Can an ambush still be called an ambush when you've been telling everyone about it for months? Hard to think so.
From soon after the draw was made, Jimmy McGuinness has been quite open about how much he wants to target an Ulster championship and how much this game against Derry, in particular, is the one game he is building for. For a man as famously protective of the secrets within his camp it was a surprising level of candour.
He is also a man that carries with him an aura of 'the special one’ and reputation as the greatest tactician the game has seen for at least a generation.
The credentials for this are sound. He took Donegal from quite literally nowhere to an All-Ireland winning tour de force in two years and fundamentally changed the game for over a decade. The strength of personality, of conviction he demonstrated as a young coach to take his team down a completely new path, to literally tear up the script and play a different game was incredible.
There is now an added mystique in him being a qualified pro-soccer coach and his dalliances in that game. To be honest, I don’t particularly buy that element of it but his position as a tactical genius in our game, whether you like the style he brought or not, is bang on.
It’s the key reason why this game is so interesting. Why this game, in this strange limbo part of the season we call the provincial championships, was sold out weeks in advance. Why a Division 2 versus Division 1 game is so highly anticipated. Jimmy McGuinness is back in the game, and back with one focus apparently, Derry, Celtic Park, 20 April, 2024.
Derry last year nailed their colours to the mast, All-Ireland contenders here we are. Announcing Mickey Harte only heightened the pressure.
Their response? As close to perfection as a spring campaign can get. New players added: tick; Apparently injury proof squad: tick; Incorporating All-Ireland winning players early but without the sense burn out: tick; Consistently excellent performance levels: tick; Beat main rivals proving to themselves they can take on anyone: tick.
Even in their public engagements, they openly say, we want that All-Ireland in the next two years. No bones about it. You’ll not hear that from any other camp bar Dublin and Kerry. The confidence they now exude is seriously impressive. They are riding a wave of momentum I haven’t seen since…well since Donegal in 2012 ironically enough.
There is broad consensus that Mickey Harte and Gavin 'Horse' Devlin have moved Derry to a different level. The new players and the aggressive attacking play are clear take-aways. But for me it’s so much more than that.
Under Rory Gallagher, his management style meant, for everyone in the ground, it was him, his voice and his behaviour that was often the most eye-catching element. The players appeared like puppets on his strings such was his strength of personality and control. What he done with this Derry team will forever be one of the greatest coaching exercises we have seen.
Yet, now under Mickey Harte, standing quietly on the line as he does, it’s now as if the team is managing itself. That confidence and authority the team are now playing with are not happening by chance. It reminds me so much of Tyrone in 2003.
THE FIRST BIG TEST OF MCGUINNESS' SECOND COMING
Mickey first convinced us of our credentials through going hard after the McKenna Cup and league. With no one else looking we were becoming 100% convinced in our ability to win an All-Ireland. By September it practically felt like a born rite of ours to go and win it.
On the field it felt like we could figure out any problem. That we, the players, were the bosses out there. Yet most of us were in and around 22 years of age from a county that had never won an All-Ireland. In hindsight it was a Keyser Söze job. Mickey, by doing all his work behind the standing back on game day, is instilling that final ingredient Derry need, complete confidence in themselves and each other.
So what of today? It’s hard not to stay on the Harte v McGuinness angle. It’s a match up that has been bossed by the Donegal man. McGuinness’s Donegal targeted and, in the end, blew apart the era of Tyrone being top dog in Ulster. Sound familiar?
If it was anyone else, you would say there would be a seed of doubt there. Not Harte. Doubt won’t enter the equation, but for a man as notoriously competitive as the Errigal man, it will rankle massively. Have no doubt, Derry will be up for this one. While us outsiders can postulate about the potential benefit to their All-Ireland push of a defeat today, for Mickey Harte, today’s result is a non-negotiable.
On all the play we have witnessed to date this year, the result also seems a non-debate. Derry’s pace, power, attacking and defensive games have all appeared well ahead of Donegal in a way that can’t just suddenly be closed by the lift a special game can give to a team’s performance level.
The McGuinness-tactical guru factor however means there is still much expectation of what Donegal might do. I don’t expect it to be as ground-breaking as the Jimmy’s winning matches edition. For me, I just can’t see how Donegal will keep with Derry’s legs for 60 minutes never mind the 70-plus required. That means Donegal must kill the pace of this game. Keep things tight, pack the defence and build from there.
Shaun Patton’s long kick-outs could be a key attacking platform for them as it can give them a foothold without leaving themselves open. I think they’ll target key moments to go hard after this game and bring out the high pressure press they initially seemed to be working on in the league. The defensive shape and slow game worked well for them in the Division 2 final a performance that maybe deserved more credence than it got.
But they need their full hand and they need them fit. A patched up Eoghan 'Ban' Gallagher, Brendan McCole, Ryan McHugh and Paddy McBrearty etc will not cut it.
The pre-match review is a double-edged sword. It’s nice because you have a clear focus to write on. It's crap because within a few hours it can make you look very stupid indeed.
The river of hindsight will start to flow about 8pm this evening. But it’s this part that I love the most - that feeling of anticipation, of heading into the unknown, that the pre-match period of a big championship game brings. I think this evening’s game won’t be the classic we would love, I don’t think Donegal can afford it to be. But the sense of intrigue is off the scales.
The vultures might be circling above the provincial championships but as the sell-out crowd head towards Celtic Park this evening you wouldn’t know it. Harte v McGuinness, an old school Ulster championship clash and a full house. Sitting typing this, the sun has even come out. It all feels very right!
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
