This could be the last time
Maybe the last time
I don’t know. Oh no. Oh no
Well, this could be the last time
– The Rolling Stones, ‘The Last Time’
WHEN FRANCE went to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, they were denounced as a team that had passed its sell-by date.
Raymond Domenech’s team were an ageing force and they began the tournament with a drab 0-0 draw against Switzerland, after which the French were branded akin to ‘The Rolling Stones on one last tour’.
They were said to have ‘outstayed their welcome on the World Cup stage’ with the likes of Fabien Barthez, Patrick Vieira, Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram, Claude Makélélé and Sylvain Wiltord all in their 30s.
Champions at France ’98, the notions that their stardust had gone was heightened when they drew their second game, 1-1, against South Korea.
France were superb in a 2-0 win in their final group game, but that it was against lowly Togo meant that eyelids didn’t go north.
And yet, that July at Berlin’s Olympiastadion, it was France who lined up for the World Cup final against Italy.
France only lost 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in a match now perhaps best remembered for an infamous headbutt by Zidane on Marco Materazzi, an incident that earned Zidane a sending off in what was his last ever match.
On their way to the final, France had the scalps of Spain, Brazil and Portugal on their sword by the end of it all.
That summer’s Rolling Stones were within inches of signing out on a glorious note.
[adrotate group=”53″]Ever since that splendid September Sunday in 2012 when Donegal defeated Mayo to win their second-ever All-Ireland, the epitaphs on the Tir Chonaill men have been ready.
And yet the stonemason still hasn’t put his chisel to the Donegal memorial.
Donegal limped out of the Ulster and All-Ireland Championships in 2013, even getting relegated from Division 1 of the League to compound the misery.
But the following September, Donegal were back in the All-Ireland final, once more backboned by that band of experienced soldiers who are still rolling their sleeves up in the inter-county trenches.
[adrotate group=”37″]Donegal have now played in five successive Ulster finals. Never before has a team from these parts played six-in-a-row.
This Sunday, Rory Gallagher sends his men into battle with his native Fermanagh, once more against a backdrop of comments and concerns about the age profile of his group.
“We enjoy just going out and playing at this time of year,” Gallagher said on Friday night in Ballybofey at a press conference.
“We back ourselves because we feel we’ve a really good team with a really good squad.
“There’s people who’ve been writing us off and you have to value what they’re saying. Some people have wanted Donegal as a force to be over with a long time ago – 2011, 2012, 2013 – right up to last year people have been writing our obituary.
[adrotate group=”74″]“ There’s lots of young energy in it at the minute. Yes, we’ve players who have played a lot of football and yes we have players that aren’t going to be around that much longer. There’s no doubt about that. But those players have lots of quality and lots of seasons and graft.
“The number one strength they have is that they know how to win Ulster championship games.”
Ryan Bradley emigrated for work in the winter of 2012 and last winter Paul Durcan followed suit. There had been hopes that the two-time All-Star goalkeeper could commit for the Championship, but Durcan won’t be the wearer of the number one shirt on Sunday.
It’ll be the first time since the 2009 All-Ireland quarter-final that the Donegal town native won’t be in Championship action having started all of Donegal’s last 32 Championship fixtures.
[adrotate group=”73″]Other than Bradley and Durcan, the other mainstays of 2012 are still in tow.
Rory Kavanagh took a year out in 2015 and penned an autobiography before making a u-turn and going back to the grind with Donegal again.
Now 33, his return put up the average age, and he seems a likely starter on Sunday.
Neil Gallagher has been ruled out because of injury, but the McGee brothers, Frank McGlynn, Karl Lacey, Anthony Thompson, Christy Toye and Colm McFadden are all in the thoughts of Rory Gallagher this week.
[adrotate group=”70″]Numbers are a big thing in American sports and a study three years ago revealed the increased totals of veterans playing their games.
In 1982, just four players aged 35 or over started in the NHL. That figure was at 56 in 2013. In the NFL, it was 14 to 40, baseball rose from 63 to 88 and in the NBA, the number shot from just two in 1982 to 20 in 2013.
Tom Brady, the legendary New England Patriots quarter-back signed a deal at the end of last season that will see him stay at Gillette Stadium until he’s 40.
“I don’t want to wake up and be bored,” Brady said of how he keeps on keeping on.
“That’s probably my greatest fear is to have nothing to do. What better job is there than to play quarterback for an NFL team, and certainly one that I’ve been on for a long time and had success with? I don’t plan on giving it up any time soon.”
[adrotate group=”68”]McGlynn has listened to questions about possible retirement for the last four years, but it’s water off a ducks back for the Stramore NS teacher, now in his 30th year.
“We’re used to being favourites in Ulster championships games and we know when we hit the pitch we know what we have to do,” McGlynn says ahead of Sunday’s game.
“And it is a matter of going out and doing that job to the best of your ability and if every man does that and pulls together and does everything that Rory asks, hopefully it will be good enough on the day.”
Donegal haven’t lost a home League or Championship game in Ballybofey in 14 outings now.
But they lost their last five games, including a heavy 1-20 to 0-13 Allianz League semi-final defeat to Dublin at Croke Park.
Thereafter, they went into a bunker. Only the heads of the manager, McGlynn, Ryan McHugh and Hugh McFadden peeked out for a low-key press conference last Friday.
Donegal’s players have become sick of talking, but the quiet build-up has made for a mysterious sort of preparation that has heightened the nerves of supporters.
Lacey doesn’t often do media interviews, but the four-time All-Star and former Footballer of the Year broke bread with the national GAA correspondents recently and was asked about the talk of Donegal’s race being run.
Lacey said: “We don’t take it to heart too much. As a player your focus is on yourself.
“I don’t think lads read into it too much. We know ourselves at training every night that we’re at the level.
“We’d hope to think anyway that we’re at the level every other team is training at.
“You wouldn’t be doing it otherwise, if you didn’t feel we could get up to the highest level again.”
Donegal are the last of the nine Ulster teams to get into Championship mode.
For many of them, this could well be the last time.
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