Vice-captain Hugh McFadden says the Donegal players believe they can return to the top of the game and become All-Ireland champions again.
In his debut season Killybegs midfielder McFadden was an unused substitute in the 2014 All-Ireland final victory over Kerry but after last summer’s Championship and their draw with the Kingdom in the Super 8s, he thinks Declan Bonner’s side should be afraid of nobody.
“I think regardless of how Kerry did in last year’s All-Ireland final we still believe in ourselves, that we are good enough to put it up to anyone in the country and that we are good enough to beat anyone,” said McFadden. “
But we have to go and prove that. Kerry are a fantastic side and given the age profile of their top players, they’re going to be around at the top end of football again for a long, long time.
“I think essentially Dublin showed in the (final) replay the ruthless machine that they are.
“As a Donegal player there is a wee bit of hurt there when you do see a team who you have performed well against during the summer, that goes on to the All-Ireland final. We probably desperately want to get back to that level.”
Even though the team have no complaints about the Super 8 games where Donegal bowed out after failing to beat Mayo in Castlebar, McFadden says he is not a fan of the structure.
“We knew going into MacHale Park that day that it was essentially an All-Ireland quarter final regardless of the Super 8s structure,” he told Ocean FM. “There is no excuses to be had from our behalf they were the better team on the day. As proud footballers we will never make excuses for that.
“Personally, do I think it’s the best way to run a Championship? I’m not quite sure, I’m not sold on the Super 8s situation. I’m not quite sold on the fact that we have a group stage in the middle of a competition that was already knock-out.
“One thing about this Covid situation, it probably gives us an opportunity to how we organise our fixtures,” McFadden added.
