Donegal boss Bonner calls for cool heads against Red Hands
IN the list of games that referees most want to avoid, it would be fair to assume that Donegal v Tyrone tops the charts.
If it wasn’t for the bad blood in this rivalry, there would be no blood at all. In that context, their last two meetings have been out of step with a rivalry which never needed much coaxing to tease out the poison.
The Ulster semi-final meeting two years ago was simply too consumed by tactics – Tyrone won a stand-off – while last year’s ninepoint win by the Red Hand County was too one-sided to generate any real heat.
But returning today’s fixture to the melting pot that is Ballybofey – where Tyrone have been one of the biggest fall guys in Donegal’s eight-year unbeaten run at MacCumhaill Park – is likely to raise the temperature once more.
When the counties last met in Championship there, both teams finished with 14 men and a halftime scuffle prompted an investigation which led to Tyrone’s assistant manager Gavin Devlin being suspended for eight-weeks.
In that context, Declan Bonner’s plea that his chief playmaker Ryan McHugh receive ‘more protection’ from match officials along with Mickey Harte’s counter-plea that several of his players had come in for ‘singular’ treatment, could be interpreted as crude attempts to grab referee Joe McQuillan’s ear.
But Bonner argues that he is not playing mind games ahead of the biggest game of his team’s season, instead he’s dealing with the unpleasant reality that McHugh has faced this year.
‘He gets a huge amount of attention. Officials have to look at it,’ remarked Bonner
‘The amount of fouls says it all. He has been fouled an average ten or 12 times a game and there are very few cards for the fouls. It’s continuous.
‘If you get away with something, you’ll continue to do it.
‘It has to be stamped out. Officials have to see that. We have two linesmen, four umpires and a referee. They have to see what’s going on.’
Bonner’s citing of ‘ten or 12’ fouls per game looks astonishingly high, but the evidence from some games, not least the Ulster semifinal win over Down where he was relentlessly targeted, would back up the claim that the Kilcar man is being singled out.
But it also feeds into a ‘bullying’ culture – it was evident in the recent Kerry/Monaghan clash where Kerry rookies Seán O Shea and David Clifford were openly exposed to off-the-ball aggression, something that has become prevalent in Gaelic games.
Bonner argues that it is nothing new, but that is no reason to continually ignore it.
‘It has always been there to a degree,’ accepted Bonner.
‘Certain players come in for special attention and Ryan [McHugh], he is not the biggest but he is fierce brave, he ships a lot of attention off the ball.
‘It is stuff that should be picked up on because there are enough officials to see what is going on and it is something from our point of view and in terms of protecting players needs to be looked at.
‘But when teams get away with it, it will continue until such time it is stamped out. I know referees and officials have a tough enough job but stuff like that can be picked up fairly quickly,’ added the Donegal boss.
It is probably unfair to view today’s game through the lens of the past – both teams have undergone major transformations over the past couple of seasons in terms of playing personnel, while Donegal are under new management.
But the prize on offer here, and the charge of electricity which a sold-out Ballybofey facilitates, means that this is a day for cool heads, insisted Bonner. ‘Discipline is huge because the winners will have just seven days to get ready for an All-Ireland semi-final and you are going to need to be playing with your full deck if you make it that far.
‘It is going to be a hugely-intense match, it is a quarter-final with a huge amount at stake, a sell-out crowd and it is going to be no place for the faint-hearted but it also a place that is going to need a fair bit of composure.’
But Donegal have steeled themselves ever since the final whistle blew in Omagh, where Tyrone’s defeat confirmed this as a winner-takes-all contest – although a draw will be enough to see the visitors through on superior scoring difference.
It was a tense bus ride back from Roscommon as Tyrone – who had they beaten Dublin would have effectively knocked Donegal out – clawed their way back into that game.
‘Yeah, everyone tuned into it between iPads, laptops, smartphones and radio and we knew that if Dublin won it would be a winner-take-all in Ballybofey and that is how it turned out. By the time we got back to Donegal we knew what was ahead of us and it is a massive challenge and we know that we have to be ready for it.’