Donegal go extra secure their place in final
McGuinness’ side dig deep to overcome Tyrone after 100 minutes of football
JIMMY winning matches is one thing, Jimmy winning different kinds of matches is quite another. In defiance of a footballing summer that is passing too quickly, his Donegal team seem determined to squeeze it dry for every last bit of drama they can.
They dug ever so deep to extend this to 100 minutes, ensuring that Tyrone — who were taken to extra time also by Cavan — had to endure another energy-sapping afternoon but this time all for nothing.
Their Ulster demise will undoubtedly be cited as a consequence of a championship summer too condensed for its own good, but they lost here not so much because they were squeezed dry of energy, but rather of ambition.
That might seem harsh given that with two minutes of extratime left, they were still within a kick of the ball until Paddy McBrearty, having returned to the game at the start of the extra time period, kicked the score that finally put this to bed.
This result and performance may have lacked the jaw-dropping impact of Donegal’s fourgoal pillaging of Derry a week earlier, but in a way it was more significant and potentially chilling for Armagh who they will face in a fortnight’s time in the Ulster final.
Brian Dooher, inevitably spooked by what Donegal had done to Derry, made sure his Tyrone charges were slow in coming forward, even though the injured Shaun Patton was not on the kicking tee after being replaced pre-match by Gavin Mulreaney; a reticence initially mirrored by the winner’s approach to Niall Morgan.
And thus a game of ball was reduced to one of poker, in a highstakes face off that might have left Donegal folk a little queasy.
After all, they have a habit when playing cat and mouse, to end up being cast in the role of the unfortunate former — the 2022 Ulster final loss to Derry is one that still rankles — and even McGuinness was not immune in the past; losing his shirt in the grand standoff that was the 2014 All-Ireland final loss to Kerry.
Back then, the accusation was that they were shackled to a game-plan to the degree that even when it was not working, they could not free themselves from it.
Yesterday, they felt more like a team that can manage a game rather than manage a system.
At half-time, they looked to be in genuine bother in a contest so claustrophobic in nature that a three-point lead had more the feel of a six-point one.
That was primarily down to Morgan’s influence which was Cluxtoneque, running the game both in his fly keeper role and from the kicking tee.
Forced to go long, he sent one piercing delivery down through the middle which Brian Kennedy gobbled up to set up Cathal McShane to give Tyrone that 0-8 to 0-5 half-time lead.
There was an easy way to measure the Tyrone goalkeeper’s influence, all but one of the first-half tally were sourced from his kickouts, diluting his influence became the key and Donegal would find it by getting a zonal press on that would change the tone of the contest
That aggression was matched in general play; where Donegal stopped trying to kick outside Derry’s defensive block; they kicked six wides and dropped two more short in contrast to Tyrone’s calculated economy that had seen them register a solitary wide in the opening period.
Instead, they attacked the space and created the holes to find a way back into the game, with Daire Ó Baoill tying the game up in the 48th minute as Donegal bared their teeth.
What makes Donegal a side to be reckoned with is a middle eight that is powerful and dynamic, strong in the air and relentless on the ground.
As well as McGuinness, the return of Ryan McHugh — although well marked by Seán O’Donnell — and the O’Donnell brothers, Shane and Niall, has been transformative.
On an afternoon when Donegal’s feted strike force of McBrearty and Oisín Gallen were tied down, Niall O’Donnell stood tall, kicking two points, fouled for three more, while also coming up with an assist for Jason McGee.
But this contest would not have required extra-time if it was just a case that Donegal saw the light
halfway through.
Tyrone stayed in this game because outside of Morgan, they had the other best player on view in the ageless Mattie Donnelly, who defied Donegal’s third-quarter revival by providing the composure and the line-breaking cutting edge to not only keep this in the balance but edge it Tyrone’s way.
Indeed, they had still looked the more likely when Niall Morgan, Ciaran Daly and Darragh Canavan struck for three points inside two minutes at the end of the third quarter to restore a three-point lead which will be a source of considerable regret they could not protect.
They would take it into the second minute of injury time, when it took Morgan to make a save at the feet of Ódhran Doherty to prevent Donegal snatching it at the death, but full-back Brendan McCole knocked over the equaliser.
And after that, they always looked the more likely despite Donnelly and Michael McKernan briefly putting Tyrone ahead in extra time, but the only wonder in the end was how Donegal did not win by more.
They would have but for Padraig Hampsey, after Morgan got caught stranded up field, outsprinting Doherty deep in injury to deny Donegal a certain goal that would have carried more than an echo of how they had taken down Derry.
But in winning it in a different way, they showed that they are likely to be around this summer for a long time rather than just for a good one. DONEGAL: G Mulreaney, M Curran (J Mac Ceallabhuí, 70&4), B McCole, C Moore (D Ó Baoill, ET), R McHugh, C McGonagle, P Mogan, M Langan, J McGee, S O’Donnell, C Thompson, D Ó Baoill (J Brennan, 48; P McBrearty, ET)), P McBrearty (A Doherty, HT, C McColgan, ET)), O Gallen (HT ET), N O’Donnell (J Brennan, 88). Scorers: O Gallen 0-3 (frees), J McGee, N O’Donnell and D Ó Baoill 0-2 each, P McBrearty and C Thompson 0-2 (0-1 free) each; P Mogan, S O’Donnell, B McCole, C McGonagle and J Mac Ceallabhuí 0-1 each. TYRONE: N Morgan; C Devlin (A Clarke, 41), P Hampsey, M McKernan, S O’Donnell, M Donnelly, N Devlin; B Kennedy, C Kilpatrick; C Daly, K McGeary (B Cullen, 63), M O’Neill (R Canavan, 76); D McCurry, D Canavan, C McShane (C Donnelly, 88). Scorers: D Canavan 0-5 (2f, 1m), N Morgan 0-3 (frees), M McKernan, C Daly 0-2 each, S O’Donnell, C McShane and M Donnelly 0-1 each. D McCurry 0-1 (free). Referee: B Cawley (Kildare).