Jim McGuinness explains why Stephen Cluxton is the sport's best ever keeper

Paul Keane

All-Ireland winning Donegal manager Jim McGuinness believes Stephen Cluxton is the greatest Gaelic football goalkeeper ever.

The Dublin captain and five-time All-Ireland winner missed the Leinster final win over Laois through injury but boss Jim Gavin has promised he’ll be back this weekend.

Dublin will open their Super 8s account at Croke Park against McGuinness’s native Donegal on Saturday, a tie the 2012 All-Ireland winning manager described as the “acid test” for the Ulster champions.

McGuinness, the last manager to overcome Dublin in the Championship, back in 2014, said Cluxton is always the first problem for opposition management teams to consider.

“He’s the best player that has ever played the game, in that position, there’s no doubt about that,” said McGuinness.

I always make the point that when you’re going to play Dublin in the Championship, the first problem you’ve to solve is Stephen Cluxton.

“That is the very first problem and that is a very unique situation in team sport, where the goalkeeper is the guy you’ve got to have the biggest plan for. It’s normally the best full-forward, the centre-forward or the midfield. But with Dublin that’s the first conundrum.”

Cluxton missed the Leinster final after his mid-air collision with Longford’s James McGivney in the semi-finals.

He was replaced by Evan Comerford who will continue between the sticks on Saturday if Cluxton doesn’t make it.

“He was doing all of the same things Stephen Cluxton does with his kick-outs; the way they went short, the medium ones, the long ones and the diagonals, playing over the press,” said McGuinness. “So everything was there as usual that Stephen could do but the reality is that we won’t really know until the pressure comes on.

I thought Laois missed a beat with that, they could have pushed up very aggressively number one, and asked the question of him: ‘What has he got when we’re fully locked on?’

McGuinness rejected the suggestion Dublin may be on the slide with an ageing core of key players, increasing injury issues, and Diarmuid Connolly unavailable.

He said: “I don’t see that. I just think their young boys are really talented players, a bit like the Kerry lads that are coming in, they are really talented, they are really hungry, they have got energy, they have got intensity, they have got pace. They are accurate.

“I think it’s just an incredibly healthy situation for everybody there. You have got huge experience to draw on and you have incredible legs out on the pitch for intensity, players that are rightly there on merit.

“For me, whoever is saying to you that Dublin are on the slide they are probably from Dublin and they are involved in spin. I don’t see it.”

Donegal’s chances of matching their 2014 win over Dublin at Croke Park have been hit hard by the loss of prolific forward Patrick McBrearty to a cruciate injury.

Patrick McBrearty

“It’s a tough draw but I think there’s a part of me as well that thinks they are looking forward to it, that this is the acid test,” said McGuinness. “And they do have legs themselves, they have a lot of pace, they have a lot of skill going forward.

“There were a lot of people taking the pressure off Patrick and Michael (Murphy) so I think they’ll go out and express themselves and if they can live with the reality of not having Patrick, I think they’ll be okay.”

Meanwhile, Dublin legend Jimmy Keaveney is convinced his St Vincent’s club-mate Diarmuid Connolly will play for the county again.

Connolly is playing for the Donegal Boston club after quitting the group midway through the Allianz League.

But Keaveney told the Blue is the Colour podcast that the five-time All-Ireland winner is in the US partly to “make a few bob for himself” and to secure his future.

I wouldn’t worry so much about Diarmuid now at the moment at all. They’re all worried: ‘Ah, he’ll never come back again, he’ll get tied up in the rat race over there in the States’.

“But knowing Diarmuid as I do, I’m sure Diarmuid will come back .

“I was talking to Diarmuid before he went away. He’s a good young fella, he’s (got) a sound head on him.

“He’s going away just to make a few bob for himself and maybe put himself in a better position. He has it all going for him back here in Dublin.”

- Sky Sports GAA pundit Jim McGuinness was speaking at a NOW TV promotion.