It's easy to say "WE BELIEVE" but you have to GO AND DO IT and PROVE IT
IN A summer of late and great plays, the one which neatly defines the resilience that Donegal have weaponised came in the second minute of injury time against Tyrone in the Ulster semi-final.
Trailing by a point with the clock ticking down to its final minute, when Ryan McHugh angles in a cross it is on the wing of a prayer rather than from a page in the playbook.
It is 90-10 that it will end up in the hands of Tyrone’s in-form goalkeeper Niall Morgan, but somehow it ends up over the bar.
In truth, there is no mystery.
Had corner-back Mark Curran not thrown himself into the eyeline of Morgan, the game was done, but instead all the Tyrone goalkeeper could do was break it out.
Even then, with Morgan making amends in stopping Aaron Doherty’s goal effort from the rebound, Tyrone are still over the line and into the Ulster final.
But instead, Brendan McCole is there to pick up that second rebound and sweep it over the bar.
Thing is, for all of Donegal’s versatility, Curran and McCole are what their numbers on their shirts say they are, inside backs and not attacking auxiliary super heroes.
In the BBC studio afterwards, Michael Murphy cannot contain his giddiness or disbelief.
‘I have played a lot of games with Brendan McCole and I don’t think I ever saw him kick a ball, and certainly not with his left.’
There have been many elements that have enabled Jim McGuinness transform Donegal from being a punchline on the standup circuit a year ago to being stand-up contenders for the All Ireland.
The changes in personnel – not least the returns of the O’Donnell brothers, Niall and Shane, and McHugh, the availability of Peadar Mogan and Jason McGee and the introduction of Ciaran Moore – plus their fitness and conditioning, their clarity of purpose, and their faith in a well organised game-plan are all huge factors, but trumping all is belief.
As in they believe, utterly and totally.
It goes a long way to explaining why, after 11 games, they are the only unbeaten team in the country as they head out into the third and final phase of their season when they host Tyrone in the opening round of the All-Ireland series this evening. The beauty of that record is that it has been stress-tested time and again, trailing three times at the end of regulation time, while they staged late comebacks in both the second half of regular and injury time in the Ulster final.
When that game finished, just about every Donegal player referenced the ‘B’ word, but it is in walking the walk rather than talking the talk where its value lies.
‘The word “belief”, it’s easy to say it in interviews and keep saying “we believe, we believe, we believe”. But you have to go and actually do it. And prove that belief to the people of Donegal,’ explains 30-year-old veteran McHugh.
‘I think the belief comes from the work that we’ve done and everything that we’ve put in night after night and day after day on the training pitch and in the gym.
‘We knew it was in our legs to finish strong in those games against Tyrone and Armagh.
‘We finished strong from being in losing positions. And, let’s call a spade a spade, we didn’t look well and in other years probably wouldn’t have won those matches.
‘But we knew we had a lot of work done and thankfully we gritted the teeth and got over the line in both of those games.’
Winning tight big games had become something of a recurring issue for Donegal in the post
They are the only unbeaten team in the country
McGuinness years, during which time they have failed to get back to the last four of the All-Ireland series, even when winning back-to-back Ulster championships in 2018 and 2019 under Declan Bonner.
There have been missed opportunities along the way of going deep in the All-Ireland series, not least when they led Tyrone by four midway through the final round of a home Super 8s game in 2018 but ended up losing by seven. A year later, having edged a thriller, they could only draw against Kerry when a win might have sent them to the final, and, prior to that, in 2015 and 2016, they lost one-score Ulster finals to Monaghan and Tyrone.
It would be hard not to think that if Donegal back then had a little of what they have now, they would have gone so much further. Simply, if they had McGuinness, whose return lit a fire in all of them. ‘Whenever someone asks me what is Jim McGuinness’s best quality or what separates Jim McGuinness from the rest, it is that one word, drive,’ explains McHugh. ‘And it’s every single night.
‘I have been fortunate enough as a player to be involved in an AllIreland final (2014), and I can honestly say Jim McGuinness is the exact same the night before an All-Ireland final as he is the first night you meet him in December.
‘He is on it every single night and he does not let you or anyone else not be on it.
‘When we got Jim back this year, the belief and everything that he instils into the team is just unbelievable.
‘From day one, you knew, I’m not saying you knew you were going to win Ulster, but you knew you were going to be fit to compete.’
And knowing it makes believing it easy.
“The thing that separates Jim from the rest is his drive”