Some of the Provincial Championships are alive and well. Praise the Lord. In fact, looking at Jimmy winning matches again made one very grateful that Donegal didn’t produce their swashbuckling seismic performance against Meath a few weeks earlier.
They say that immitation is the greatest form of flattery. And, by God, all and sundry in charge of teams began to mimmic what Jimmy had done with Donegal in leading them to the 2012 All Ireland. However, as much as it’s understandable that the chasing pack would try to copy what has worked, few if any manage to replicate it with commensurate results.
However, when the cat is out of the bag and others try to beat you with your own methodology, it’s time to pull another rabbit from the hat. So what does genius Jim do? Go right back to basics.
Yes, that’s right lads and lassies, a Jim McGuinness-trained team playing long ball, catch and kick football. And chissel-faced Mickey Harte was left looking clueless as to how to counteract it. He thought he could outdo Jimmy at Jimmy-ball. Stupid boy!
So, while Derry abandoned everything that has made them one of the most attractive football teams to watch over the last half decade to manically push up on Shaun Patton’s kick outs, Donegal took advantage of the fact said thumps are akin to long distance RPGs.
On at least two occasions, the custodian’s cannons passed through only one other set of hands before beating Odhran Lynch back to his own net. Doubtless, the naysayers and purists will now say that should be an end to the fly ‘keeper concept, but I wouldn’t hear a bit of that.
All it requires is for the practice to become a shade more refined. Just as goalkeepers kicking frees and zonal defencive systems have. Eventually, they too will lose their phase of popularity and affording the shot stopper s free probably will too, but, just because one practitioner thereof ran into trouble with it shouldn’t necessitate a mass abandonment of the policy.
Especially in light of the fact that the only reason it malfunctioned on Derry was due to tactical ineptitude on Harte’s part. Instead of maintaining the highly impressive spine of the team, comprising Eoin McEvoy, Gareth McKinless, Conor Glass, Brendan Rogers and Ciaran McFaul, the Oak Leaf County lost all custodial shape, and resembled a field that has just been ran through with a hay turner!
Yet for all that, in the closing stages the erstwhile Anglo Celt Cup holders engineered a spurt of sufficient tenacity to reassure their own and forewarn the rest. Of course, the same could entirely be said of Donegal.
Anybody who doubted the McGuinness aura and the authenticity of it now has their answer. Neither of these have gone away, you know!
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