Jim McGuinness has taken issue with those in favour of changing or scrapping the provincial championships.

In an interview with his former Donegal team-mate Brendan Devenney on Highland Radio, the returning Tir Chonaill manager stressed that the Ulster SFC remained “number one” for him.

"There's a lot of people hellbent in the GAA in talking down the provincial championships, even though the provincial championship in Ulster, there is no change on it. It's still the exact same thing that it always was," he said.

"But people's perception of it, that people are not taking it seriously or people are focusing on the All-Ireland, it's absolute nonsense. A paper doesn't refuse ink, or conversations on podcast.

"The bottom line for us is that it will always be the number one competition. Whenever we're out of that competition, the next one will be the number one competition. There are two competitions every single year, in terms of championship football, and you focus on the first one first and the second one second.

"That is absolutely it. For us, everything from that very first training session to that ball being thrown in at Celtic Park is focused on that moment, nothing else.”

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