Fitz & starts
IT’S NOT ALWAYS BEEN SMOOTH SAILING FOR MICK AND HIS TEAM-MATES AGAINST DONEGAL
DONEGAL have provided Mick Fitzsimons with some of the more memorable games of his Dublin career – largely for the wrong reasons.
For starters, the 2011 All-ireland semi-final was one of the most bizarre games in Championship history as Donegal ramped up their defensive system to an unprecedented degree.
Fitzsimons is just one of six players from the starting line-up that day that is likely to feature in Sunday’s opening Group Two game between the counties as the Super 8 stage gets underway.
“That game was quite surreal,” Fitzsimons recalled at the launch of the All-ireland Championships on Inis Mor.
“It was unique. We had heard murmurings that they were going to be very defensive. They weren’t quite as defensive in their earlier games leading up to it but they went ultra defensive against us.
“I was up top against Colm Mcfadden. It was sort of unheard of back then. But fair play to them, they went after something and it was really close.”
Dublin ground out a 0-8 to 0-6 victory in the end en route to their first All-ireland in 16 years. But Donegal exacted revenge in the 2014 semi-final with a sensational win in what remains Dublin’s only Championship loss under Jim Gavin.
And their huge 23-game unbeaten Championship run since that day includes a quarter-final victory over Donegal two years ago.
“We learned a huge amount from it,” said Fitzsimons of the 2014 setback. “And I remember Cork in 2010 was the same. We learned a huge amount from that as well.
“We had a chance to get to a final and we blew it. We were in a good position until 25 minutes into it but there was so much learning in that game.
“We had to do a lot of analysis and there was a lot of soul searching.
“People had to figure out where they went wrong individually, where we went wrong as a team, at what stages we could have addressed it and what we needed to bring into the next year.
“Then 2015 was a great year. We addressed the flaws in our game and got the result at the end of it but it was a tough end to the summer.
“I think it speaks volumes for Donegal, how they managed it and the way they set up.
“We scored maybe five or six points early on and played fantastic football.
“But they just stuck to what they were doing, they didn’t dip their heads. They believed what they were going to do was going to get them the result.”
Donegal county board officers met with GAA officials last week seeking clarification on the fact that Dublin effectively have two home games in the Super 8s, one more than anyone else, while Donegal are the only county with two away games.
And 29-year-old Cuala man Fitzsimons refused to be drawn on the matter ahead of the game.
“I wouldn’t pay much attention to it,” he said. “We don’t read the papers.
“And I don’t tend to start trying to analyse things from Donegal’s perspective.
“I’m just going out to play games and we leave all that aside.
“It might sound ignorant but it’s out of our control. As a player, you find out where the game is and then you turn up and play. That’s all I can do.”