Donegal senior ladies team manager Micheál Naughton says that his team means business in 2017.

The returns of Aoife McDonnell and Yvonne McMonagle from Australia in the lead-up to Sunday’s game against Dublin at Parnell Park has given the Donegal squad a massive boost.

Although Donegal have lost games to Kerry and Dublin in the last two weekends, they have a good break before their next game against Mayo on March 19.

McDonnell, Donegal’s All-Ireland Intermediate-winning skipper from 2010 and former All-Star McMonagle were in Dublin at the weekend.

“It’s important to have a panel,” Naughton said.

“The more you have pushing for positions, the better.

“These girls are hungry. We know what they’re capable of and hopefully they’ll look for starting spots the next day. We won’t get carried away – we know we have a lot of work to do.

“We have a three week break and we’ll look now at Mayo. We have to get more points to stay in this Division.”

Donegal defeated Armagh and Galway in their first two games back in Division 1, which does give them a cushion, but Naughton was disappointed with the manner of a 2-17 to 3-7 loss to the Dubs.

He said: “We played well in patches. Dublin came out of the blocks, but our girls kept at it. We got two good goals before half-time. We knew we could get a result – but we left it too late.”