AHEAD OF THE Ulster final on Sunday, we look at some of the most interesting facets surrounding the meeting of Donegal and Armagh.
Clones v Casement
We all know how this one ends. One team will beat the other. It will either be a glorious homecoming for Jim McGuinness and Donegal, or deliverance for the faithful Armagh hordes that follow their team around with such devotion.
There will be a cup lifted, speeches will be made and thousands will be on the pitch in high spirits. The attention will be entirely on capturing the healthy and youthful glow of these sportsmen in their prime.
And then someone will mention the traffic. And the lack of parking. And the discomfort of standing on the hill.
The backlash, the pro-Clones lobby, will answer with an approach less concerned with logistics and facilities.
Instead, they will focus on the tradition, heritage, charms and ability to get a few pints deep into the morning before heading up the hill.
And then the toilets will get a mention, and both sides will acknowledge that sections of St Tiernach’s Park is plainly unfit for purpose.
There’s a magical quality about Clones, and it will remain for a long time as the development of Casement Park is still some way off. But the lack of proper toileting facilities or the will to finally sort it out is neglect.
Murphy’s Laws
Everyone has time for Michael Murphy. He has an easy-going Donegal charm, a soothing voice and is perfect son-in-law material.
But make no mistake. Murphy is a competitive animal.
Two years ago, the Ulster final was in the extra-time mix between Murphy’s Donegal and Derry.
In his 16th season, Murphy was still being asked to be head chef and chief bottle washer and, as such, Declan Bonner had him planted in the middle of the pitch, doing all the chasing and hounding.
Suddenly, he got a cramp in his calf. Derry noticed this. They instantly got a message on the pitch to Brendan Rogers to run with the ball straight at Murphy, knowing that his discomfort might cause him to foul. Rogers kicked the two last points from play to win.
Despite being retired ever since, Donegal’s most influential footballer is still trying to exert an on-pitch influence.
In his media contributions, he has suggested that the Armagh management would be doing their job wrong if they didn’t start a gung-ho goalkeeper with a taste for roaming outfield. However, Ethan Rafferty hasn’t played all year, and it was by targeting the exact same tendencies in Derry goalkeeper Odhran Lynch that Donegal smashed Derry.
He also is taking the pressure off Donegal by saying – and you can imagine this line being rehearsed into the mirror – that they are ten months into their journey with McGuinness while Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney has had ten years.
The idea of Donegal as wide-eyed innocents makes one smile when you consider that they have been in 11 of the last 14 Ulster finals, and the majority of the panel have medals from the 2018 and 2019 campaigns, while Armagh haven’t a single one between them.
General Patton
In the Ulster quarter-final against Derry, Donegal goalkeeper Shaun Patton was pinging kickouts into areas that Donegal would subsequently flood with bodies. They were getting the breaks and were able to inflict huge damage with goals.
Then Patton went down with an injury after Derry had scored. To the more suspicious of mind, it seemed like a tactic Limerick and Nickie Quaid have used; break the opposition’s momentum by forcing a stoppage in the play.
However, Patton’s eventual withdrawal told us that something was very wrong there. The exact injury was not disclosed, but it kept him out of the semi-final against Tyrone where Gavin Mulreany deputised and acquitted himself well, albeit Tyrone did not contest any of his kickouts.
Patton has been named to start the Ulster final. That does not mean he will start of course.
Managers pull strokes all the time. That’s the gig.
Even this week, there was an amusing feature of a copy of The Irish News with quotes harvested at the recent Donegal media day. Jim McGuinness said that Donegal hadn’t been practicing penalties at all as they hadn’t the time.
A few pages over, team captain Patrick McBrearty said they practise penalties at the end of training sessions.
Needle and the Damage Done
As much as post-match handshakes make a nice picture, there’s a significant beef history between the two managers here, going back to their playing days.
By the time McGuinness was manager in 2011 and Donegal beat Kildare in an All-Ireland quarter-final, he had been furious about a piece that appeared in that day’s Irish Independent, with Kildare selector Niall Carew quoted as saying, “If he lets Donegal continue with the cynical fouling of the opposition half back line in particular, then yes, they will be hard to break down. If he punishes them and hands out yellow cards when they are merited, then we’ll have a chance.”
After the game, McGuinness said in an interview: “Kieran McGeeney was a phenomenal player. He didn’t cry, he didn’t whinge. We weren’t very impressed by that as a group to read that. We’re happy that the referee didn’t take the bait.”
McGeeney’s response was McGuinness knew where he was, if he wanted to find him. Grrrr.
Fast forward to this year, and the drawn league encounter in the Athletic Grounds. Remarks were passed that day too, with, ‘Two can play at that game,’ being one Wildean quip.
Afterwards, they made nice in the interviews, McGeeney yukking it up that at this stage, they would be reduced to throwing walking sticks at each other.
But for someone who reacted with such anger in 2011 after the Kildare story, McGuinness himself was offering up observations at Donegal’s local press day.
“It’s unusual now to have that massive physical profile across a team but I would suggest this Armagh team is probably one of the biggest and most physical teams in the country,” he said.
“Maybe that’s down to the manager. The manager was one of the most physical players.”
It’s hard to see how McGeeney might back down if his cage is rattled. Either way, he might be tempted to remind McGuinness of how far this Donegal team have come since he was in the Down backroom team when they beat Donegal last year.
