed manager of Donegals Senior Men in July 2010. He brought Kevin Cassidy and Michael Hegarty out of retirement, introduced many players from the U-21 side he brought to the All Ireland final in 2010. and introduced structure and discipline, which is something that many believe donegal have lacked since there winning of the Sam Maguire Cup back in 1992.

McGuinness’ fist major success as senior manager was to win the National Football League Division 2 when they beat Laois in Croke Park 2-11 to 0-16 points. Before the Division 2 Final, they had topped the Division 2 league and were guaranteed promotion with 4 Wins, 2 Draws, and 1 Loss.

After this victory in the National League, expectations for the Donegal were high, with many pundits predicting that Donegal would win the Ulster Championship.

2011 All-Ireland Championship:
Donegal beat Antrim 1-10 to 0-07 in the preliminary round of the Ulster Championship in ballybofey on the 15th of May. This was the teams first Championship win since 2007.
This set up an away match to Cavan in breffni park which Donegal once again were the victors with a scoreline of 2-14 to 1-08
A more ominous test against Tyrone would follow this Cavan victory. The new defensive system developed by Jim McGuinness would be put to the test against a Tyrone team which perfected the blanket defense tactic on the way to three All Ireland Victories in 2003,2005, and in 2008. Donegal fought their way to a 2-06 to a 0-09 win.
it was clear to see the donegal men were full of confidence after this vistory but were still classed “underdogs” for the up coming final against a heavily fancied Derry side who had overcome the 2010 All Ireland runner up side Down on their way to the Ulster Final
On 17 July 2011 Donegal played in their first Ulster final in five years and their sixth Ulster Final since 1992. In front of a crowd of 28,364 Donegal beat Derry 1-11 to 0-08 Points. This was only the third time in the history of the Ulster Football Championship that a team which played the preliminary round won the Final. Armagh did it in 2005, and Cavan did it 66 years earlier. All the more impressive is that Donegal did not concede more than 9 scores per match on the way to the final and held Antrim, Tyrone and Derry to only 3 points each in the second halves of their respective matches. As at 22 July 2011, the county has the lowest average conceding rate in the country at 8.75 points per game.
after celebrating their Ulster Win Donegal Progressed to Croke park on July 30th 2011 in their first All Quarter final in two years to play Kildare.The game began in the first half as quite poor but the 2nd half proved to be more tense as sub Christy Toye scored the only goal of the game, However Kildare brought the game level to drag it to extra-time. As Donegal still looked to be behind two late points from Christy Toye before a long range kick from Kevin Cassidy sealed the Ulster champions in front deep into injury-time. the whole of Ireland were talking about the vistorious win as Donegal focused on rivals Dublin in the Semi final.
The Semi-final on the 28th of augest proved to be a sad day for all Donegal GAA supporters as their championship run came to an end. A sold out Croke Park experienced what was said to be one of the worst games ever to be played in Irelands largest stadium. Dublin progressed to the All-Ireland final after a dull and dreary 0-08 points to 0-06 game.

Colm McFadden and Neil McGee after their defeat to Dublin in the All-Ireland semi final in Croke Park