You don’t play Donegal at their own game

The hard work was completed in the week prior to this match. Irrespective of how the game went, Armagh were looking for a win-win.

“This is a Division 3 team against a Division 1 team,” we were reminded. Next, we were told Donegal are very strong physically, which reminded me of that scene in Remember the Titans where Big Ju (representing “coloured folk”) asked Gary Bertier (leading “white folk”) how strong are you? “Too strong. I’m too strong,” he replied.

The Armagh spokesperson might as well have said: “Donegal are too strong”.

It's the first time Donegal have ever beaten Tyrone and Armagh in the same Championship.

— Kieran Cunningham (@KCsixtyseven) June 14, 2015

The excuses were in print but nobody actually believed that Armagh management or the players subscribed to that vision. Word from the periphery of the camp was that training was going well, players were positive and there was the perception that Donegal were set up to be beaten after a preliminary round distraction and a brief return to the clubs for players following the Tyrone victory.

Ten minutes gone in the Athletic Grounds and that illusionary veil was destroyed — Donegal five points clear and Armagh failing to string consecutive passes together.

Following on the promise of last August, the introduction of new players, and the recent league success, Armagh fans were buoyant and expected a close encounter. So how did things go so badly wrong?

Defensively Armagh played with two sweepers — typically Caolan Rafferty and Ciaran McKeever — while James Morgan and Charlie Vernon were given man-marking roles on Patrick McBrearty and Michael Murphy.

He's an alien. 62 metres from goal. Effortless. Half-time at the Athletic Grounds. Donegal 1-09 Armagh 0-02 pic.twitter.com/ruaX5pCmMd

— Irish News Sport (@irishnewssport) June 14, 2015

Inevitably, Morgan was left one-on-one with McBrearty and was duly exposed after a long ball from Neil Gallagher was won by McBrearty and finished well. The point here is that this was after two minutes of play and the sweepers had already forgotten their roles, opting to push out or follow their men instead of guarding the house.

Time and time again, this happened. In this opening period, the Armagh defence was dizzy with the movement of the Donegal forward unit. Missed tackles, failure to track runners, ball-watching and general sloppiness was the norm. All of a sudden, the apparent divisional gap was self-evident and the pre-match paper prep which had infiltrated supporters mindsets was voiced aloud. The reality was that defending was very poor, teamwork was poor, communication was poor, positional sense and the players’ game knowledge was very poor. None of the starting back six could have slept well last night or expect a guaranteed start the next day.

In the RTE OB in Galway watching Donegal v Armagh . It's now 1-7 to 0-1 in favour of Donegal. Impressive performance. pic.twitter.com/MtHyjQPn1F

— Marty Morrissey (@MartyMofficial) June 14, 2015

Offensively, the Armagh ingenuity was non-existent. Players repeatedly took the wrong option. The first attack was a long ball into Aaron Findon which was broken away; the second a running move that end in Armagh defender Any Mallon fisting the ball to a Donegal defender, and the third attack identical. As many as six attacks in the first half saw the ball fisted directly to a Donegal opponent.

How do you legislate for this quality of play? Indeed there were times during this opening period where you wondered what the attacking plan was, such was the ineptitude with which it was carried out. Two points in an entire half was a fair reflection of Armagh’s attacking prowess.

Before the half ended, championship debutant Miceal McKenna was replaced by Michael Murray and Finnian Moriarty by Kevin Dyas. Nothing unusual here until I inform you that Murray is a defender replacing a centre half-forward to mark Ryan McHugh and Dyas was last year’s Number 11, brought in to replace a half-back.

Defensively, Armagh were now playing with two half-forwards (Rafferty and Dyas) as half-backs. Half-time couldn’t come quick enough though the Armagh players lined out identically for the resumption. Little wonder Tony Kernan was the only forward to score in the 75 minutes played.

Armagh set themselves up to beat Donegal instead of playing their own style and adjusting somewhat to counter Donegal. Teams will not beat Donegal by playing Donegal at their own game. You must get early ball into the Donegal defence before they are formatted or you must attack at pace with support runners capable of beating the first line of defence. Alternatively you must have players with excellent football intelligence who can play through the mass defence.

To give Donegal credit, they were excellent yesterday and in that first half in particular they looked every bit as good as or better than they ever did under Jim McGuinness.

Armagh players and management will be hurting as they are better than this. The cruelty of sport is you must perform or expect the consequences. Rafael Nadal has fallen to No. 10 in the world rankings and Tiger Woods to no 181. Just like these great sports people, the future of Armagh and how they respond to defeat is in their own hands.