There is always another hill to summit. For the decorated Dublin footballers, this weekend’s trek to Donegal presents them with an opportunity to plant a flag.
The Dubs have not won in the northwest for 15 years and it remains one of the few unticked boxes in their vast list of conquests during an era of dominance when Sam Maguire spent nine of 14 winters in the capital.
Indeed, since that 2011 breakthrough All-Ireland-winning season Dublin have travelled to the home patch of all their major rivals and picked up wins in the National League – all bar Donegal, that is.
Of the other six All-Ireland finalists from 2011 until now, Dublin have posted league victories in the back yards of Kerry, Mayo, Tyrone, Galway and Armagh.
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But their two league trips to Donegal during that same period ended in stalemate, with draws at MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey in both 2013 and 2017.
Dublin have won all the other eight league meetings between the counties since 2011, seven of which took place at Croke Park and one at Breffni Park in Cavan. But they failed to breach the Ballybofey barricades.
Dublin’s last league win in Donegal was a 0-13 to 1-8 victory in Ballyshannon in 2009. Stephen Cluxton and Michael Murphy both featured in that game.
As Donegal seemed to stumble from one problem to another at that time, it wasn’t evident that a seismic shift was on the way. But in September 2012 they were crowned All-Ireland champions.
And MacCumhaill Park was well on its way to becoming a fortress by then. From March 2010 until March 2022 Donegal went unbeaten in the league at Ballybofey.
In advance of Dublin arriving for this Saturday’s 7.30pm encounter, Donegal’s only two league defeats at the venue since 2010 are losses to Monaghan in 2022 and Mayo in 2023.
Jim McGuinness has never lost a league or championship game in Ballybofey as Donegal senior manager.
He made it a priority at the start of his first term in 2011 to ensure Donegal were hard to beat at home – though while results didn’t always go their way in games played elsewhere in the county, particularly Letterkenny, Ballybofey proved impenetrable to visiting teams.
Donegal won all four of their home league games last season – the first year in the second coming of McGuinness at the wheel. They beat Cork and Meath in Ballybofey, Fermanagh in Letterkenny and Louth in Ballyshannon.
Donegal have four home league games again this year – with three set to be played at MacCumhaill Park (v Dublin, Armagh, Tyrone) and one at Fr Tierney Park in Ballyshannon against Derry.
Saturday will represent Donegal’s first competitive outing of the 2025 campaign after last week’s league opener against Kerry in Killarney was postponed because of Storm Éowyn.
That game has been refixed for February 8th at 2.30pm in Fitzgerald Stadium.
A new-look Dublin beat Mayo at Croke Park last Saturday night and Dessie Farrell is expected to continue his blooding of players against Donegal this weekend.
“It was great to get back to competitive football, we were very happy with the performance overall,” said the Dublin manager of their display against Mayo.
“We had a lot of new lads in the mix and fellas who hadn’t previously established themselves in the starting team getting opportunities.
“The two points were a bonus of course but we were just happy to see us perform to the level we did and be as competitive as we were.”
Of the two aforementioned Donegal-Dublin league draws in Ballybofey, McGuinness was at the helm with the Ulster side in 2013.
Donegal were relegated from Division One that season – though they picked up five points from their three home games at Ballybofey, beating Down and Kerry before drawing with Jim Gavin’s Dublin in the last round of fixtures.
Paul Mannion scored an injury-time point to earn Dublin a draw in that game. A victory for Donegal would have seen them remain in the top flight but Mannion’s late effort relegated the home side, and in turn saved Kerry from the drop.
Colm McFadden’s first-half goal had helped Donegal lead 1-6 to 0-6 at the turnaround but Dublin’s second-half rally saw the game end level, 1-10 to 0-13.
In 2017, it was Donegal’s turn to register an injury-time free to draw the contest – Murphy earning his side a share of the points against a Dublin team who at that time were on an unbeaten run of 32 games. Rory Gallagher was the Donegal manager then.
Early goals by Jason McGee and Ryan McHugh gave Donegal a firm hold on the contest but Niall Scully’s second-half strike helped push Dublin in front until Murphy’s late score, 2-5 to 1-8.
On Saturday night, Donegal will once again be determined to hold firm at Fortress Ballybofey. Dublin, meanwhile, will arrive hell-bent on planting their flag.
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