‘Team Ulster’ take care of their own
Jim McGuinness’s side were leading 0-4 to 0-2, the game was being played on their terms and he was cocksure they were going to win.
So assured was he of Donegal’s success that he categorically refused to accept the premise that Dublin, in their third year under Pat Gilroy, would eventually find holes in a system that was only months in operation. In fact, he guffawed.
There was no ‘told-you-so’ at full-time. The shoe has been on the other foot before and likely will be again. Last Friday, a Mitchelstown friend of ours was kind enough to remind this column of how many of our match verdicts have been wrong this summer.
Never, though, have we been as convinced so much as converted by a prospective outcome as our colleague that day. What had taken grip of his senses? Had he been sucked in by the cult of McGuinness? As Donegal showed the following season, there was much to believe in this team under this manager. However, it’s almost indelible that the closer a county from the province gets to September the ‘Team Ulster’ philosophy factor kicks in. To paraphrase Springsteen, they take care of their own.
Joe Brolly has long been a card-carrying member of Team Ulster. As he said himself during the Sean Cavanagh furore last year: “Nobody has stood up for Tyrone more during the 2000s.”
In the week of Donegal’s 2012 All-Ireland final, he accused Mayo of “tactical fouling” on RTÉ radio.
“There were 27 times where a Dublin player was trying to work his way forward and he was simply held or pulled down. Of those 27 times there were 22 frees given by referee Joe McQuillan; three times he waved advantage and on three occasions he missed it altogether. But there was not a single yellow card, and it was a massive feature of the game that Mayo were able to disrupt Dublin in that way. It was endemic throughout the field. It was seriously disruptive. It is a matter for them how they choose to play. It is, though, cynical fouling. I’m talking about tactical fouls. That is supposed to be a yellow card offence. It was difficult to see it on the day because obviously everyone was supporting Mayo.”
Much to James Horan’s rightful anger, not a word was uttered about Donegal, who were hardly shrinking violets. Donegal, in beating Kerry in their quarter-final that year, had committed 25 of 43 fouls and picked up five yellow cards.
What must have Eamonn Fitzmaurice thought on Sunday evening when Brolly rolled out the “tactical fouling” line again about Donegal’s new final opponents. “Kerry foul very systematically, very systematically” he said on The Sunday Game. “The runners coming through. They foul in their half-back line very systematically.”
In fairness to presenter Des Cahill, he pulled Brolly up on the point, stressing every team does it. “Ah, but they do it very systematically. Big Aidan O’Shea in the replay was fouled 13 times. It’s got to be a record of some sort.”
By no means are Kerry innocent parties. That’s too precious a truth for some of their following to accept but every football team worth their salt has a blend of rough and smooth.
Yet for Brolly to again overlook Donegal from the same conversation was wholly unbalanced.
In fact, he elected to turn the other way. Speaking about Donegal, he said: “One more point to make about them — they don’t foul. In the first half against Dublin, they didn’t concede a single free.”
We’ve gone back over the game — Donegal conceded four frees in that opening 35-plus minutes. The bodychecks that went unnoticed against each side were numerous. Michael Murphy, as Bernard Flynn said last week, is so, so fortunate to be lining out next Sunday after striking Diarmuid Connolly in the ribs. Cahill put it best on Sunday when he remarked to Brolly that he loved this Donegal team. Brolly is hardly in cahoots with the Ulster champions. Even Rory Kavanagh laughed when the Derry man two years ago claimed the player was eating eight meals a day to help him bulk up.
To watch Donegal is one thing, a most impressive experience, but to watch Brolly speak of them is to believe they are 15 William Wallaces, 7ft tall and consuming opponents with fireballs from their eyeballs and thunderbolts from their arses. On Sunday, he afforded forensic detail to their strengths.
Kerry’s weaknesses were scrutinised too, but Donegal’s bard paid no attention to the shortcomings of McGuinness’s outfit. Like how vulnerable they are if any of their spine is injured. Like how the excellent Paul Durcan will never be under as much pressure with his kick-outs as this Sunday. Like their bench.
It’s only now that, as it’s been revealed Donegal have been on at least four training camps this year, we see McGuinness’s Roman Abramovich comments about Dublin for what they truly were: a ruse.
But Team Ulster’s attempts to hitch their wagons to Donegal’s star aren’t so subtle. Distinguishing propaganda from fact shouldn’t be that hard to do.
* Email: john.fogarty@examiner.ie
A chat with some learned hurling people this past weekend revealed Kilkenny players were in Nowlan Park into the small hours of last Monday morning. Doing what, I hear you ask? Recovery.
Having left Croke Park and their partners behind them last Sunday, they ate together before heading back to Kilkenny, where they plunged themselves into ice baths.
Tipperary, on the other hand, remained in Dublin before doing some recovery work the next day, returning to the field on Wednesday. A similar approach in 2012 certainly didn’t hinder Kilkenny, nor did staying in the capital and having a beer or two hurt Clare last year. Yet whoever wins Saturday week’s replay, you can bet somebody will claim the decision to stay or go was the winning and losing of the game.
Over the weekend, one of the worst kept secrets in golf was finally confirmed when Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley spoke of how his relationship with Darren Clarke had cooled.
McGinley had no problem in Clarke seeking the captaincy this year but when he dropped out to support Colin Montgomerie, things became sour.
On the surface at least, there seems to be a little frost between former colleagues Anthony Cunningham and Mattie Kenny, right, as the pair go toe-to-toe for the Galway manager’s spot, currently filled by the former.
It wasn’t so long ago Cunningham conducted interviews in Croke Park, with Kenny and Tom Helebert flanking him in the press room. But Kenny stepped aside last year as coach and selector and he clearly believes the time has come to take over the larger mantle held by the St Thomas man, who is understood to have plans in place for next season.
