PEOPLE often ask the question, what learned knowledge has Jim McGuinness brought from his soccer experience that may be making a difference in Donegal?
Before I give my view on this, can you good people who are against the modern day tactics of putting numbers behind the ball please set down your mug of tea immediately to avoid any spillages or injury.
For me the answer to that question is: a ‘Total football’ approach. A concept first developed by Johan Cruyff, taken to a new level by one of his students, Pep Guardiola.
This can be loosely defined as a positionless style of play in which any one outfield player can replace any other, blurring the lines between forward, midfielder, and defender, and prioritising adaptability by the players.
McGuinness hasn’t sat down and said, ‘Right who are my best three man-markers?’ and built a defence around that. He has gone with the idea of picking footballers first and foremost who are all good on the ball, can attack, score - and will work like dogs when out of possession.
Donegal players wearing the numbers 2 to 9 scored 1-14 from play against Louth. Peadar Mogan, for example, has operated most of his career as a forward, but playing in defence he produced a ‘man of the match’ performance, landing five points from play.
Despite not being at their very best, it was hard not to be extremely impressed by Donegal. An eight- point victory and 1-23 tallied was quite remarkable.
The Ulster champions had 11 different scorers, posted 1-21 from open play and registered only three wides. If that level of efficiency were to continue they will be very hard to stop.
A facile enough victory over ‘the wee county’ for Donegal versus an emotionally-charged shock win over the Galacticos of Dublin by Galway are very contrasting entry points to an All-Ireland semi-final.
When Padraic Joyce brought Jim McGuinness in for a guest coaching session back in 2020 little did he think his Galway side might find themselves playing a resurgent, McGuinness-inspired Donegal in an All-Ireland semi-final some four years later.
As some will know, their relationship spans back to a time when the pair were in college together down in Tralee in the late 1990s.
I’d be familiar with that time as I played in a Sigerson Final for UUJ against Tralee IT down there in 1998. We had a great team that year and if truth be told were very unlucky to lose that final after leading most of the way.
On paper though, Tralee had players who would go on to be some of the biggest names in Gaelic Football. Seamus Moynihan, Michael Donnellan, Mike Frank Russell and of course Joyce and McGuinness were big names. But then you had other Kerry stars such as Barry O’Shea, Gene Farrell, Bill Kirby, and Jack Ferriter. By the end of that summer more than half that Tralee college team had players with All-Ireland Senior medals in their back pockets.
As the former college mates rekindle an old flame, their path to this eagerly awaited semi-final couldn’t have been any more different. I can understand the level of elation and celebrations from the Galway players and management at beating the All-Ireland Champions, especially in the manner of having to come from three points down late in the game.
The Tribesmen have to believe now they are in with a massive chance of landing ‘Sam’. But with question marks over the fitness of Shane Walsh and that man with a plan waiting in the wings, beating Dublin in Croke Park could prove to be their pinnacle.
Derry and Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final last year was arguably the most entertaining game of the championship season. It was frenetic end-to-end stuff that saw the Oak Leafers kick 1-11 in a brilliant first half performance.
Fast forward 12 months and you could make a very strong case that Sunday’s quarter final was the most boring of this year’s campaign. Having already lost three championship games, two of them bad hidings, you can understand why Derry went with an approach to try and make the game slow, methodical, attritional, and low-scoring.
If someone had of said Derry will keep David Clifford to a solitary point from play you’d have been very optimistic as an Oak Leaf supporter.
After a blistering start, Chrissy McKaigue and the Derry defensive gameplan had the Kerry star cutting a frustrated figure as he played all his football around the periphery, struggling to get any gaps or time to manufacture decent scoring chances.
Defensively Derry were good but just didn’t offer enough going the other way. Perhaps the exploits of extra time in Castlebar had caught up with them and that would explain why Kerry kicked seven out of the last nine points in the game.
Who would have thought at the start of this All-Ireland campaign we could be looking at an Armagh v Donegal All-Ireland Final? It wasn’t all plain sailing but Kieran McGeeney will be happy with how his side brushed aside Roscommon in a third gear performance on Saturday afternoon.
A numerical advantage or disadvantage in the modern game is massive especially in Roscommon’s case where they were coming off the back of three games in three weeks. The extra man for Armagh was a big advantage coming down the home straight.