By Michael McMullan

ONE of the biggest plus points of Donegal’s 2026 model is the availability of Jason McGee.

Their towering midfielder was player of the match in Sunday’s win over Armagh and is relishing being back as a regular after hip surgery.

McGee has started every game this season bar the McKenna Cup final against Monaghan when his 27 substitute minutes give him an overall total of 388 minutes.

In 2025, the Ulster final was the first time he was over the whitewash and their victory over Louth was the only start in the nine games he featured in. His input last year was 202 minutes.

He kicked four points on Sunday in Armagh and was leaping to pluck kick-outs.

Standing with his player of the match award tucked under his arm, McGee took a moment to ponder when asked what the most pleasing personal aspect of the 2026 season was so far.

“I suppose being on the pitch to play these league games,” he said. “I haven’t started a league campaign in maybe two years and probably only played one or two games in the league for the past two to three years.

“It’s good for me to be in the shape now to be fit to play and to rattle out of these league games and to get the body ready for championship.”

A hallmark of Donegal’s climb to the top of the league has been their wall of big men across the middle. McGee, Michael Langan and Hugh McFadden.

Ciarán Moore plucked a kick-out against Armagh too and they have goalkeeper Gavin Mulreany pushing out to fill any vacant grass on opposition kick-outs. Then there is Michael Murphy who could return against Galway.

“It definitely was a battle I suppose in the first half,” McGee said of Sunday’s 1-20 to 0-19 win over the 2024 All-Ireland champions, who were still clawing at the game all the way to the end. “Armagh probably got a few over us in the aerial exchanges and it’s probably something that we pride ourselves on, with having a lot of big men around the middle.

“Thankfully we rectified that in the second half. We got the grips in the middle and the game went from there.”

The victory took Donegal top of the table ahead of Sunday’s visit of Galway to Ballybofey. The Ulster champions will then conclude the league with trips to Roscommon and Monaghan.

“It’s nice to start well and, for this time of year, we have a lot of strong players and a lot of bodies on the pitch,” McGee said of their winning start.

“We have a good bill of health at the minute. It’s good now that we have that flexibility now to go and really target the league this year as opposed to other years. We didn’t have that.”

McGee’s second longest stint last year on the pitch was the All-Ireland final, coming on for the injured Ryan McHugh a matter of minutes into the second half. It is a defeat that has been parked but will always linger.

“Losing that final last year is going to sting a lot of us for a long, long time,” McGee said.

“I think it took a lot of hunger for lads to get back at it and to target pre-season, to get every man right and have us ready, to get a good McKenna Cup under our belt and a good league campaign.”