However, as great as it was, eventually you have to move on.
I felt this was something that the Donegal supporters and players to an extent,
struggled with during the league. Donegal were the All-Ireland champions for
2012, but once we hit the turn of the year, that position vacated, and the
competition to be the best team in the country started all over again.
Sometimes, the All-Ireland champions can start the following
season’s championship complacently, but I can’t see that happening this year,
after Donegal were paired with Tyrone. Donegal have played and defeated the Red
Hands in both of the last two seasons, but the general consensus is that Tyrone
are the one team that have really troubled Donegal during Jim McGuinness’
reign. I think this is a bigger game for Mickey Harte’s team than Donegal. Last
year it was said they were going through transition, but a good league campaign
this spring has propelled them back to the top table.
Mickey Harte is one of the greatest managers that the GAA
has ever seen, and will forever be viewed as a legend within Tyrone and the
wider GAA community. Yet make no mistake about it, if he suffers defeat to McGuinness
and Donegal for the third time in three seasons on Sunday, his reputation will
be tarnished. Harte and Tyrone will be desperate to beat Donegal and I sense they
will need to win to be truly seen as one of the challengers for the All-Ireland
this year.
The main question is where have they improved from last year
to beat Donegal? People might say Donegal will not be at the same level as
2012, but Tyrone can’t control that. They can only deal with their own form. Sean
Cavanagh is back and that is a massive bonus to them, while their defensive set-up
appears to be sharper this year. Their big coup is the unearthing of Niall
Morgan. His arrival is a potential game changer as he proved to be a reliable
free-taker during the league. He has the ability to kick points from anywhere
inside 55 metres, which will mean that Donegal will have to organise their
blanket defence further up the field. This will allow more room for Tyrone’s
forwards. It should be remembered that Tyrone are not the only team with a good
free-taker. Against Cork in last year’s semi-final, Cork’s place ball experts were
expected to be the primary reason for Donegal’s downfall, but they weren’t
given the opportunities. They were only permitted one scoreable free in the
entire game, and Donegal will have been working hard on disciplined tackling.
Tyrone’s forwards impressed throughout the league, but I’m
not convinced they’re as good as the media has made them out to be. Conor
McAliskey is a nice footballer and can take a score but Eamon McGee had him in
his pocket when they met in the league. Martin Penrose had a quiet league and
doesn’t seem to be at the level he was at over the last 3 years. Stephen
O’Neill is playing his best football for years, and scored 1-1 against Neil
McGee in the league. But these scores arrived when Donegal were down to 14 men,
and there was a lot of space in front of him. On Sunday, it will be
claustrophobic in the forward line and Donegal will not allow them easy access
to O’Neill. Tyrone rotated their forward line frequently during the league,
which makes me think that Harte is not sure who his best six forwards are.
Donegal’s poor league form is touted as a reason for why
they won’t win this match, but I don‘t think it will have a big bearing on the
game. Donegal were relegated without much of a fight. They lacked fitness and
spent the majority of the league lumping Hail Marys into Murphy and hoping for
the best. I can’t see them using this tactic again. Jim McGuinness is one of
the greatest managerial brains in sport and he has known since last October
that his side will be facing Tyrone. He will have been working meticulously on
a gameplan since then. It will be a different Donegal team that takes to the
field on Sunday, than the one we seen during the league.
Tactics will play a big part in the game on Sunday. Donegal
will close off the middle of the field and I expect Tyrone to use the wings to
attack them. They did this in the first 20 minutes of last year’s semi-final
and got joy with Mark Donnelly scoring a point and Joe McMahon almost getting a
goal. Cork adopted a similar tactic in their league game with Donegal this
year, pushing their wing backs as far out to the sidelines as they could, to
stretch Donegal. It didn’t make for exciting play, and they endured a lot of
frustration at the start of the game but eventually they started to make
progress and went on to win the match.
Donegal have named the same starting line-up as last year’s
All-Ireland final, but no-one outside the panel knows exactly how they will
start. There have been rumours circulating about the unavailability of Karl
Lacey, Mark McHugh and Frank McGlynn. I believe that Donegal could cope without
one of these players, but would be worried if two or even three of them were
not fit to take the field. They were three very important players for Donegal
last year carrying the ball out of defence, and that will be important on
Sunday as well.
Lacey’s role in particular, is key to the game’s outcome. He
was Footballer of the year in 2012 and probably Donegal’s most effective player
so far during McGuinness’ tenure. I think the two most important periods in
this match will be the first ten minutes and the final ten minutes. Against
Dublin in the final round of league fixtures, they looked leaderless in the
absence of Lacey. Ironically, Tyrone used a tactic in the All-Ireland final of
2003, which I think Donegal should use against the Red Hands on Sunday. Their
inspirational captain, Peter Canavan, was injured going into the game and would
not be fit to play the full 70 minutes. So Tyrone played him to half-time,
replaced him and then brought him back on for the critical last ten minutes.
This is how I feel Donegal should utilise Lacey, if he is not fit to play the
whole game.
It’s going to be an intriguing battle, and I expect the
first ten minutes to be the most ferocious opening to a game ever in
MacCumhaill Park. Donegal are favourites with the bookies, but a lot of the
country’s renowned pundits have backed Tyrone. They think that McGuinness’
double-jobbing is an issue, and that Donegal will not be able to replicate the
hunger and desire which set them apart in 2012. True champions can rise to the
challenge when people start to doubt them and I think Donegal will show that
they are still the best team in the country on Sunday.
Donegal to win by four
points.
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