The day football’s fate hung in the balance
Caught between a need for Donegal’s negativity to fail but beguiled by the prospect of it succeeding.
Jimmy McGuinness makes it all palatable because he’s sincere, genial and articulate but for an hour of a game as primal as anything I can remember, football’s fate hung in the balance.
The future is here? Then the future is sour. Donegal’s footballers unquestionably lifted the spirit of a county this year with progress above and beyond the best of Ulster. Good luck to them, but if the means and methodology of their success catches on, football is doomed. Truly, this is the last outpost, the outer realm of tactical absurdity.
Every county has, to some degree, mimicked Armagh and Tyrone’s template from the early 2000’s, even Kerry. But Cork in 2010 are about as conservative an All-Ireland champion as football needs. Donegal, even reaching a final, is a trench too far.
The scary thing is that Dublin are about the only side sufficiently conditioned to surmount the awesome physicality of the Donegal players at Croke Park yesterday. As their quarter-final proved, McGuinness’ squad are GAA Marines and it’s a sobering thought for Kerry’s Jack O’Connor that his ageing defence must hold their voracious conquerors on September 18. It’s more sobering still that McGuinness spoke afterwards about an early resumption of their “conditioning” for the fringe members of the 2012 panel. Gird yourself.
The trouble is that Donegal’s modus operandi will be closely studied by counties and club teams whose focus will switch from Sherlock to Shylock. The progress the Ulster champions have made in 2011 camouflages the manner in which they made it.
When half-time arrived yesterday with Donegal cradling a 0-4 to 0-2 edge, most of the chat in the aisles centred on whether spectator senses had been violated. However, in the Dublin dressing room, Pat Gilroy was preparing his scripted interval speech – the easiest of the season, he reckoned afterwards.
“It was exactly the game we were expecting. We knew it would be a ferocious battle and we had drilled into everyone that they had to be patient. We were exactly where we expected to be.”
Hardly. Two frees is a pitiful return for a half’s football from potential champions, but the real concern was that Dublin looked anything but a side that had read the script correctly.
Close to half-time, Diarmuid Connolly kicked Dublin’s eighth wide. As he did so, there were 14 Donegal players for company inside the 45m line. Fourteen no less. The Ulster champions harried and hit maniacally, their willpower fuelled by turnover after turnover. Had Michael Murphy brought his shooting boots, their lead on the changeover might have been an unbridgeable six or seven points. Their attacking waves were constant and had the pattern of the Red Cow roundabout about them. But points from Colm McFadden and Ryan Bradley kept them believing. The impossible trick was maintaining it for 70 minutes.
Within 40 seconds of the restart, they had the crucial opening to make the impossible possible. Murphy slipped McFadden inside the Dublin cover – an achievement that rivals the Wedding of Cana for miraculous invention – but he blazed over the bar when a goal looked likely. Six minutes later, Donegal shoulders sagged another inch when Karl Lacey trooped off injured. Suddenly the minutes began to feel like miles for McGuinness’ men.
On a day of statistical lows, it is worth noting that Dublin registered their first point from play on the hour mark, one of only two over the piece, but substitute Kevin McManamon’s effort levelled the game for the first time since the 11th minute at 0-6 each. Suddenly it didn’t seem to matter that Diarmuid Connolly had been red-carded three minutes beforehand. Missing the final is a personal tragedy for the St Vincent’s man but McManamon will hardly weaken Dublin’s attack.
Neil Magee was outstanding on Bernard Brogan, holding him without concession from play; ditto Lacey on his brother Alan, but the defensive badge of honour was shared with those further from goal. Paddy McGrath hoovered up space and ball and even Michael Murphy was more conspicuous in his own half than anywhere in Stephen Cluxton’s constituency.
Aimless though Dublin looked at stages – and undecided whether to sit deep or go for broke (Heaven forbid) by committing more attackers up front, looked an ongoing issue – they never got to a point of panic. Not something you’d have noted in the past.
For a coach who hasn’t won an All-Ireland, Pat Gilroy has an impressively world-beaten air about him these days, and his changes yesterday suggested a sideline that has learned from hitting the buffers. Eoghan O’Gara added impetus when introduced for wing back James McCarthy – Dublin hardly needed six defenders on Colm McFadden – and O’Gara’s deflected effort set up Bryan Cullen for the lead score. At 0-7 to 0-6 the scoreboard had the feel of a knife-edge but that ebb and flow of the action had lurched irretrievably towards Hill 16.
If and when they win their first All-Ireland since 1995, it will hardly be a thing of beauty and panache. Dublin, like Cork last year, will end their famine by stuttering over the line. Bernard Brogan hit the post with the insurance point to shred blue nerves further (and that was just in the press box) but they could not have scripted a more perfect final preparation. Banged and buffeted by Tyrone and Donegal, they are unquestionably more battle-hardened than Kerry. Younger too, more vigorous, but nowhere near the same football nous. If the final is a victory for athleticism over art, football beyond the Pale can live with that.
Dublin and Kerry will join the battle in the season finale most neutrals wanted before the semis and prayed for when they saw the alternative yesterday.
Not that McGuinness sees it that way. “Everybody has an opinion. It is irrelevant to us,” he smiled when the question of evolution – his team’s, not football – came up. For the moment, it’s almost a relief to have the public baiting Donegal for their tactics, not their boorish behaviour.
“These players have a passion for Donegal and the atmosphere in Donegal for the last number of weeks has just been fantastic. And to have played a part in changing the mood of a county is really special. Everybody in Donegal is talking about football now. The players have done that... by really, really hard work and so they deserve a lot of credit. That’s why we go down the road happy tonight — we gave it everything and move on.”
Dublin move on to the September Road with McGuinness warning their rivals that a 37th All-Ireland will be hard earned.
“I think it will be a very good final, and very, very hard to call. Dublin will definitely ask a lot of questions of Kerry with their athleticism and over 70 minutes that could have a bearing on the game.”
Let the talking begin.
