HUGH’S IGNORING THE ‘MIDDLE’ MEN
IF Hugh McFadden’s skin was a little thinner, his pride might have reason to be hurt this summer.
Once more the eternal debate in Donegal football has been reignited, where best to play Michael Murphy.
When he slotted into the Donegal midfield as a regular foot soldier for their opening Super 8’s clash against Dublin, it left some, not least RTÉ’s Joe Brolly, who labelled the Donegal captain ‘a liability’, foaming at the mouth.
And when Murphy togged out as a regular full-forward last time out against Roscommon — kicking four points from play in the process — it left his admirers salivating.
If only he could play there every day, they chimed.
He would if Donegal had the midfield quality to do without him, countered the pragmatists.
Caught in the middle, the 6ft 2in McFadden has got to play through the kind of white noise that could cut him to the bone if he chose to pay heed to it.
‘Are you going to take it as an insult that someone wants Michael Murphy to play midfield with you?’ he ponders.
‘I don’t anyway. Don’t get me wrong, if someone said you’re midfield’s not good enough and you need Michael Murphy there to shovel your s**t for the want of a better phrase, you would take it personally.
‘But I look at it as a chance to improve. At the end of the day, if Declan thinks it’s best for Michael Murphy to play midfield, I’m not going to take it too personally,’ says McFadden.
This is his fifth season as an inter-county footballer and that time served has meant he is able to see for himself things are never as black and white as those on the outside paint it.
For starters, there is a reason why the day of the big inside fullforward — even the original of the species, Kerry’s Kieran Donaghy, tends to mix it up when he plays — standing at the edge of the square has gone out of fashion.
‘The debate about where Michael plays has been going on a long time,’ admits McFadden.
‘When he came on the scene he was an absolutely fantastic outand-out full-forward but the game has evolved in the midst of his career, with the introduction of more defensive systems and it became harder for some full-forwards to stand out and that is seen right across the game now.’
Keeping it fluid is king now and while Murphy’s stint in the middle sector of the field is to provide a helping hand, it is also aimed at keeping the opposition guessing.
Of course, nothing attracts heat quite like losing and when Donegal fell to their first defeat this summer in that Dublin game, Murphy’s deployment was viewed through the less flattering window of a dysfunctional midfield performance.
Again, McFadden argues that closer scrutiny might make for better analysis.
‘I think we’ve performed well in the middle sector throughout the Ulster Championship.
‘Given the nature of the style of football Dublin play, it’s very hard sometimes to be competitive on their kick-out.
‘Odhrán Mac Niallais and I lined out at midfield against Dublin and we didn’t contest the kick-out.
‘It wasn’t like they were outfielding us or beating us on breaks, we just didn’t contest the kick-outs given the standard Stephen Cluxton was picking out players between his own 45.
‘The criticism after the Dublin game on where Michael needed to play was a bit unwarranted. When Dublin are at it, they’re at it but I think we proved against Roscommon when Michael was in at fullforward, that we could handle ourselves around the middle.’
It was Donegal’s pressing of the Roscommon restarts and their subsequent turnover of the same around – at one stage in the first half they reeled off seven on the bounce — which provided the foundation for a win that has set them up tomorrow for a shot at the All-Ireland semi-final if they can beat Tyrone.
It is the biggest game to ever be played on Donegal soil — it is the equivalent of staging an old-fashioned knock-out Ulster final in Ballybofey — with an All-Ireland semi-final up for grabs and few counties have enjoyed their home comforts more.
IT is over eight years since they last lost a game in Ballybofey and this is the venue more than any other which has teased out the poison between the Ulster rivals.
Donegal won four on the bounce earlier in the decade, with the 2103 and 2015 games played before sell-out crowds at MacCumhaill Park proving to be fractious affairs — the game in 2015 prompting an investigation after a half-time scuffle.
But the tide has turned in their last two meetings, Tyrone edging the 2016 Ulster final stand-off, but running out emphatic ninepoint winners when the teams met last year.
‘There’ll always be the pain of that heart-breaking defeat in 2016, considering the style in which Tyrone won it to be fair to them — Peter Harte, Sean Cavanagh, they were two of the best points I’ve ever seen in person and I suppose that hurt’s always going to be there.
‘The nature of our defeat last year will always be bitterly disappointing but we’re not worrying about that now.
‘If you had told us we were going to play Tyrone in MacCumhaill Park in an All-Ireland quarterfinal essentially last Christmas, it would’ve been the best Christmas present you’d ever have been handed.
‘We’re not looking at that any differently now, we can’t wait for it.’
The debate about where Michael plays has been going on a while