Donegal rediscover old values as they go in search of recipe for success
IT WAS at this stage of the Allianz League last year that Donegal’s season peaked. They had gone into their round five Saturday night clash with Tyrone at Ballybofey on the back of a three-game unbeaten run and that momentum took care of business. They hammered Tyrone by double scores – a result that left Rory Gallagher’s team and Donegal supporters dreaming that anything was possible. That was hardly how it worked out; a few months later and after a ninepoint trimming from Tyrone and a four-goal mauling by Galway, it was all over in every sense for Gallagher. Donegal are coming from a very different place for the lastest instalment of their Ulster rivalry with Tyrone at Healy Park. As a result of losing their opening three games, tonight’s clash is a relegation four-pointer. There are those in Donegal who would swap where they are now for where they were 12 months ago. Brendan Devenney, a starturn in the team that made history by winning the county’s first and only spring title in 2007, is one. ‘We are certainly in a better place in terms of evolution,’ he insists. ‘There were times over the past few years where it was pull-your-hair-out stuff watching Donegal play. ‘Some games you were just waiting to get beaten, but Declan Bonner has come in with a different approach. I think he has seen that the better teams have an attack-based philosophy and that is the way to go. ‘I don’t think it is a viable game-plan to go back to how we were in 2016 when we played Dublin in the Championship and we were three points down with a man up and still sat deep.’ Donegal have not yet rediscovered the momentum that made them such a force in the early part of this decade, but they are discovering old values. They are playing with a sense of fun and with a degree of ambition which Devenney believes was sacrificed at the altar of structure. Their performances are outstripping their results. They lost to an illegally scored point against Kerry, a one-point squeeze against Galway and, in the high-point of Bonner’s reign, were the only team to force Dublin to take a backwards step in Croke Park. Their poorest display came last time out in a win over Kildare when they gave up three goals and saw a fourth effort wiped out. That performance underlined that they are vulnerable at the back – they have conceded six goals to date – but Devenney believes that is a price worth paying. ‘Neil McGee, Paddy McGrath and Frank McGlynn have not been playing so not only don’t we have the cover that
was once there with a blanket defence, but you have boys who are still finding their feet going one on one. ‘But you can’t have it both ways, if you are going to be more committed to attack, then you are going to be more vulnerable at the back and that is compounded by the lack of experience there. ‘I would take that any day; supporters want to see the team having a go and if that means coughing up chances then so be it. ‘Suddenly everyone is excited because the reality is that the game was going down the toilet apart from a few high profile games at the end of the summer which were not representative of the dross that people had to watch.’ And no matter what happens from here, the expectation is that Bonner will keep faith with an expansive game-plan. In the win over Kildare, he gave an early indication as to how he intends to address the Michael Murphy dilemma that has consumed the county for the past few years, sending his captain into the full-forward line. There is a gamble involved there, one based in the hope that the in-form Hugh McFadden and the returned Odhran MacNiallais can fill the midfield hole which Murphy has plugged in the past. ‘I am sure Bonner is thinking now that if we can get away with it to leave him in there. ‘I would have thought that was not possible but there is still the option of him switching in and out, but I think either way we will see more of him as an attacking force. ‘It would be an awesome sight to have Murphy and Paddy McBrearty in your inside line, with Jamie Brennan darting around them,’ adds Devenney. As for tonight, the likelihood is that whoever loses will make the drop. But even if that is to be Donegal’s fate, it will not kill the hope. ‘Bonner is taking a long-term view and I think it is one that will bring excitement back to our game. ‘That’s what we want to experience again.’