JIMMY’S HYPE But McGee celebratory and Co happy mood after to get kicks Cork victory on the field
Donegal in celebratory mood after Cork victory But McGee and Co happy to get kicks on the field
THE notion that football’s most focused team might be distracted by the party - maddened Hills appears more delusional by the hour. On Sunday night in Donegal town, a battalion of green and gold army of supporters drank in the joy of seeing their county reach their first All-Ireland final in 20 years, but by the early hours of the morning the star guests had not arrived.
After the Ulster final and the quarter-final victory over Kerry, Jim McGuinness had let his players off the leash for a night on the town, but while the parties have rocked, the players have maintained the same discipline off the field as on it.
It is not that they have become Trappist monks, but there is a sense that under McGuinness it is as if they have also taken up ambassadorial roles for a team that has come to represent a change of mindset as much as fortune for the county.
As young men they can still let their hair down, but on the rare occasions they choose to do so, as they most likely did on Sunday night, it is done in their own company far from prying eyes.
Part of the baggage of an underwhelming past for many of the team that overwhelmed Cork in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final was the perception that they liked to party as much as to play ball. Like all stereotypes, it was lazy and did a disservice to serious football men but that old line about smoke and fire also held true.
Even when Brian McIver sought to import a new discipline regime when he took over in 2006, it was met with resistance — with Kevin Cassidy and Eamonn McGee both para----
The Dublin game was mentioned at half-time
chuted out of the squad for ‘a breach of discipline’ — the code words used in GAA circles to refer to a breach of a drink ban.
Under McGuinness, with the exception of Adrian Hanlon last year, it is an issue that has not surfaced for a reason, because these days the players get their kicks elsewhere.
Within minutes of reaching his first All-Ireland final, the notion that he might reach out and grab a party hat seemed almost foreign to their All-Star full-back Neil McGee.
‘It is just a matter of getting away from the hype now and we would just urge the public to give us that chance.
‘They are football mad in Donegal right now and it would be nice to get away and just concentrate on the training now.
‘One of the fears we had going into the game is that we would not be going back into training on Tuesday night. We are enjoying it that much. Jim has created that bond within the squad,’ said McGee.
That bond was stress-tested at the start of the year when McGee’s club colleague Cassidy was cut from the squad for a very different kind of breach that cuts to the core of what they are about now — trust in each other — after he revealed some in-house secrets in a book.
While commentators raged at McGuinness’ heavy-handedness, the only peep from the players was that they were at one with their manager.
From that far back, perhaps that was the most powerful indicator that Donegal’s resolve would take them so far this summer.
The rest took care of itself. Last year was a glorious learning curve that took them to a first Ulster title in 19 years and within a kick of a ball of reaching the AllIreland final, but i n many ways losing to Dublin was the making of them.
Their absence of ego and the trust in their manager that saw them try to reach the final on defence alone was evident in that game, and in coming so close they knew where they were heading.
‘That game was mentioned at half-time on Sunday. We were in the same position last year and we didn’t push on and I think that is where the second half came from, that little bit of hurt that we had from last year, we drove on,’ explained Mark McHugh. They were also built to drive on. This year, McHugh, along with Frank McGlynn, Karl Lacey, and on Sunday, McGee, have all blurred the lines frequently been defence and offence. Against the Championship favourites on Sunday, they came within two points of hitting their summer average of kicking 18 points per game, while kicking 14 wides.
McGee laughs when it is suggested that they surely have kicked off that ultra- defensive label by now.
‘We are still going to have that tag but we do pride ourselves on our defence. We are adapting well now, we feel that we have the legs that can make the transition from the defence up to the forwards,’ he said. ‘It does not bother me anyway. The system is working.’
No one can argue with that and it is now just 70 minutes away from being a Championship-winning one.
On Sunday evening, they had a special visitor to their dressing room when the 1992-winning captain Anthony Molloy addressed them.
You hardly need to be told what was said, because his presence alone was enough to focus minds as to what is now at stake.
‘It is every player’s dream to get to an All-Ireland final and to win it,’ said McGee. ‘But there is no good in just getting there and we will be doing everything we can now in the next four weeks to get over the line.’