History was achieved in the most emphatic fashion
imaginable in Clones yesterday – Donegal obliterated Down in the closing stages
to put the gloss on back to back Ulster titles.
The game followed a pattern which we’ve become
accustomed to now with this side – let the opposition run themselves
into the ground, let them tire themselves out and when the time is right go in
for the kill.
Down found some joy running at us in the first
half and opened us up for a couple of half goal chances. The Mourne men are a
classy outfit with ball in hand and showed their skill and verve with some dashing
raids down the barrel of the gun. The thing with playing against ultra-fit
Donegal though is that it is nigh on impossible to keep that kind of play
going. We appear to be quite comfortable in letting teams have a go in the
first half and then turn the screw in the second with our superior fitness and
power. The Tyrone game worked out like that, as did the games in the league
against Mayo and Armagh.
Donegal appear to be able to up the ante and move
through the gears whenever they feel like it. With Down on a good run coming up
to half time the lads collectively just seemed to decide that we needed some
scores and in six devastating minutes we registered 1-3. Declan Walsh’s two
points were crucial as a decent lead for the underdogs would have given them
plenty of confidence for the second half. Instead the Malin man burst forward
for two coolly taken points.
Allied to running directly at Donegal, many believe
that the way to beat the system is to kick long range scores – this is a common
myth amongst teams and press alike but no one has actually done it yet. Tyrone
in last year’s semi-final had chances but kicked a lot of wides in the first
half, just as they did this year. Derry had chances in the first half of last
year’s Ulster
decider, as had Down yesterday, but again kicked some wayward wides – all a coincidence?
No.
Kicking from distance is a good ploy and the scores
registered can be a huge boost to the crowd and to a team’s confidence but such
is the difficulty in the technique it will not win a game and certainly not
against this Donegal team. The pressure that forwards are put under is so
intense that when a player finally finds himself in a couple of yards of space
he will invariably rush his shot and hence his technique lets him down. The
only big game this team has lost was last year’s All Ireland semi and that was primarily
due to Dublin
running hard at the defence as the Tir Chonaill legs started to feel the strain. Long ball
is another option against us but again few teams have tried this, although
Tyrone did create a few chances when long ball went into Stephen O’Neill in the
semi final a few weeks back.
Ryan Bradley had another stormer yesterday, epitomised
by his wonderful point just before his withdrawal, due to concussion, in the
second half. Rising highest to claim a Down kick-out, he took the ball on
himself and hoisted a huge score to the delight of the crowd.
Bradley, along with Paul Durcan, Colm McFadden and
goalscorer Frank McGlynn, are in All Star form at the minute and regardless of
what happens for the rest of the summer, Donegal will no doubt be represented
again when the team of the year is announced in November.
With Neil Gallagher missing yesterday we could have
expected to see Michael Murphy stationed at midfield but he spent most of his
afternoon at full forward. The psychological hold that Jim McGuinness has over
his opponents is such a huge weapon right now. Down had Dan Gordon looking
after Michael with Brendan McArdle close by to double-team him. Yet doing that
just leaves more space for the other forwards, perfectly demonstrated by Leo
McLoone’s goal when he was completely unmarked. Teams come up with plans to
hold Donegal but Jim will have something else to counteract that and give them
something further to worry about.
Teams are spending so much time in trying to figure
out how to beat us, their own successful traits aren’t being seen. Darren
O’Hagan, Aidan Carr and Conor Laverty for example have all been in great form
in 2012 (particularly the latter in the league encounter in Newry in February)
yet there is such an emphasis on stopping Donegal that their talents weren’t
seen to the full yesterday.
Oisin McConville, in his role as BBC pundit after the
Tyrone game, waxed lyrical about Paddy McBrearty’s effect on the game and in
particular his ability to always take the right option – the Kilcar youngster illustrated
this again yesterday. Whether in near goal or out the field, every time the ball
came his way he seemed to have that extra half second and used it to decide the
best option whether it be shooting, kick passing or hand passing. Even in the
space of a year his game has come on so much and training and playing alongside
the Murphy maestro has brought his game to a new level.
One of the most satisfying aspects of last year’s win
over Derry was the fact that we were able to truly
savour the occasion such was our lead going into the final few minutes. The
same happened again yesterday with the final ten minutes turning into a
procession and yet at no stage did the players take their foot off the pedal;
they kept tracking back, working hard to win possession and took their scores
with real aplomb.
One slight worry going into the All Ireland series is
our tendency to depend on our second half displays to finish a team off – what
if it doesn’t happen for us some day? This can all be tracked back to last
year’s joust with Dublin
where we wilted in the Sky Blue onslaught, scoring just two points after the
break. McGuinness has obviously put a major emphasis and focus on ensuring that
that doesn’t happen again. In 2011 we tried to hold onto leads whereas this
year we’re simply staying in the game early on before pulverising teams. We
scored an incredible 1-13 in the second half yesterday; 2-16 in the last 40 minutes
compared to 0-2 in the opening 30 minutes.
Of course this gameplan will be more severely tested when
Donegal meet one of the big hitters in Croke Park
but we’re certainly primed for an assault on Sam and next Monday we’ll find out
who’s next to feel the full force of The Messiah’s men.
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