PEAK PRACTICE

Rory Gallagher insists that Donegal’s slump was all part of a grand plan that would have them in top condition for today’s game

‘WE REALISED WE’RE NOT OUT UNTIL THE SECOND WEEK OF JUNE’

FOR all the early season talk of renewal, Donegal will seek to draw their edge this summer from the departing. Their blistering start to the season – three emphatic wins over Down, Cork and Mayo – not only left them on top of the Allianz League by early March, but adding to the feelgood factor was the infusion of fresh blood that got them there.

The contributions from the likes of Michael Carroll, Eoin McHugh, Ciarán Thompson, Stephen McBrearty, Ciarán Gillespie, Caolan McGonagle and Eoin Bán Gallagher were cited as proof that this was a group with a future.

That may still be the case, but the present is still more likely to be shaped by those on the way out. By the end of the spring that realisation ensured the outside world had cooled on them.

Well, that and also the fact they have not won a game since, which means that they bring a five-game losing streak into today’s Ulster quarter-final meeting with Fermanagh at Ballybofey. The last of those five defeats came against Dublin in the League semifinal, and the sight of them struggling to impose a game-plan that relies heavily on athleticism and stamina against the jet-heeled champions invited an obvious and damning report. And it was one that took its findings from more than one game, with the second half of the spring showing an emerging pattern of Donegal not being able to see out games after getting in winning positions. They trailed Kerry by a point early in the second half with a gale at their back, they led Dublin in the third quarter in their regular round group game and built up a six-point lead in their final group match against Monaghan. Too slow, too old, too many miles on the clock to play a young’s man game. Rory Gallagher read the grim findings but insists he is not in the least fazed by them.

‘An element of conditioning, I feel, would have been a contributing factor,’ reveals Gallagher (below). ‘We got ourselves in reasonably good nick for the start of the League and we got the first two results.

‘After that we made the decision, we’re almost safe, so we wouldn’t have felt that our level went up during the League when some other teams’ did. We came back down a wee bit with the realisation that we were not out until the second week in June.’

The constant challenge since the 2012 All-Ireland victory for Donegal has been how to judge the right time to reach their peak and sustain it to the summer’s end.

In reflecting on their weary title defence in 2013, then-manager Jim McGuinness hinted that they had pushed their older players too hard, too often in training, which was construed by some as a finger-pointing exercise in the aftermath of the breakdown in his partnership with current boss Gallagher.

Last year, Donegal were forced to hit their peak early – meeting Tyrone in mid-May can do that to you – but the sense that they were on the way back down was unavoidable by August A after the Ulster final loss to Monaghan and the All-Ireland quarter-final defeat by Mayo. GE may only be a number, but nine of Gallagher’s panel will be 30 or north of it come the end of the summer. Among them Neil McGee (30), Karl Lacey (31), Rory Kavanagh (33) and Frank McGlynn (30) have made the cut for today’s match.

Others may have to serve bit-part roles like Christy Toye and Colm McFadden (both 33), while Neil Gallagher (also 33) is laid–up at the moment but such is the make-up of the squad that going hard for long is simply not an option.

There is comfort in that because it provides an explanation why Donegal’s form tapered off in the spring, but it is offset by the reality that it will take a lot of rest if they are to have the legs to fuel their game-plan.

‘I can understand why people say that,’ admits Gallagher.

‘We have a lot of experienced players who are very close to the end of their career. It could be this year, it could be next year. For a lot of them it could be this year. There’s no point in saying otherwise. But that’s up to me as a manager to see with my eyes. I want to see who can be useful at any given time.

‘People can get hysterical and it’s barely 12 months ago that people were writing the demise of Tyrone leaving Ballybofey and eulogising us. Everything can be over the top. ‘But the good thing about us is that we live in the real world and as a group we know when we do well and when we don’t,’ he said. Part of the narrative in dismissing Donegal as genuine All-Ireland contenders is the belief that their gameplan is out of date, yet Tyrone have borrowed the template and have been hailed as the most likely to challenge All-Ireland champions Dublin later this summer.

Changing tack is not an option for Gallagher, which is why he will have to use the older players judiciously and sometimes sparingly.

But having them there provides the dressing room with a real sense of destiny.

‘It’s obviously something that’s never really spoken about. But there is an air of contentment that comes with the knowledge that this could be the last year for some of them.

‘They know their level. There’s a sense of contentment with them and there’s also a sense of “it’s now or never”.’

One last manic push and they will see where it takes them.