COLIN WALSHE KNOWS exactly what Dublin and Donegal are capable of in the heat of championship — he’s lined out against them both in recent weeks.
Last year’s Allstar corner back was on the losing side when Monaghan faced Donegal in the Ulster final last month, while just three weeks ago he lost out to the Dubs in the All-Ireland quarter-final.
The 2013 Ulster champions handed their provincial crown to Donegal in late July, the two-point defeat giving Donegal their third Ulster title in four years. Yet Donegal’s narrow win in Clones was a major contrast to the 2-22 to 0-11 defeat which awaited at the hands of Dublin.
A Dublin team who “without a doubt” are the best Walshe has faced this year.
“They’re not just top players but they have a serious work rate,” the 23-year-old tells TheScore.ie.
“You need to watch them live or play against them really to see the work rate they put in, even the pressure they were putting on us up front and the runs of the ball to get on the ball.”
“Someone could make ten runs before the ball comes, I think Paul Flynn made 100 yards of a run just to win a kick out. The camera can only see him come into the screen and he wins it and he pops it off and it’s not that big of a deal, but when you’re on the field you do notice.
“They just work very hard for each other and for the team” he said.
Donegal may not have inflicted the same damage upon Walsh and his team mates, but the 2012 All-Ireland champions are unrivalled in their organisation and tactical nous, and Jim McGuinness will no doubt have his homework done before the Dublin clash.
“Donegal now have three weeks to come up with a game plan” he said. “They are a very organised outfit and I’d say it will be tight.
“But I just think over the whole 7o minutes that Dublin will get the better of them because no matter how tight the game was the last day for 20 minutes, they just didn’t seem to get panicked or flustered.
“They can do it for over the 70 minutes and they probably are the best team we’ve come up against over the last couple of years.”
For Monaghan though it’s been an interesting year. Back-to-back Ulster finals for the first time since the 40s and a first championship win in Croke Park since 1930 — a positive year?
“We were definitely hoping for more. We got to another Ulster final which was good but we were hoping to win back-to-back titles which hadn’t been done before. We had a lot of goals — we got promoted to Division 1 and we beat Tyrone to get back to the Ulster final, and we got to the last eight.
“But in terms of progression you look at it as we didn’t win the Ulster championship and we didn’t get past the quarter-final which we reached the year before. So it’s probably a mixed season looking back at it.
Looking ahead to the 2015 season Walshe is hopeful that both the management team and the county’s more experienced players will all stay on.
“I’d imagine everyone will. Chatting to the lads there, I think the whole set-up will stay on. They’re all keen to bring us on and they’ve brought us this far, so I’d say they’re happy to continue.
“I suppose next year we’re looking forward to Division 1 and we’ll be playing the top teams early on in the year which will set us up nicely for the championship.”
