In old-school terms, Donegal losing to Down last Sunday probably does qualify as your classic championship shock. I’m just not sure it changes anything in the grand scheme of things. Not for Jim McGuinness anyway.
Okay, few people saw this coming. Especially up in Letterkenny. And there’s been some talk already that it might even be a good thing for Donegal. It will give them a chance to get a few injuries right, and they avoid the rest of the rigours of the Ulster championship.
Either way, McGuinness has no choice but to take some positives out of it. The reality is Down simply opened them up from early on. It wasn’t a last-minute goal or late turnaround you’d normally associate with a shock result like this. Donegal had time to turn things around throughout.
To me, Donegal just looked a little flat and weren’t scoring as freely as they normally do. I think there was always going to be a bit of a comedown after their performance in the league final, but full credit to Down. From the start, they fought as if their lives depended on it, and their championship certainly did. Had Down lost, they were staring back at the Tailteann Cup for the rest of the summer. They’ve been there, done that.
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We also saw Down manager Conor Laverty talking afterwards about being written off. But I think they just had their bellyful of the Tailteann Cup. They also ran Donegal close last year, and Donegal went all the way to the All-Ireland final. As with any sport, if you can run your opposition close like that, it builds confidence.
Down also faced Kerry in a challenge match the week before the Donegal game and played well, that would have fed into their belief. I don’t think they needed anything else outside of that. At the end of the day, talk is cheap, the team still has to go out and do it. Sure, there might have been some hurt because of the way they were written off. But for me they were simply playing for their lives, for pride, or whatever else you want to call it.
They smelled blood early doors and got a run on Donegal. They also played with abandon and didn’t seem worried about what Donegal would bring.
We’ve seen it plenty of times under the new rules. If you have players like Down’s full forward Pat Havern, who can kick two-pointers on a regular basis, that changes things. Down’s three goals made all the difference too, and the worrying part for Donegal is that for two of those goals, Down literally walked in with the ball.
I’ve said it before, if you have 10 or 11 players all playing well, you’ll generally win the game. It looked to me like Down had 17 or 18 players playing well.
Some of those Down players probably never wanted that game to end. They’d hit a purple patch they may not replicate again all year.
Their cat is out of the bag now, and they’re straight back in against Armagh on Sunday, another big ask. I think Armagh will be a step too far for Down this time. Armagh will be ready for them, and they won’t be caught as cold as maybe Donegal were.
I’d never associate McGuinness with any complacency, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some negatives to losing on Sunday. The danger is it might be a bit too early to get a kick in the arse. There’s still a long way to go.
McGuinness could also lie back on the coach for hours this week, talking through what went wrong. But I’ve also been involved in games down through the years, if you get turned over like that, then try to make some sense of it all, you can get yourself even more stuck. Overall, I don’t think it significantly lessens Donegal’s place in this year’s championship. I’d still have them second favourites after Kerry.
For me, it’s straightforward enough for Donegal from here. I don’t see any great up or downswing after what’s happened. Yes, they lose out on a possible third successive Ulster title. And it was the biggest score McGuinness has conceded in the Ulster championship. People will pull out stats like that to annoy him, but he’s got over a month now to get his troops right, steer the ship back on course.
After winning the league, McGuinness knew the only aim left was to win the All-Ireland. Another Ulster championship was never going to satisfy him this year. That aim hasn’t changed, and all that makes it an easier swallow for Donegal.
Compare that with Armagh, who badly want to win another Ulster title. That’s very much still on their bucket list, which is why they present a different prospect to Down this Sunday.
With the intensity of games coming thick and fast, under the new format, managers are praying players don’t get injured. As I said, McGuinness has a few weeks now to get all his players back, instead of having to worry about maybe losing a few more.
In terms of how Down played, the exact same thing happened with Roscommon against Mayo in Castlebar. When a team catches fire like that, and scores start flying over, you see the player beside you doing it, and you think you can do it too. One hand lends another. For the opposing team, it can be very hard to put out that fire.
Roscommon came in off an excellent league, and I think their manager Mark O’Dowd has done exceptionally well in his first year in charge. It’s all about the players, and I haven’t seen Roscommon enjoying their football like that in a long time. In the end they were kicking over points for fun.
Looking at this weekend, would it be a shock if Louth beat Dublin in the Leinster semi-final? In a neutral venue like Portlaoise, Louth certainly won’t fear Dublin, but if we’re also talking about hurt, or teams being written off, I see a few former Dublin players are coming out now and questioning their team, which is a bit unusual.
So I expect to see a reaction out of Dublin on Saturday evening. They have to be hurting from within at the moment. They’ve been kicked around a bit and have been falling from grace, but they still have good players. Enough is enough, and the players need to start taking a bit more ownership now. Louth might feel the brunt of that on Sunday.
