It was announced in 2013 that the 2014 championship would begin as soon as the senior Donegal county team was eliminated from the Sam Maguire Cup, which, as it transpired, was in September after the 2014 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final.
[3][4] The controversy over this decision became a "national media story" and irked inter-county manager Jim McGuinness.
[26] Their grievance came from a black-card incident in their semi-final, involving Glenswilly's Ciaran Bonner.
Glenswilly led the Glenties-based team by one point with two minutes of normal time remaining, when Bonner got the black card and was replaced by substitute Oisín Crawford.
Bonner, Naomh Conaill maintained, was not eligible to be replaced as he had already picked up a yellow card.