It’s win or bust
MCGUINNESS DEFENDS TACTICS DESIGNED TO UPSET APPLECART
JIM MCGUINNESS claims the top GAA counties ended up copying Donegal’s style of football because “they had to win”.
And he reckons their 2012 All-ireland success in his first reign was “a lightbulb moment” for the chasing pack.
Mcguinness believes that second and third tier counties have to innovate to catch the big guns.
And he admits it’s no different now for Donegal as they bid to “climb the ladder” again.
Speaking about his mass defending and fast counter-attacking style that also landed three Ulster titles – as well as inflicting the only Championship defeat of Jim Gavin’s era with Dublin – Mcguinness told Highland Radio: “You have to understand who you are yourself.
“We are probably a top eight team. When we are going well, we are a top four team.
“When we are not going well, we are where we are and that’s in
Division 2.”
He continued: “We have to understand that we are a team that’s fighting that adversity and fighting that challenge.
“That’s the reason we did what we did. We had to climb that ladder and we are in the exact same situation now. We have to climb that ladder.
“For Donegal in the long term, success would be that sort of consistency of top four, top three or top two.
“But history has shown us that’s almost impossible because of the Dublins and Kerrys of this world and so forth.
“So we have to understand where we are. That filters into what you need to do.”
Mcguinness believes it is like the teams at the bottom of the Premier League playing Manchester City and Liverpool differently than they play each other.
“That’s the reality,” he continued. “They know who they are. Equally Man City make 800 passes in a game because they know who they are, with the best players and infrastructure and the best support systems and the most money.
“So they play and see the game a different way.
“If those other lads at the bottom don’t do what they do, they don’t win.
“The interesting thing over the last 10 years is the things that we were doing 10 years ago are the things the top teams do now because they have to win.
“So now it’s up to the other tiers.
“There’s a top tier at the minute and in my opinion you could put Derry, Dublin and Kerry into it.
“Then there’s another tier and you could put your Mayos, your Galways and so forth into it.
“Then there’s a tird tier and we are in it at the minute. We have to find a way of getting from tier three to tier two before we can start thinking about tier one – and that is the reality. “I think too much is made of the impact. The reason I think Donegal had such an impact on the game last time round, there was a lightbulb moment.
“That, ‘If they can do it and they are historically that top eight or 10 team, maybe we can do it as well’ and that’s why so many people latched onto it.
“That doesn’t change anything from our point of view. We are where we are and at the minute. It’s not tier 2. It’s tier 3.
“We have to find a way to come again, to build a team and build a group and try to climb that ladder.
“That’s not going to be easy because the dial has moved and so much is going into every single aspect of it.
“So many teams are so tactically savvy and that’s what you get up in the morning for and what’s enjoyable about it.”