Sunday’s heavy home defeat to Mayo has all but confirmed Donegal’s relegation to Division Two of the Allianz Football League.
It has been a nightmare 2023 for the county so far with Michael Murphy’s retirement followed by a serious injury to star forward Paddy McBrearty.
New manager Paddy Carr has it all to do to transform their fortunes ahead of the Championship and now Sean Cavanagh has labelled their season as ‘shambolic’.
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After their relegation is likely to be confirmed next weekend, they face a tricky Ulster SFC clash with an improving Down side.
The contentious departure of former county star Karl Lacey as head of the county’s underage academy is the latest indication that the 2012 All-Ireland champions are on a slippery slope.
“Karl Lacey departing was the opening of the Pandora’s box,” said Cavanagh on RTE’s League Sunday.
“It’s baffling for me, as a Tyrone man, much as a I love seeing Donegal suffer, the level of expertise and high performance they have in Karl Lacey, Jim McGuinness, Michael Murphy... they’re generational-type winners and to let people like that disappear from a county fold all within a year, is shambolic really.”
Elaborating on this in his Irish Daily Star newspaper column, Cavanagh added: “Donegal got exactly what they deserved out of this League.
“They are the worst team in Division One by a mile.
“They used to have Neil McGee and Ryan McHugh and Patrick McBrearty and Michael Murphy leading the way.
“None of them are there now. McBrearty and McHugh might be back, but it’ll be hard for them to do anything with this bunch.
“Donegal could end up in the Tailteann Cup before they know it.
“That would be remarkable for a county that won an All-Ireland and five Ulster titles since 2011. But they are only a shadow of the team they were.
“There are so many problems in Donegal that this could be just the start of the slide.”
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