Jimmy did powerful job rebooting ailing charges
You could make a case for any of three years.
2011 when he inherited what Oisín McConville has described as a pub team, albeit a talented one, and transformed them within months into Ulster champions and one of the top four teams in the country.
2012 when he developed them from merely the best defensive team in the country into the best and most explosive counter-attacking team in the country, indeed the best team in the country, simple as, even without arguably their best player in Kevin Cassidy.
Or then there’s what he has done with them this year, picking up the pieces of last year.
For sure 2013 was his annus horribilis. For another team or in another era it wouldn’t have been that bad a season, reaching an Ulster final and an All-Ireland quarter-final, outwitting and outplaying a Mickey Harte team en route for a third consecutive year; it’s forgotten now but after that win over league finalists Tyrone in Ballybofey, McGuinness’s halo and his team’s aura shone brighter and stronger than ever.
But that’s not how 2013 is remembered. As McGuinness himself has since admitted, last year — and indeed his entire era — could have been remembered most for a 16-point quarter-final hammering by Mayo.
That’s why we’re making a case that this year might even trump the astonishing achievements of 2011 and 2012. Just look at the squad available to him for starters. For one, it was a split squad. Not split in terms of spirit, but geographically; only Mayo of the top counties have any idea of how difficult it is to negotiate having up to a third of your panel working and living over three hours away from your county grounds for much of the year; Cork, Dublin, Tyrone and, to a lesser extent, Kerry certainly don’t.
The age profile of the squad also seemed to suggest the side had run its course. Only six of the 20 players who got game time against Mayo would be younger than 28 in 2014.
Then they’d lose Ryan Bradley. And Rory Gallagher. And then after this year’s league final, Mark McHugh.
They looked out of road and options, certainly scoring ones.
In championship 2012 they’d averaged 1-14 a game. In championship 2013 that had dropped to just 0-12.
In the summer of 2012 their backs had scored an impressive 1-13 over seven games. In 2012 they would manage just five points in five games.
Whereas their nominal half-forwards were averaging three points a game in the summer of 2012, that dropped to just one point a game in 2013. Their midfield scored only half of what they did in their All-Ireland-winning year.
Instead they had become over-reliant on the triumvirate of Murphy, McFadden and McBrearty.
In 2012 that inside trio had accounted for just 56% of Donegal’s scores, jumping in 2013 to 73%.
How that’s changed this year. This summer only 43% of Donegal’s scores have come from that trio. The side are scoring even more than they did in 2012, averaging 18.4 points a game. And whereas the midfield and nominal half-forwards scored only 0-11 between them over five games last summer, this year that has jumped to an incredible 6-22.
Leo McLoone scored 2-3 over the first two games in Ulster. Ryan McHugh scored close to that against Dublin alone. But rivalling and perhaps even surpassing him as newcomer or most improved player of the year is 22-year-old Odhrán Mac Niallais. Over his last four games the Gweedore clubman has scored 1-9, which begs the question, just where did he come from? One part of that answer is Gweedore, the same club as Kevin Cassidy, and as team manager this year, he can fill us in.
“I’ve been watching him since he was U16 up and it was obvious then that he was a talent that would go on to show what he’s showing the whole country now.
“First of all he’s very athletic, which suits the Donegal system. His leap is unbelievable. He has a fantastic left boot and great vision and he’s confident to try things. He has that silky languid style that would be similar to Maurice Fitzgerald’s but he’d be quite a laid-back character. He’d train as hard as anyone but that easygoing nature might have been why he didn’t make it earlier. He was on the panel last year and I thought he should have been playing but maybe he didn’t assert or back himself enough. Maybe last summer he wasn’t hurting enough that he wasn’t playing.”
By the year’s end though, enough of them were hurting, not least McGuinness, and thanks to new blood like Mac Niallais, Donegal are back scoring plenty and Jimmy’s back winning matches. Crown it with Sam Maguire and there’ll be no doubt about it. 2014 will have been Jimmy’s best year yet.
