It’s two weeks before Donegal and Galway do battle to see who takes a coveted place in the All Ireland Final at Croke Park on July 28th.
But thew mind games between Jim McGuinness and his old pal Padraic Joyce have already started.
The managers are good friends having played together at IT Tralee, winning a Sigerson Cup in 1998.
But, in the hunt for Sam Maguire, the Glenties man will have no friends or sentiment.
He admitted he may allow himself one very small indulgence.
Speaking after yesterday’s win over Louth in the quarter-final, he said “I am looking forward to that [semi-final] because I know one of us will progress to the final, that’s being honest,” he said.
“The radio silence will kick in for a wee while. I might send him a cheeky text tonight but apart from that, that’ll be it for a fortnight.”
McGuinness will have planed and planned and planned for a posisble date with Dessie Farrell and his Dublin team but they fell to Galway by a single point on Saturday.
But he insisted the surprise of Dublin being beaten “does not change anything” for his Donegal side.
“You can’t go down that road, but obviously Dublin have been amazing for so long so whenever they get beat it’s a big moment in the championship,” he said.
“It doesn’t change anything for the semi-final, we will double down on Galway because all these games are just individual battles that you have to try and understand and develop a plan around and execute.”
He was particularly happy with the spread of scorers with 11 different players on target against Ger Brennan’s brave charges.
But he is mostly happy with the result and giving Donegal fans another day out.
“We are extremely happy to be in the semi-final, if we were told that at the start of the year, we’d have taken your arm off, so we are thankful for that.
“We are delighted for the people of Donegal here and abroad who give us massive support all the time.”
“The most important thing in Championship football is to get into the next round and we must make the next fortnight count.
“Galway will present the next challenge for us and we have to try to solve those problems over the next two weeks.”
On his friendship with Joyce, McGuinness was sincere in his praise for the two-time All-Ireland winner as a player with Galway in 1998 and 2001.
“If we couldn’t win it I’d be delighted for Padraic and Galway,” he said.
“We had great times together, he is a great fella, a great football man and is very driven. We have great memories down in Tralee and have always stayed in contact.”
