Jim McGuinness hailed the contribution of stalwart Michael Murphy as Donegal claimed the Allianz League title but refused to be drawn on the forward's strike on Kerry's Dylan Casey.
Murphy, who came out of a two-year retirement in 2025, hit 1-05 as the Ulster side rampaged past the All-Ireland champions on a 3-20 to 2-10 scoreline at Croke Park.
The 36-year-old escaped with a yellow card for an incident with the Kerry defender in the 16th minute of the first half with replays suggesting that the Glenswilly man was lucky to avoid a red card.
Asked by RTÉ Sport's Siobhan Madigan about an "unsavoury incident", McGuinness preferred to talk about how Murphy's presence helps the younger members of the team.
"Michael, for us, is a huge player and you're talking there about young Max [Campbell] who goes in to play at centre half-back, and Michael allows young lads like that to do that," said McGuinness.
"And gives them the opportunity to be able to relax and talk them through the game so yeah, we're delighted to have him.
"He’s still a huge player for us, and helps those younger lads coming through massively in training so delighted with that."
Speaking to reporters later, he said: "I didn't see anything of it, to be honest with you, but the game is very physical out there."
Donegal, beaten by Kerry in last season's All-Ireland final, won five, drew one and lost one in their regular league campaign and McGuinness declared himself happy with how they fared as they turn attention to their Ulster SFC clash with Division 3 champions Down at the end of April.
"In terms of the league, it’s been brilliant," he said.
"We’ve got everything out of it we wanted. We were able to build our own lads from last year, we got a good look at a number of young fellas, and then people that were struggling with injuries, Jason [McGee] in particular, have come back healthy and come through a lot of games.
"That’s what we wanted to achieve out of the league and we definitely got that.
"We’re taking a few days off and we are away at a training camp for a couple of days.
Managers Jim McGuinness and Jack O'Connor reflect on Donegal's comprehensive win over Kerry in the Allianz Football League Division 1 final
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"Once we come back we’ll have a fortnight proper training into the Down game and hopefully we can use that time well. They deserve a bit of a break.
"We replenish the bodies now and go back and start to get to work on the Ulster Championship because that’s the number one for us.
"We have a Down team coming that are very confident at the minute. We know what’s coming so that’s going to be a massive challenge and we have be ready in a month’s time."
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