Donegal Senior team manager Jim McGuinness

Former Armagh All-Ireland winning manager and current Ulster GAA team boss Joe Kernan has hit out at the way that Jim McGuinness was cornered on TG4 after last Sunday NFL clash between Donegal and Laois in Letterkenny’s O’Donnell Park.

“My disgust was replicated on Sunday when I witnessed the insensitive manner in which Donegal manager Jim McGuinness was queried on what has become known as the ‘Kevin Cassidy affair’ following his team’s match against Laois.

“McGuinness kept his cool in the face of what I thought was some insensitive questioning on a subject that has been, to put it mildly, done to death since it first came to the surface away before Christmas.

“McGuinness may have his detractors but he certainly did not deserve to be bombarded with questions that he has answered more than once in the recent past — or does TG4 not take cognisance of what is happening in the real world?

“Cassidy made the point last week that he would not be coming back to the Donegal squad irrespective of what happens because the season is well under way and at 31 he might encounter difficulty in getting up to the levels of fitness required for the demanding inter-county arena,” he said.