Jim McGuinness talks Dublin, GAA punditry, GAA rivalry and who’s going to lift Sam Maguire. Cahair O’Kane asks the questions...
CO’K: So much is made of Dublin’s funding, but Kerry have won the last three All-Ireland minor titles. Is the argument over Dublin’s funding overblown, or does the funding need to be spread more evenly?
JMcG: To be successful at inter-county level, you need funding. If you don’t have funding, you’re not going to be successful. Dublin, fair play to them, they’ve got their house in order. They’ve lined up all their ducks and decided they can have a commercial side that brings in revenue and facilitates people coaching on the ground, delivering sports science on the ground, delivering nutrition and they’re going to get a better athlete out the back of that and be more successful on the pitch. That’s what they’re doing.
Kerry are a different animal. They’ve had success all down through the generations. The biggest asset they have is their history. Every child growing up in Kerry wants to play for Kerry because it’s a great thing to play for them and, if you do, there’s a very high possibility that you’re going to win All-Irelands. Because they’ve won so many All-Irelands and they have so many people with All-Ireland medals coaching - even within club structures - that raises the standards. You keep on producing players because you’ve got people who have been there and done that. It’s a chicken and egg thing, a never-ending story when it gets going.
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Dublin have their own history, but they’re in the process of almost creating something with that sort of momentum now. If they keep managing it correctly, they’re going to be very hard to stop.
Kilkenny’s the exact same as Kerry. Kilkenny won All-Irelands and, because of that, they have a huge number of people on the ground coaching in their clubs that have that experience and they’re passing that information on.
It’s a very prestigious thing to wear that jersey and that keeps people very hungry and motivated. There’s always a conveyor belt of talent. But it’s difficult for other counties that are trying to break through. That’s the challenge.
CO’K: Take Donegal, if their current crop goes off the scene and, in 10 years’ time, they haven’t got the quality of players, where do they get their challenge back from? Where does any other county get their challenge if the funding isn’t split more evenly?
JMcG: Exactly. It’s very difficult. Very difficult. History has shown us that. Counties that haven’t been successful have shown us that. It only stands to sense that, if you’re given the best opportunity to develop physically and the best opportunity to develop technically and tactically because of the coaches that you’re working with and their perception of the game, then, naturally enough, you’ll get a better product at the end of it. A product that can think for themselves, that has the skillset to be able to execute under pressure and the body shape to run and take hits all day.
Resources and facilities and support teams can have a huge impact on that, if it’s done correctly. Dublin shouldn’t be criticised for this. They’ve done the right thing and got their house in order. It’s up to everybody else, including Central Council, to take initiative for other counties.
I think the divide is becoming bigger. Counties are saying ‘we can’t compete with that’, so they’re almost opting out. They’re funding the county team, but saying they can’t compete at that level and you’re not going to be successful then. That’s the reality.
It’s a difficult one. I’ve said previously that Central Council needs to be more involved. There needs to be a baseline level of coaching within every county, provided by Croke Park, and a baseline of facilities and resources and sports science for young people in every county to get the opportunity to develop.
CO’K: During your time as Donegal manager, the man-of-the-match incident after the Antrim game in 2011 particularly annoyed you. A lot of people have been annoyed by The Sunday Game, at some point. Was that part of why you went into punditry, wanting to affect the quality of the analysis?
JMcG: That’s a good question. I don’t think I’d thought about it that deeply. I enjoy the analysis of games, if you like. When you come away from the football, there’s a void in your life. Even though I’m involved here and I’m busy and developing so many other aspects of my life now, that was still a huge part of your life.
So the punditry and my column with The Irish Times has sort of filled that void because you still hopefully have your finger on the pulse and you’re able to go and see games and analyse them while there’s another part of your life going on. It’s been really good.
The style of the punditry is one that you don’t see all the time and that’s behind the dressing room door of a manager,and how he would think. Sometimes, you see some really interesting stories and perspectives, but there’s a difference between that and having been at the coalface and faced opposition challenges and how you deal with those challenges.
Putting that across sometimes can be interesting.
CO’K: You’ll be seen as a renowned analyst, but with that comes the potential of criticising the players you managed in Donegal. Did that enter your head before you began the punditry work? Is it tough?
JMcG: I think the thing is being fair. If you’re going to talk about Mayo and talk about Dublin, you have to talk about Donegal as well. There were people that had opinions on my opinion about the Ulster final this year, but that’s what you’re in the job to do, is give your opinion. You have to stand over it. I still stand over that.
There were other articles written in Donegal after it that were a lot stronger but weren’t picked up on because it wasn’t the previous manager that wrote it. I understand that, I get that. But when you’re employed to do a job and your job is to make sense of football games, you’ve got to be true to yourself as well. You have to say to yourself ‘this is how I saw it’. For everything that I said after the Ulster final, nobody disagreed with what I said. It was just some people disagreed with the fact that I said it. That doesn’t make sense in my head.
At the end of the day, Donegal can’t be immune. That wouldn’t be fair. It wouldn’t be fair to say I’m going to write, say, a strong column on Roscommon, which I did. You have to be across the board. It’s about making sense of the game for the reader from your perspective.
My perspective is having played the game and managed in the game.
CO’K: The Donegal-Mayo rivalry when yourself and James Horan were managing was always interesting. Was it awkward initially? How is that relationship?
JMcG: [Laughs] Ah, look, it’s a good relationship. That’s the thing about football, regardless of what level of rivalry there is, there’s always a huge respect. James Horan, through that period, was trying to win football games for his county. Whatever he was trying to do, we were trying to do the same, only more. People understand that.
What I tried to do through my tenure was not to publicly criticise opposition players or managers - and referees, indeed - and just get on with your job of trying to win as many games as you can for your county.
It’s funny, you’re sitting beside him now, watching games and having conversations, but that’s very natural.
CO’K: Was the paid TV route somewhere you were happy to see the GAA go at the time, or would you have been against it?
JMcG: Almost every single household in the country has Sky. That was the first thing. The second thing was that there was an opportunity to bring our sport to a wider audience and that could possibly be very good for the sport in the longer term.
If that catches and people get stimulated and there’s more interest and energy in the sport, maybe more money will come into the sport. That will be good for players and managers and county boards on the ground.
That was my thinking.
CO’K: Lastly then, who wins the replay between Dublin and Mayo?
JMcG: I think that Dublin will probably win the replay because they’ll probably return to their normal performance level. I think Mayo, again, will be competitive and a tough nut to crack in many respects for Dublin.
But Dublin’s offensive power… The system has changed a wee bit over the last couple of games. They’re a wee bit more ponderous on the ball, slower on the ball, more methodical if you like. They’re waiting for openings and then looking to inject pace into it.
Previously, it was very quick kickouts, win the ball, lift your head and somebody will always be showing. Win that ball, turn and that ball’s going on a diagonal or dinked into the ‘D’. Two or three passes, five or six seconds, you’re in the other half of the pitch and you have top quality forwards who are getting the shot off because the opposition haven’t been able to get the bodies back in time to slow them down.
That’s slowed down a wee bit for Dublin since the Donegal game. Whether it’s a consequence of setting up to keep the ball against Donegal and lure them out of their shape, I don’t know, but Dublin will probably feel they need to get back to a very aggressive transition, more of a kicking game, more early ball and more on the diagonal and ask questions of the Mayo defence.
Mayo, for me, haven’t changed much since we played them in 2012. Next week will be their eighth semi-final or final. That’s a lot of big games and they haven’t managed to win the All-Ireland yet.
For all those big games, I don’t see a lot of difference in them from 2012 to now. The only thing I see is the sweeper system, but that’s because Dublin implemented it. Had Dublin not done that, would Mayo have? I’m not so sure.
If you want to be successful, they’ve got to come up with something that’s almost unique to them. Not playing Dublin at their own game. Mayo are probably thinking ‘we’re good enough to play Dublin at their own game - we took them to a draw last time, we took them to a draw last year, so we’re as good as them. You can have your opinion, but the reality is we believe in ourselves’. I’d just be wary about that.
Dublin, for me, will never kick nine points again. I stand to be corrected on that, but they’ll never kick nine points again. And the performance level won’t be that low. It feels as if Mayo still have a chance in this game, but it also feels like the opportunity has been lost.
Jim McGuinness is promoting a brand new stage show, Celtic - the Musical which opens at Millenium Forum tonight and will run all week. It tells the story of the club’s history and will run for a week. Tickets available now from the Forum Box Office 028 71 264455 or at www.millenniumforum.co.uk
