Donegal commenced their bid for the Sam Maguire Cup with an emphatic 2-20 to 0-16 win over 14-man Kerry at Fitzgerald Stadium this afternoon.

Ciaran Moore’s goal inside 90 seconds helped the visitors towards a 1-11 to 0-9 lead come the half-time hooter – after which some ugly scenes broke out with players and members from both sets of management teams involved.

The action taken by referee Sean Hurson before the start of the second-half was to caution Kerry’s Evan Looney and then send off Micheál Burns on a straight red card for an apparent strike on Ryan McHugh during the chaos at half-time.

It left the All-Ireland champions to play the second-half’s entirety a man down and their Ulster counterparts would send over the first three scores of the restart through Oisin Gallen, ‘Man of the Match’ Michael Langan (0-5) and Peadar Mogan to move eight ahead.

Tony Brosnan got a two-pointer back for the home side, but more patient build up play saw scores from Shane O’Donnell and Michael Murphy sailing over at the other end to cancel it out.

Langan and Mogan raised more white flags to put the margin between these rivals at double digits and it got worse for the hosts when Shea Malone rattled in Donegal’s second goal late on, with two-pointers from David Clifford and Brosnan proving mere consolation for the Kingdom in the end.

It's Donegal who come out on top after a battle against Kerry in Fitzgerald Stadium👏 #KERvDON@donegalgaa 2-20@Kerry_Official 0-16

FULL-TIME HIGHLIGHTS📽️👇 pic.twitter.com/IayiOhMege

— The GAA (@officialgaa) May 23, 2026

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