THE last sodden Sunday of January and as seemingly with TG4′s every visit to the Twin Towns of Ballybofey-Stranorlar, the main camera’s operator spent most of his afternoon praying for the director to cut away from him so he could give the lens another wipe.
It felt early for judging the visibility of what we’d see from Donegal in summer.
Cork travelled up with promotion hopes of their own. Jim McGuinness’s first game. As Division Two encounters go, interest was piqued.
The initial focus centred on Donegal’s high press that day. They went after Cork, forcing turnover after turnover inside the opposition half.
That forced their impressive tally of 1-20 from 27 shots slightly off-radar.
The high press hasn’t been seen all that often since midway through the league. Their kickout press has been imperfect at best.
But what we have seen in their scoring return is evidence that as much as the focus around McGuinness falls on the headline moments like annihilating Derry’s kickout press, one of his biggest successes has been pure coaching.
Sunday’s clash with Galway will be their first All-Ireland semi-final since the famous 2014 ambush on Dublin.
Five times since then they’ve been within 70 minutes of it but fallen short.
The trend of those defeats was that Donegal, with their mountainous midfield quartet, would dominate possession, create a ball of chances and miss most of them.
It was at its worst in the final Super 8s tie in Castlebar six years ago.
Donegal kicked 14 wides that day, 10 of them in the second half. Their overall shot conversion rate was 39 per cent. They lost by three points.
When Cavan stunned them in the Ulster final in the following year’s knockout championship, their shooting was at 41 per cent, kicking 0-12 from 29 shots.
It carried on, maybe even worsened last year. A draw with Galway in the league was creditable the way things were going at the time but they had 24 shots that day and scored just 1-9. Galway hit their 1-9 from 16 shots.
When Down beat them in the championship, it was 1-11 from 27 shots, a return of 41 per cent.
You could pick just about any big game they’ve lost since 2014 and the common denominator has been the sheer volume of shots they’ve missed.
All has changed utterly this season.
A quick rundown on the headline stats from this year:
- Round one of the league against Cork, 1-20 from 27 shots (78%)
- Ulster final with Armagh, 0-20 from 27 shots (74%)
- All-Ireland quarter-final against Louth, 1-23 from 31 shots (75%)
- Round-robin win over Tyrone, 0-21 from 29 shots (72%)
Even on the days they’ve dipped a bit, they’ve done enough. It was 53% against Derry but their tally included four goals. When they faced Tyrone eight days later, it hit a low of 44% but they created 40 shots that day, meaning they still got to 0-18 after extra-time.
It is the direct result of the manner in which McGuinness coaches.
Spot a weakness, zone in on it and repeat it ad nauseum.
One particular drill he has favoured in training through the year is to have four defenders inside the ‘D’ and four attackers coming in from the 45.
McGuinness plants himself on the edge of the ‘D’ with half a dozen balls.
All four attackers come at once. McGuinness feeds the balls one-by-one, but all straight after each other. The shot is taken in double-quick time. They get used to their scoring zones and taking those pressure shots with no real thinking time.
Thus it becomes instinctive. Natural.
Just look at the scorelines themselves. Even without the glut of goals against Derry being repeated, they’ve hit 0-18, 0-20, 0-21, 2-23 and 1-23 in their championship victories.
Even in the round-robin defeat by Cork they hit 0-16 but were undone by the three goals they conceded on an afternoon that allowed them to reset once they’d gotten out top of the group thanks to Tyrone doing them a favour a week later.
A lot of what Donegal have done this year is not rocket science. It is just pure repetition and unstinting hard work.
Speaking to Colm Parkinson’s Smaller Fish podcast this week, former Galway forward Eamonn Brannigan offered an insight this week when he spoke about the session McGuinness famously took for them during Covid that ended up doing the rounds on social media.
“There was nothing that he done that was much different to any other coach I’ve had, but it was the intensity and what he expected that you brought. I definitely hadn’t trained at that level before,” he said, admitting that he left having realised for the first time that he’d never trained at the level to win an All-Ireland.
Players like Peadar Mogan, who was in Liverpool last year studying and didn’t play, have not only propelled themselves to a different level but done so in a very different role.
To kick 0-5 against Louth from corner-back, to run the round-robin game against Tyrone while marking Darren McCurry, it is a sign that redistribution of roles has had the desired effect as well.
None moreso than Caolan McGonagle, challenging Mogan as their best player this season as the holding number six with a real scent for when their goal is threatened.
Michael Langan has been converted from a scoring half-forward into a diligent midfielder. Speaking after their win over Tyrone in Celtic Park, he discussed a change in role that has barely been more than mentioned in passing.
“I’m probably not getting on the scoreboard or those attacking positions as much, but I probably have more defensive responsibilities and that feeds into it too. It doesn’t matter, I’m enjoying it.
“People are probably measuring that I’m not scoring but there are plenty of forwards up there that can score. It’s something I’d like to improve is getting on the scoreboard a wee bit more,” he said.
Ciaran Thompson is reformed, doing tagging jobs. Shane O’Donnell, renowned as a classy scorer with St Eunan’s, has been gassing himself up and down the park.
Ciaran Moore has become one of the first names on the teamsheet. At one stage in the league, he ended up at full-forward for a spell, meaning he’s played in every line of the field this season. The smart money is on him tagging Shane Walsh.
There are levels of complexity built into the gameplan but essentially, it’s endless repetition of the basics, things like holding the ball in the correct arm when you’re in possession.
And shooting, shooting, shooting some more.
The biggest difference in Donegal is not any major tactical tweak.
It is pure coaching.