Love bombing begins ahead of ‘dream final’

As football game plans go for underdogs, this was almost utopian.

Draw Dublin’s sting, hang in there until half-time employing what Jimmy McGuinness likes to call ‘game intelligence’ and then counter-attack with the speed of an overnight train.

“That move Colm McFadden made to lose two defenders for the third goal, you can’t coach that. That’s pure game intelligence,” McGuinness explained in a post-match auditorium that had the feel and sound of a lecture hall.

Little wonder. Football’s detractors got a poke in both eyes at the weekend with two stunning, seminal All-Ireland semi-finals.

“Inspirational,” gushed the Donegal manager when asked what he thought of Kerry and Mayo on Saturday in Limerick.

His own six-point victory yesterday was no less so; little in sport inspires so readily as the underdog who gets up off the canvas to knock out the champion. There were moments in this 3-14 to 0-17 victory when Donegal seemed seconds from succumbing to a fatal punch. Down 0-9 to 0-4, Dublin fouled up two bona fide goal chances that might have put them out of range. At times Donegal looked like an out-punched boxer surviving on instinct as Paul Flynn rattled over four first half points from distance.

But they cleared their heads and set about reminding everyone that football’s Ivan Drago bleeds like everyone else, panics like everyone else and fails like most when it comes to defending their All-Ireland crown. It was such a perfectly executed counter-attacking gameplan, in fact, that it rates “absolutely nowhere” in McGuinness’ laminated list of great Donegal performances — for the good reason that it was in August, not September.

Ahead of them is what McGuinness labelled “the dream final.”

“We talked about game intelligence and Kerry probably lead the way in terms of game intelligence over the decades. I played down there myself for two years with the (IT Tralee) college. They have really good decision-makers,” the manager love-bombed.

“Most of the players are two footed. They play a lovely brand of football. They are going to bring all that experience and craft to the game the next day. It’s a dream final because those glory years are finals I sat and watched as a boy for many years. For me, those memories are still in my mind and those brilliant players lifting Sam Maguire. For the romantic side of it, Kerry in an All-Ireland final is something special.”

No more so than the subplot on the sideline, where two of the smartest managers in the game will devise plans for their own and spoilers for the opposition. McGuinness and Eamonn Fitzmaurice are the prototype modern-day head coach — bright, innovative, articulate yet ruthless when the need arises. The Donegal man has stood in the September sun but Fitzmaurice is catching up fast.

Out-fox Jimmy and he’s Kerry royalty before his 38th birthday.

He’ll do well to.

Once consecutive first half points from man of the match Ryan McHugh, Odhran MacNiallais and Michael Murphy had pared Dublin’s early lead down to 0-9 to 0-7, the Ulster champions had the foothold they required. McHugh’s lead goal in the 32nd minute was a joyous coincidence because Donegal were already turning Dublin over in possession.

This wasn’t 2012 Donegal, all stifle and little swagger — this was an altogether more palatable variant of their swarm offensive.

Three minutes after the interval, we witnessed the first instance of Dublin’s invincibility crumbling.

A right wing raid from Anthony Thompson took him beyond Dublin’s flimsy cover and he squared intelligently for McHugh to palm his second goal. Again it was a chance a less intelligent player would have caught first and probably botched.

2-8 to 0-10 behind, now we would whether Dublin’s jaw was glass or granite: Three points followed in as many minutes and Kevin McManamon joined the fray. But before the famed golador had drawn second breath, Donegal had the Hill 16 nets dancing again. The stunning sight of the emperor undressed took a moment to register, not least because it was unsettling to watch Dublin’s defence disintegrate.

With 12 minutes remaining, Donegal’s cushion was eight points, 3-11 to 0-12. When Bernard Brogan, McManamon, Macauley and Diarmuid Connolly wided, Dublin turned the attention to three-pointers — not the best course against a defence whose raison d’etre is avoiding them.

“We do the same thing for every game,” McGuinness reflected. “We pay a lot of attention to the opposition and once that’s done then we turn the light back on ourselves. We try and get ourselves and our own performance right, and that’s what we did.

“The boys are able to take information and use it. And then on top of that make really good decisions. Colm’s (McFadden) ability to lose two markers and put it in the back of the net, that’s nothing to do with coaching or anything else. That’s his own game intelligence. Ryan McHugh, the way he ran, the way he made those decisions, that’s the players’ game intelligence.

“When you’ve got good players and you’re delivering a framework, you’re hoping they can work within that and show what they’re capable of. Thank God we did.”

Jim Gavin’s verdict was a terse as McGuinness’ was expansive. Nonetheless he was gracious and cognisant his side had been out-witted by stealth and substance. Jack McCaffrey started in place of wing-back Nicky Devereaux, but both tried, and failed, to curb Ryan McHugh, the 20-year-old brother of Mark. Neither had Gavin anyone to handle Michael Murphy, “probably the best forward in the country,” McGuinness believes. Unquestionably he’s the premier midfield-turned-inside forward operator. Finding a Kerryman to soften his cough occupied much of Fitzmaurice’s road home from Dublin yesterday.

Donegal and Kerry have never met in an All-Ireland final — on the 21st of this month, they’ll meet twice in the same day with Declan Bonner’s minors making it a “truly astonishing” day for Donegal yesterday against Dublin.

Football hasn’t turned blue just yet.