MUCH LIKE A kettle calling the pot black, Jack O’Connor has his own way of measuring Jim McGuinness’ readiness for the new season.
‘I saw where Jim was fine and cranky with the media, which means he’s well up for it again,’ suggested O’Connor, with his eye on Kerry’s trip to Ballyshannon this weekend.
Jack knows about these things.
There is a consensus last summer flipped in a 15-minute Kerry blitz of Armagh which laid the champions to waste, and left their title at their conqueror’s feet.
However, it was what followed in the post match press conference which cemented the notion that Kerry’s performance was not just for show, as O’Connor put on his best cranky face and cut loose at those close to home who had been making unwelcome noises.
“I’d ask people who are knocking that group and knocking people involved with the group to look in the mirror and say, ‘What have you contributed?
“Go away and coach a team. Go away and coach a development squad. Go away and coach a minor team. That’s how you help Kerry football, not knocking people,” he lashed out.
Jack O'Conor celebrates last summer's win over Armagh. James Lawlor / INPHO
James Lawlor / INPHO / INPHO
After that, going back without the Sam Maguire was a non-negotiable, or otherwise the “knockers” would have taken care of the homecoming, by forming an orderly queue on Radio Kerry’s version of Liveline, the Terrace Talk phone in.
There was more than a faint echo of that last Saturday evening when McGuinness interpreted a question about his reflective thoughts on zonal defence as an unflattering well-aired critique as to why his team came up well shy of O’Connor’s in last July’s All-Ireland final.
‘I don’t listen to those people, most of them have never coached at Inter-county level, most of them have never stood on the sideline, most of them have never won anything as a coach.
“So, I don’t take counsel from people, I only take counsel from people that have been there and done that,’ he shot back.
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Jim McGuinness after last Saturday's win over Dublin. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
Two peas in a cantankerous pod, then?
Not quite.
McGuinness did not get to where he is by not seeking counsel, indeed finding it in places where others dared not even tread as he left his GAA comfort zone and embraced a coaching and managerial career in professional soccer.
It is just that when it comes to seeking counsel, O’Connor has turned it into an art form.
Five years into his third stint and his pre-season appointment of Kieran Donaghy has meant that he has already engaged the services of three All-Ireland winning coaches.
In doing so, he has risked the wrath of the county’s puritans by going to Tyrone to secure Paddy Tally’s services to help mend a leaking defence.
His acquisition of Cian O’Neill may have been as much about self-survival – his extension as manager in the autumn of 2024 was conditional on securing a heavyweight coach – as about team improvement, but he made it work amid fears that too many cooks might spoil the broth.
His willingness to publicly lean on others has only been matched by his openness to become a follower of fashion, rather than an archivist of tradition.
It is why he remodelled his side to have a street fighting edge to match Tyrone in the noughties by allowing the likes of Paul Galvin and Aidan O’Mahony to bare their teeth and challenge the notion that Kerry could not effectively engage a sweeper by making it a central element of his 2022 success.
Changing course in public view while citing outside influences has been a hallmark of O’Connor’s reign through the years.
It is not that McGuinness is adverse to change, his evolution from what had been an innovative massed defence to one weaponised by a lightning counter-attack delivered an All-Ireland, long before “transition” became a hackneyed buzz word.
And in his second coming, he defied fears his team would remain locked in a time warp to become a dynamic force in winning back to back Ulster titles, but old habits die hard and his instinct to seek protection in a layered defence inside the 40-metre arc invited inevitable heat in the fall-out to last July’s defeat
It wasn’t the reason they lost – Kerry’s first half eight-point match-winning lead was built on winning a greater share of primary ball – but staying in shape for most of the second half while Paudie Clifford managed to do a striking impersonation of a courier on steroids, delivering parcel after parcel unchallenged as if dealing with the fall-out of a Black Friday fire sale, invited criticism from all quarters.
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
It might explain his tetchy response last Saturday evening, even more so because the answer to the question had already been spelt out large on the pitch.
Donegal pressed hard early and often against Dublin and while there always be phases where teams will drift into zonal shapes, one of the inevitable consequences – and it is one by design – of the new game is to ensure that the emphasis leans more towards man on man contests, than coach on laptop ones.
That is a truth which has to be embraced but the sense is – and it is one informed by his post All-Ireland final reaction in which he sought to explain Donegal’s defeat under the generality of a poor day at the office – McGuinness is reluctant to accept that, how Donegal lost the final, and the criticism which accompanied it, is behind his decision to change tack this year.
It echoes a little of Ruben Amorim’s final days at Manchester United, when he claimed that he could not move away from a system he was shackled to because to do so would have given the impression that he had cowed to his media-based critics. The irony, of course, is that in effect by sticking with what was not working because of not wanting to lose face, he ended up losing his way and his job
As he already showed last Saturday evening, when his Donegal team – whose athleticism and pace is tailored for a more aggressive set-up – is set to thrive with the shackles off, that is not going to happen to McGuinness.
In truth, it is less a leap of faith and more a hop and a skip to the bleedin’ obvious.
Gavin Mulreaney’s clipped kick-outs and two-point conversions, Shea Malone’s beautifully dispatched finish, Jason McGee, Hugh McFadden and Michael Langan’s human wall in the middle of the field, allied to the latter’s long range shooting were all takeaways that left Donegal supporters whistling their way back to the Hills.
Finbarr Roarty in action for Donegal against Dublin. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
But all of that was left in the shade when compared to the sight of Finbarr Roarty, swallowing man and ball, while torching grass with searing runs as the most potent reminder that Donegal have little to fear and much to gain from embracing in full the terms and conditions of the new game.
McGuinness hardly needs to seek counsel about that but as the game evolves over the coming months, and after a close season in which his management team headed by former players Colm McFadden and Neil McGee lost Luke Barrett to Derry, questions will persist as to whether he has the same depth of counsel as that which O’Connor has fostered to ensure that instead of reacting to a tactical curve ball, he is the one who gets to pitch one.
Getting cranky is the easy part, getting even is the harder one.
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Getting cranky is easy, getting even is harder as Donegal face Kerry rematch
MUCH LIKE A kettle calling the pot black, Jack O’Connor has his own way of measuring Jim McGuinness’ readiness for the new season.
‘I saw where Jim was fine and cranky with the media, which means he’s well up for it again,’ suggested O’Connor, with his eye on Kerry’s trip to Ballyshannon this weekend.
Jack knows about these things.
There is a consensus last summer flipped in a 15-minute Kerry blitz of Armagh which laid the champions to waste, and left their title at their conqueror’s feet.
However, it was what followed in the post match press conference which cemented the notion that Kerry’s performance was not just for show, as O’Connor put on his best cranky face and cut loose at those close to home who had been making unwelcome noises.
“I’d ask people who are knocking that group and knocking people involved with the group to look in the mirror and say, ‘What have you contributed?
“Go away and coach a team. Go away and coach a development squad. Go away and coach a minor team. That’s how you help Kerry football, not knocking people,” he lashed out.
After that, going back without the Sam Maguire was a non-negotiable, or otherwise the “knockers” would have taken care of the homecoming, by forming an orderly queue on Radio Kerry’s version of Liveline, the Terrace Talk phone in.
There was more than a faint echo of that last Saturday evening when McGuinness interpreted a question about his reflective thoughts on zonal defence as an unflattering well-aired critique as to why his team came up well shy of O’Connor’s in last July’s All-Ireland final.
‘I don’t listen to those people, most of them have never coached at Inter-county level, most of them have never stood on the sideline, most of them have never won anything as a coach.
“So, I don’t take counsel from people, I only take counsel from people that have been there and done that,’ he shot back.
Two peas in a cantankerous pod, then?
Not quite.
McGuinness did not get to where he is by not seeking counsel, indeed finding it in places where others dared not even tread as he left his GAA comfort zone and embraced a coaching and managerial career in professional soccer.
It is just that when it comes to seeking counsel, O’Connor has turned it into an art form.
Five years into his third stint and his pre-season appointment of Kieran Donaghy has meant that he has already engaged the services of three All-Ireland winning coaches.
In doing so, he has risked the wrath of the county’s puritans by going to Tyrone to secure Paddy Tally’s services to help mend a leaking defence.
His acquisition of Cian O’Neill may have been as much about self-survival – his extension as manager in the autumn of 2024 was conditional on securing a heavyweight coach – as about team improvement, but he made it work amid fears that too many cooks might spoil the broth.
His willingness to publicly lean on others has only been matched by his openness to become a follower of fashion, rather than an archivist of tradition.
It is why he remodelled his side to have a street fighting edge to match Tyrone in the noughties by allowing the likes of Paul Galvin and Aidan O’Mahony to bare their teeth and challenge the notion that Kerry could not effectively engage a sweeper by making it a central element of his 2022 success.
Changing course in public view while citing outside influences has been a hallmark of O’Connor’s reign through the years.
It is not that McGuinness is adverse to change, his evolution from what had been an innovative massed defence to one weaponised by a lightning counter-attack delivered an All-Ireland, long before “transition” became a hackneyed buzz word.
And in his second coming, he defied fears his team would remain locked in a time warp to become a dynamic force in winning back to back Ulster titles, but old habits die hard and his instinct to seek protection in a layered defence inside the 40-metre arc invited inevitable heat in the fall-out to last July’s defeat
It wasn’t the reason they lost – Kerry’s first half eight-point match-winning lead was built on winning a greater share of primary ball – but staying in shape for most of the second half while Paudie Clifford managed to do a striking impersonation of a courier on steroids, delivering parcel after parcel unchallenged as if dealing with the fall-out of a Black Friday fire sale, invited criticism from all quarters.
It might explain his tetchy response last Saturday evening, even more so because the answer to the question had already been spelt out large on the pitch.
Donegal pressed hard early and often against Dublin and while there always be phases where teams will drift into zonal shapes, one of the inevitable consequences – and it is one by design – of the new game is to ensure that the emphasis leans more towards man on man contests, than coach on laptop ones.
That is a truth which has to be embraced but the sense is – and it is one informed by his post All-Ireland final reaction in which he sought to explain Donegal’s defeat under the generality of a poor day at the office – McGuinness is reluctant to accept that, how Donegal lost the final, and the criticism which accompanied it, is behind his decision to change tack this year.
It echoes a little of Ruben Amorim’s final days at Manchester United, when he claimed that he could not move away from a system he was shackled to because to do so would have given the impression that he had cowed to his media-based critics. The irony, of course, is that in effect by sticking with what was not working because of not wanting to lose face, he ended up losing his way and his job
As he already showed last Saturday evening, when his Donegal team – whose athleticism and pace is tailored for a more aggressive set-up – is set to thrive with the shackles off, that is not going to happen to McGuinness.
In truth, it is less a leap of faith and more a hop and a skip to the bleedin’ obvious.
Gavin Mulreaney’s clipped kick-outs and two-point conversions, Shea Malone’s beautifully dispatched finish, Jason McGee, Hugh McFadden and Michael Langan’s human wall in the middle of the field, allied to the latter’s long range shooting were all takeaways that left Donegal supporters whistling their way back to the Hills.
But all of that was left in the shade when compared to the sight of Finbarr Roarty, swallowing man and ball, while torching grass with searing runs as the most potent reminder that Donegal have little to fear and much to gain from embracing in full the terms and conditions of the new game.
McGuinness hardly needs to seek counsel about that but as the game evolves over the coming months, and after a close season in which his management team headed by former players Colm McFadden and Neil McGee lost Luke Barrett to Derry, questions will persist as to whether he has the same depth of counsel as that which O’Connor has fostered to ensure that instead of reacting to a tactical curve ball, he is the one who gets to pitch one.
Getting cranky is the easy part, getting even is the harder one.
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Donegal GAA Jack O'Connor Jim McGuinness Kerry Sunday Showdown