SO HERE’S THE conundrum for Donegal: you tear through the 2025 championship, registering cricket scores at times in a near flawless 10-game odyssey but then lose your 11th game, the All-Ireland final, by a double digit margin. Do you rip up the script now or stick with the status quo?

It’s the same question facing the Cork hurlers, to an extent, though the switch in management on Leeside will naturally bring a fresh impetus and a new approach.

The question for Donegal is probably an even more specific one, if they meet Kerry again in a huge game in 2026, perhaps another All-Ireland final, can they afford to be as passive and defensively minded again? Is the definition of championship insanity repeating the same old mistakes and expecting a different outcome?

Or, as Eamonn Fitzmaurice put it in the lead up to a final that saw Paudie Clifford enjoy 76 possessions, often uncontested just outside Donegal’s defensive screen, is the Ulster champions’ zonal defence and counter-attacking mindset both their greatest strength and ‘their biggest weakness’?

Ciaran Thompson exited the stage after 23 minutes of the All-Ireland final, an ACL injury robbing the team of one of their most effective performers, and looked on as the torment unfolded.

“No, it’s definitely not as if you need to rip up the script,” insisted Thompson, speaking at the launch of the Bank of Ireland Dr McKenna Cup. “We’re definitely not that far away and we know that ourselves. We’ll tweak a few things, maybe a few tactical things, and try to open up different avenues for scores and stuff like that. That’s what 2026 brings, new challenges and new targets to hit but I don’t see us needing to do that (rip up the script).”

Fitzmaurice was ultimately proven correct, that Donegal wouldn’t win Sam with a zonal defensive setup. But it got them mightily close. And maybe it would have been different had Thompson, later nominated for an All-Star award, stayed on the pitch.

He played every minute of all 10 of their championship games until the final, scoring 1-22. Crucially, 0-10 of that came from five separate two pointers he kicked, two under the most extreme pressure in the Ulster final against Armagh. Two more in the cauldron at Croke Park when Donegal were hanging on in the first-half of the All-Ireland quarter-final against Monaghan. So this was a player primed to deliver, if he got the opportunity. And remember, Donegal didn’t land a single two-pointer in the All-Ireland final – Kerry got five of them.

“With the new rules, it’s definitely advantageous if you can get them,” said Thompson of orange flag scores. “I suppose that’s a part of my game, I feel confident shooting from long range. Listen, it just didn’t fall for us on the day. A few other boys…we didn’t click as a team, so that was kind of the main reason for the defeat.”

Thompson’s injury was later diagnosed as a torn ACL. He’d been racing for the ball early in his 53rd championship game for Donegal when he landed awkwardly after being challenged by Kerry’s Joe O’Connor. Trailing by nine points at that stage after a nightmare start, Thompson battled on until the 23rd minute before being taken off.

Five months on, he was in good company recently at the launch of the Bank of Ireland Dr McKenna Cup which was also attended by Down’s Danny Magill, a player at a similar stage of his own recovery from the same injury. Magill is targeting an April return with Down, as is Thompson with Donegal.

Thompson limps off. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

“I’m nearly four months now after the operation,” said the Glenties man who missed his club’s county championship win. “It’s going well so far, hitting my targets. It’s all about the small gains. Over the next few months it will be critical to try to get further up the ladder and get back running and stuff.”

Playing some part in Donegal’s defence of the Ulster title keeps him going, through the slog of rehab.

“Championship’s the target, yes,” nodded Thompson, who will celebrate a decade of championship activity next summer.

It helps that his brother, 2012 All-Ireland winner Leon, went through the same injury.

“That’s right, he did his ACL in 2006 or 2007,” said Ciaran. “He came back and he played away after it so that gives you a bit of confidence, definitely.”

Building on 2025 for Donegal ultimately means going a step further and winning the All-Ireland. It’s a high bar they have set for themselves.

“It’s not as easy as that, I wish it was,” said Thompson, keen not to give any oxygen to All-Ireland talk before December is even out. “The first target is probably the McKenna Cup. Blooding new players, getting minutes under the belt for them. Then you go into the League.”

He’s happier to double down on the point about not needing to reinvent the wheel, despite the manner of the All-Ireland final loss and the enduring image of Paudie Clifford slowing the game down to a pedestrian pace and toe-tapping to himself before launching the move that led to David Clifford hitting that sumptuous two-pointer for Kerry, prompting half-time.

“I think things can be blown out of proportion,” argued Thompson. “We had a phenomenal year, back-to-back Ulster champions. You don’t do that normally in Ulster. Then moving up the ladder and getting to an All-Ireland final, on the day it just didn’t really click for us. We didn’t play to our potential but you have to hand it to Kerry as well. They were the better team on the day.”