Jim McGuinness feels that Donegal have been victims of a media witch-hunt.

McGuinness' side came in for endless criticism last year despite winning Division Two and the Ulster championship and - speaking at the launch of this year's Allianz national football league - the Donegal manager says it all began when Ryan Bradley won the Man of the Match award on The Sunday Game for his performance in the Ulster SFC preliminary-round win over Antrim, only for pundits to later state that nobody should have been honoured for their role in that particular match:

"There is a lot of crap going on. There's a lot of people who have an agenda and they're using the pen as power and trying to have a go consistently at us.

"I think from the moment I stood up for Ryan Bradley that there was a media witch-hunt for myself personally and for the team. Some of the things that were said about the team - they were called the Taliban at one stage - was extremely disrespectful.

"These boys, a lot of them not in work, are training and training for the good of their county. I'm an unpaid volunteer; if I told you what I was getting for my expenses for the year you wouldn't believe it. I'm getting nothing out of the game only the love of coaching the boys.

"Some other people now feel that because we're being abused in the public domain so much, they can join in and give us a kick when we're down.

"There are a lot of things going on that are not football-related, but in fairness to the boys none of it has taken a fizz out of them. They just get on with the business and look forward to staying together and training.

"At the end of the day it's not that important. We don't want to be going to war with people but there's boundaries and there's respect. There was always boundaries in the GAA but now it seems some people feel they can overstep those boundaries.

"A lot of the time it's ex-players, who are making an awful lot of money on the back of people who are out of work and trying their best for their county in a voluntary capacity. Morally, I don't think that's correct." Tweet

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