McGuinness ‘had a plan’ to beat Dubs

Former Donegal manager Jim McGuinness had been building up a portfolio on Dublin he first told his players about following the one-point All-Ireland quarter-final win over Armagh in August.

Donegal were given little chance against Jim Gavin’s Dublin, who had been dubbed unbeatable in certain sections. However, McGuinness had his team superbly well drilled.

“Jim McGuinness informed his players in the dressing room directly after the Armagh game he had a plan he had been working on for a while on how Dublin would be defeated,” says Donegal county secretary Aodh Mairtín O’Fearraigh in his annual report.

“He laid a folder on a table in the middle of the dressing room and said he would divulge the contents to the players on Tuesday night at training. There was an air of confidence in that dressing room, and a sense of belief the plan Jim had would do what most of the country said was not possible, that was to beat Dublin.”

Donegal were 7/1 outsiders in some bookmakers but produced the shock of the summer to see off Dublin 3-14 to 0-17. However, it was to prove McGuinness’s last victory as manager as the Ulster champions were unable to produce similar form in the All-Ireland final and lost 2-9 to 0-12 against Kerry. McGuinness resigned two weeks later, having been promoted to Celtic FC’s first team psychologist.

“He served his county with pride and distinction during his hugely successful reign,” O’Fearraigh said of McGuinness. “I wish him well in his new role, and congratulate him on his marvellous achievements.”

O’Fearragh, who steps down as secretary at the Donegal convention Sunday week, having served the maximum of five years, warned over the scheduling of club fixtures.

“It is proving to be very difficult to find a right balance to cater for club and county football,” he says. “The huge majority of clubs players train and prepare with little idea or when games are likely to be played.

“Donegal clubs decided to defer the RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta SFC and the AllSports Intermediate Championship until after the county’s exit in the SFC. This meant our premier competitions did not commence until the last weekend of September. Having reached the All-Ireland SFC final, this resulted in our SFC being crammed into a six-week period — hardly ideal for our premier competition.”

“This was a decision taken by our clubs, even though the suggestion was made by senior team manager Jim McGuinness to play two rounds of championship games in April/May.

“The tightening up of fixtures for clubs players is something that really needs to be addressed.”

“Currently the Ulster Senior Football Championship takes up to nine weeks to complete.

“It took three weeks to play the quarter final games, from May 25 until June 15.

“I can see no reason why the quarter-finals cannot be played over a shorter period of time, and have the championship played over a shorter period, allowing counties to play rounds of club championship in the summer months.”