Brolly warns of Donegal shock

GAA pundit Joe Brolly believes the Donegal footballers will “shock the world in the next six weeks”.

The Ulster champions face Cork in tomorrow’s first All-Ireland SFC semi-final and the Derry legend is convinced manager Jimmy McGuinness has developed an incredible side capable of claiming ultimate honours.

In his Derry Journal column, Brolly wrote: “The recent transformation of Gaelic football simply underlines the point it is no longer the best footballers who win, but the team with the most enlightened training systems and tactics. Colm O’Rourke, the grand old man of Irish punditry, used to repeat the mantra ad nauseam “the team with the best footballers will win.” So he backed Kerry in ’03, ’05 and ’08. He doesn’t say that any longer. Who, for example, could argue the Dubs have better individual footballers than the rest? Brolly revealed he attended a Donegal training sessions last year and was impressed.

“What I saw that fascinating night in Letterkenny convinced me they were a squad that were preparing seriously to go the distance. The eminent sports psychologist, Anders Ericsson, wrote ‘when the human body is put under exceptional strain, a range of dormant genes in the human DNA are expressed and extraordinary physiological processes are activated. Over time, the cells of the body actually reorganise in response to the new metabolic demands of the activity, by for example, increasing the number of capillaries supplying blood to the muscles.’ In effect, savage but sophisticated training makes you stronger, faster and more powerful. Put another way, your body mutates to cope with consistent high performance. Your heart size increases, your lung capacity gets bigger, your blood flow multiplies. In Letterkenny that night, this is precisely what was happening. Three hours of ferocious training, where after each activity players were gasping on their hands and knees, then quickly back up and at it, seemingly fresh. Ryan Bradley for example pushed himself in the sprints until his legs had turned into columns of lactic acid and he dragged them over the finish line. Within seconds, he was sprinting again, seemingly recovered. His body was being trained for Croke Park.

“McGuinness’ regime has truly been transformative, creating the specific fitness and skills required to play the game he has decided to play, and putting in place a fail-safe strategy. This is not to say Donegal can’t be beaten, only it will take something remarkable to beat them. They haven’t precisely shocked the world yet, though two Ulster titles are pretty good.

“They will, however, shock the world in the next six weeks. Starting on Sunday.”