Jim McGuinness offers Michael Murphy update as Donegal boss previews test Kerry will provide in final
Having suffered an agonising
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Donegal have not reached an All-Ireland final since losing to Kerry in the Sam Maguire Cup decider in 2014
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Talisman Michael Murphy was subbed off around 10 minutes into the second half
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Kerry overcame Tyrone by a score of 1-20 to 0-17 to reach the All-Ireland final
And McBrearty said: 'When we left here in 2014, I didn't think it would be 2024 until we reached our next semi-final.
"We massively, massively underachieved from '14 to '24 basically in our eyes.'
Boss McGuinness, who guided
Veteran forward McBrearty, 31, who scored 0-3 off the bench yesterday, continued: 'When
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'They were a barren couple of years. We were winning Ulsters, teams were tipping us to go on and win All-Irelands and we couldn't get over the big days.
'Getting this man back obviously helped with that and getting back to days like this day in two weeks is going to be massive.'
McGuinness was thrilled with his side for enduring 'a long road back' as they hit top gear to
He said: 'We spoke about it as coaches in the hotel this morning, that it feels like there's a performance in them.
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"Because a lot of the things we were looking to achieve in the game, there was a consistency in our training.
'That's brilliant and obviously we get another two weeks now into the final and hopefully we can go down the same road.'
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Opponents Kerry will look to be crowned All-Ireland champions for the first time since 2022 having reached the decider thanks to a
McGuinness commented: 'They just have a lot of quality. They have a lot of skill level. They're playing for each other.
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'You can see that they're very united and very together. I thought their interviews were very balanced and very controlled and they're on a bit of a mission themselves.
'It's great for us. It's a great challenge, we're looking forward to it. We'll have to get the heads down now, get down the road and start that process as quickly as we can and look forward to it.'
MURPHY OKAY?
McGuinness also confirmed that 35-year-old Michael Murphy did not suffer an injury after he was substituted in the 45th minute of the 20-point rout of the Royals.
He explained: 'He's good. I suppose the strength of the group at the moment is the squad and everybody's pushing really, really hard.
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"There's a couple of lads there that have trained really well that didn't get on.
'There's good competition for places and we'll be back to ground zero on Tuesday night in terms of that now.'
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