Emerging from their shell?

One of the reasons Dublin were spared the wrath of the football police in the aftermath of last year’s bizarre All-Ireland semi-final was that they had already proven their attacking credentials a few weeks earlier in a devastating display against Tyrone.

What was conveniently ignored was that for long periods of that notorious semi-final, Dublin left four defenders and Stephen Cluxton marking the lone Donegal forward, Colm McFadden. It was, of course a source of much angst to Donegal people that they should become the focus of subsequent witch-hunts given Dublin’s negative approach to the same game. But that misses the point entirely.

The point surely is, that in revealing some of the hidden dimensions of the game of Gaelic football, Donegal showed a diabolical lack of ambition by playing some really good attacking players in withdrawn roles. The need to evolve was a point frequently made during the weeks that followed — including Jim McGuinness’ assertion that “if you are standing still, you are going backwards”.