PADDY McGrath says that Donegal’s experienced campaigners are feeding off the energy jolt that the side’s fresh faces have brought to the mix.
The Ardara man landed a first ever Championship score when he tapped home from close range late on in their 16-point drubbing of Antrim at the weekend.
But to truly appreciate the quality of the goal, you need to watch the ground McGrath made in starting and finishing the move.
Having collected what was a sublime crossfield ball from Michael Murphy, the power and pace generated to cover the ground between off-loading to Martin McElhinney and collecting from Ryan McHugh was seriously impressive.
McGrath was one of just four players from Donegal’s 2012 All-Ireland final team to start against the Saffrons in Ballybofey. Boss Rory Gallagher lost nine players in total over the winter.
Opinion that Donegal would struggle to fill that considerable void was almost universal.
But while the way they went about their business in Division One of the NFL surprised everyone, it didn’t raise McGrath’s eyebrows.
He explains that he became aware very quickly that something exciting was brewing when he came back into the equation in January.
“No harm to the boys who have gone their separate ways and retired, but youth is what the game is all about now,” he said.
“Thankfully, Donegal now have a strong underage and we are starting to breed one or two senior inter-county players every year which is great.
“That is what we need to continue in order to compete with the best teams in Ireland. We knew the younger fellows were coming and what they were capable of. Their attitude as well; it is just a whole different ball game.
“It is like Karl Lacey not giving up, he knew what they could bring. Hopefully now they don’t wait a few years to blossom and we can push on this year.
“When we were starting off we had those older players to bring us along as well.
“It’s just a new generation and now we are the ones with the wee bit of experience to bring those fellows on.
'That is just the way football is. Life goes on, people move on. You do need that bit of experience as well and hopefully those young fellows get plenty of game time now.
“There are younger players just chomping at your heel to get your place and that drives you on as well. They are competing with you all the time, even in the sprints you are trying to stay ahead of them.
There will probably come a day when you will not be fit to be ahead of them, but you will keep driving them on for the future.”
He added: “Most definitely (this is the strongest panel I’ve been involved with). It’s essential now that you have a strong panel. If you look at the teams that have won it, they had players to come in off the bench with the ability to finish off games.
“We had those boys to come on and they did make a difference. You could see that. It is great to have that in the locker.
“We probably didn’t have that in years gone by. The young fellas have really freshened it up this year, which is great to see.
“There are fast legs there and there is a serious level of fitness too. It’s driving us all on. It’s a new generation. It’s up to the rest of us with that wee bit of experience to coax it all along. Their attitude is exceptional. The competition in training, the energy there is great. We can all feed off that.”
As for his own highlight reel from Sunday – McGrath felt it was a mixed bag. Instead of focusing on his goal, he instead centred on areas of the first-half that the Tir Chonaill rearguard have to tighten up on.
“It was good to see it go in the back of the net,”he said.
“I know it wasn’t the prettiest thing. I was trying to glue on the brakes before I ran over the line. Seriously though, I know it was a big win in the end but there are things we wouldn’t be happy with.
“In the first-half, in defence, it wasn’t great. There are a lot of things we’ll need to look at. That won’t be good enough next day out regardless of what comes our way. It won’t get us over the line.”
