Donegal's Ulster SFC quarter-final demolition of Derry last week in Celtic Park will likely remain the biggest moment of the provincial championships.
On the presumption that Kerry and Dublin will enjoy safe passages through Munster and Leinster respectively, and with the status quo final already in place out west, it is only Ulster where the story is up in the air.
Even if Down were to do the unthinkable and take out Armagh, or Tyrone were to overturn everyone’s new favourites Donegal, that match last week will remain the story.
Like a boxer in his prime, Jim McGuinness had stated his intention. Not even his impressive past record mustered anything more than hope for his charges against the Derry machine. As he stood over the Oak Leaf wreckage there was a clear 'I did tell you’ vibe as the result let the country know: Jimmy’s back.
Attention quickly turned to the tactics, and it was hard to escape the simplicity of it. There were only two main elements to it and one cast iron rule.
Extra tight defensive shape and Shaun Patton’s long kickouts were the key elements. All resultant counters being done at maximum pace was the rule that brought the destructive power.
So where do we go from here? You can be guaranteed that a game like this has an impact far outside the two teams involved. Setups across the country will have seen how the contest panned out and reflected on lessons for their own team.
You can call them copycats but, in every other human field, progress is driven through learning from the successes and failures of others. Sport is no different.
There are also certain people that have a gift for making real step changes in thought. McGuinness is one of those people.
His second coming is seen rightly as a real ‘what’s next’ moment. Last week, while the result felt ground-breaking, the game plan seemed highly familiar.
So what are the lessons from it? Are all the moves away from blanket defence that we’ve been so glad to see going to be treated like flawed new-age thinking and it is the orthodox gospel of blanket defence and counter-attack that remains the true way?
Certainly, that is one potential takeaway. But for me, that would be overlooking a few things and underestimating one man we should know not to pigeonhole.
I don’t for a second think McGuinness is a one-trick pony. He just knows his original trick better than anyone else and seen, in Derry, an opponent, who both in their threats and weaknesses, were almost perfectly suited to using it against.
I suspect that this is not what he views as the ultimate best approach to the game at large but rather one approach that can be used when the game is right.
The secret sauce of course that made the whole thing come to life and will gall Mickey Harte more than anything, was Donegal’s massive intensity level.
Nearly all the game’s key moments had the same hallmark: Donegal players reacting faster and running harder in a given situation. If Derry were at full throttle, I believe they would’ve survived even with the major off-day in front of the posts that they had.
They were brilliant in the vicotry over Dublin in the league final. Howver coming off the back of a great performance against a team not seen at your level is the perfect recipe for complacency, and it was hard not to detect a bit of that in aspects of Derry’s play.
A complacent team beat by a hungry opponent is the somewhat less groundbreaking narrative that perhaps holds more truth than this being a tactical super play.
In the earlier part of the year there was much chat of McGuinness going with a gegenpressing style of play. The truth in that can still be debated. It would make sense given the direction of travel in the other football game he was immersed in for the past several years.
If that was the plan, I suspect either his injury list or the nature of the Derry challenge made him realise that game wasn’t best suited to that approach.
Which brings us nicely to the Tyrone match. If Donegal bring just the same, their chief threats of sharp counter-attack and aggressive attacking off long kickouts, appear relatively straightforward to anticipate.
Tyrone however are not yet playing at the level of Derry in terms of their attacking organisation or their level of conditioning. They are happier playing the game with slower build-ups before picking their moments to inject pace.
As such, if there is a pressing style in the back of Jimmy’s mind, Tyrone would be well suited to bring it out. Having worked six months in one direction, can he flip the switch and bring something else to the table today?
It’s a crazy ask but with the players eating out of the palm of his hand he might just chance it. If he does, there will be much more real food for thought in terms of the tactical direction of things.
Just like last week however, I believe this game will not be decided by tactics but by intensity.
Tyrone have quality on the pitch, of that there is no doubt. But more than almost any other team, for them, it is always about that secret sauce.
When they play with real intensity those Red Hand jerseys come alive. When they don’t they are bang average.
With all the hype around Donegal this past week, I’d be highly disappointed if the fire in Tyrone bellies isn’t lit. It’s a game with so many variables and unknowns its tough to call.
Celtic Park to be the scene of a classic and an upset two weeks in a row? Just possibly.
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