It will take some innovative coaching to wrest Sam away
Ulster teams just aren’t very good at defending their All-Ireland crowns and only two northern counties, Cavan (1947 and 1948) and Down (1960 and 1961), having won back-to-back titles.
During the modern era, northern sides have specialised in the one-in-a-row (Down 1991 and 1994, Donegal 1992, Derry 1993, Armagh 2002, and Tyrone 2003, 2005 and 2008).
While the introduction of back door in 2001 has made it much easier for teams to keep their hands on Sam, both Armagh and Tyrone have failed to emulate the achievements of those great Cavan and Down teams.
Can Donegal break the trend? When Down came out of nowhere to win the All-Ireland title in 1991, their success provided more inspiration for their northern rivals than it did for them.
Derry drew with Down in the 1991 Ulster semi-final and the Mournemen beat Donegal in that year’s provincial decider. When Paddy O’Rourke and his team-mates climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand, both Donegal and Derry knew it could just as easily be them. Fast forward 20-odd years and the exact same dynamic is ready to kick in again. Footballers in Tyrone, Armagh, Down and Derry have played against these Donegal players and beaten them. They will believe they can follow in their footsteps.
However, there are considerable differences between the early 90s and today. Back then, football was essentially about talent, character and tradition. The best teams had good players with driven personalities.
Coaching and tactics didn’t really come into it. Talk to players from that era and they will readily admit their teams never worked on defensive systems. By and large, it was man against man and a series of duels.
The game has changed beyond recognition since then. Donegal’s success a fortnight ago was a triumph for coaching. It was a victory for method and choreography.
Not convinced? Consider the following questions: If Donegal’s players are so good, why were they obliterated by Armagh in 2010 and wiped out by Cork in the All-Ireland quarter-final of 2009? If the personnel have remained the same, what has changed? Donegal do not have the most richly talented footballers in Ireland. Not by a long shot. But that doesn’t matter.
What matters is what happens on the training pitch. What follows is a far more relevant set of questions.
Are Donegal the best team in Ireland? Yes, they are. Have Donegal got the most effective playing system? Yes, they have. And, in terms of executing that system, are Donegal the best coached team in the country? Yes, they are, by a country mile.
Mayo were a well-schooled team. But their system which led to their defeat. Rather than retreat into a defensive shell, Mayo set out to apply pressure around midfield. The benefits of that strategy is that it makes it easier to score when you win the ball because there are more players in an advanced position.
But those rewards come with a risk. Once Donegal broke that midfield cordon, the Mayo full-back line was isolated. When Michael Murphy caught the ball before his opening goal, he was one-on-one against Kevin Keane.
That situation just never happens the Donegal full-back. There is always cover because Donegal never commit too many men to the attack, their defence is never totally exposed.
The key threat facing Donegal will be if they come up against a group of similarly talented players who have received expert tuition on a specific game plan. Viewed under that light, the field of viable challengers suddenly becomes very small. Donegal’s biggest threat in Ulster is Tyrone. It was no coincidence that Mickey Harte’s team gave Donegal their toughest game in this year’s championship.
Outside of Ulster, Donegal’s obvious threats are Cork, Kerry and Dublin. But as we learned this year, if those teams aren’t slickly coached, they’ll not count.
In that respect, Cork and Kerry have reason to be concerned. While Conor Counihan is a sound organiser and motivator, he is a man of his era. He played in a big, strong Cork team with had some fabulous footballers. Counihan’s side is very much in the same mould. With greater fluency, Cork could be something special, but they have repeatedly failed to produce the cohesion that is the hallmark of really well-drilled teams.
New Kerry manager Eamon Fitzmaurice may have served his apprenticeship under Jack O’Connor but has virtually zero experience as a manager and the championship is a very unforgiving schoolyard.
Any manager who has won the All-Ireland title in their first year were all seasoned campaigners. Fitzmaurice has a lot to learn and must do it with a Kerry squad in decline.
That leaves us with Dublin and their new manager Jim Gavin. Unlike Pat Gilroy, who came into the job as a rookie, Gavin has a glittering CV.
As the Dublin U21 manager, he guided his county to four Leinster U21 titles in five years. That success at provincial level has been converted into two All-Ireland titles.
Most notable of all, for his first All-Ireland U21 final in 2010, Gavin’s Dublin side got the better of a Donegal team managed by Jim McGuinness. Unlike James Horan, the Dublin U21 boss always ensured Michael Murphy was surrounded by a posse of blue jerseys (Dublin only sneaked the win after Murphy drove a late penalty off the crossbar). It seems the paths of the two Jims are destined to cross.
