Meath And Donegal Make Unexpected U-Turn On Surprise Jersey Call

Croke Park will be packed out on Sunday for the historic meeting of Meath and Donegal in the All-Ireland football semi-finals.

The sides have come on very different journeys to this meeting, their first in the championship since 2019, and their first at this stage since 1990.

Jim McGuinness' Donegal entered the championship summer as one of the favourites to go all the way to Sam Maguire, while many Meath fans may have resigned themselves to another year of coming up short in Leinster and struggling through the All-Ireland.

However, the Royals delivered sensational performances to topple Dublin, Kerry and Galway, and now just one game stands between them and the All-Ireland final. As Ulster champions, Donegal, too, will have their eyes on the ultimate prize.

Croke Park will be awash with colour, with tickets few and far between for the highly anticipated clash.

With the sides both boasting colour schemes bursting with yellow and green, a change was initially proposed for both teams, but that decision appears to have been reversed unexpectedly.

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John Fogarty of the Irish Examiner reported earlier this week that Donegal and Meath were set to both change jerseys for Sunday's All-Ireland semi-final in Croke Park.

Meath were set to wear the luminous yellow goalkeeper jersey that Billy Hogan lined out in during the quarter-final against Galway, while Donegal would wear their traditional white away kit.

It was to echo the policy seen in the past of both teams changing shirts should a colour clash occur, as happened in the 2010 All-Ireland final between Cork and Down.

Speaking to Balls.ie and the Irish media earlier this week, Jordan Morris of Meath said that the team had been training in yellow jerseys.

However, it appears that the decision has been unexpectedly reversed.

Meath will wear their regular home green jersey on Sunday and Donegal will wear their regular yellow shirt... pic.twitter.com/6MYIe17U8v

— Fergal Lynch (@truefergallynch) July 9, 2025

Fergal Lynch of the Meath Chronicle first reported the news on Wednesday afternoon, stating that Meath would wear their usual green home kit with Donegal in yellow.

This was later confirmed when the official Donegal GAA account tweeted saying that they would be lining out in their home colours.

**BREAKING NEWS** Our boys will line out in our home jerseys

Updated Fit check for Sunday 👀🔥

Get yours here 👇https://t.co/7cvRi3OEZs#ootd #fitcheck #Championship2025 #supportdonegal #GAA2025 #allireland2025 #AllIrelandsemifinal@ONeills1918 @officialgaa pic.twitter.com/IGQE4Y14Gq

— CLG Dhún na nGall (@officialdonegal) July 9, 2025

Presumably, Meath will now be lining out in their home colours as well, unless the Royals have opted to wear their official navy alternative kits.

On the previous four occasions the sides have met in the championship, both have worn their home jerseys.

However, an increasing awareness of the prevalence of colour blindness among men has led other sporting bodies to bring in measures to avoid egregious clashes, such as Ireland being mandated to wear white against Wales in the Six Nations, for example.

It is therefore somewhat surprising to see a U-turn on the away jersey decision, though, in fairness, luminous yellow v. white would not exactly have been ideal either. You can believe that from this colour blind author!

One would have to wonder why Meath will not be lining out in their navy kits, even with Donegal potentially in their white.

The game is set to be a cracker but there may be a few in the Croke Park crowd who will struggle to distinguish the two teams on the field come Sunday afternoon.