RORY Gallagher doesn’t need reminding of his last visit to Croke Park’s dressing rooms for an All-Ireland quarter-final.
In 2013, Gallagher was the assistant manager to Jim McGuinness when Donegal – who had beaten Laois to reach Croke Park via the qualifiers following an Ulster final loss to Monaghan – came up against Mayo.
Eleven months previously, Donegal were on top of the world after those magical early goals by Michael Murphy and Colm McFadden saw them topple Mayo in the All-Ireland final.
That August Bank Holiday weekend two years ago still haunts this group of Donegal players.
From being lottery winners in September 2012, they felt like they were in the gutter and peniless as they trundled out onto the Jones Road.
Karl Lacey spoke subsequently about the empty feeling at half-time. In conceding 4-17, they were well and truly hammered.
“It was difficult,” says Gallagher, for whom that was his last act in the role as Jim McGuinness’s number two. This time he’s back at the wheel of the ship,
“At the time you’re trying to rally everybody and play each minute as it comes and try to chip away, but it just never happened for us.
“It’s not a place we or any team wants to be. It’s a very difficult dressing room to be in and it’s up to us to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
“That was a really tough 13 days. From the Ulster final and then we got over Laois – when we showed a lot of character when we weren’t at ourselves.
“Then for the game to be over as All-Ireland champions five minutes into the second half was hard to take. When you’re not at yourself that’s what top teams will do and we weren’t at ourselves and Mayo punished us and punished us hard.”
The rivalry between Donegal and Mayo soured deeply at some point in the last three years.
Some draw it back to a challenge game from early in 2012 at Swinford, a game Donegal won 1-14 to 3-7.
Mayo contested that Donegal had gone too far with their physicality that afternoon and the Irish Examiner later claimed: ‘Following the game text messages between both squads got bitter.’
After a League meeting in Castlebar in 2013, then Mayo manager James Horan was asked why his body language toward McGuinness had been cold.
‘Show me a team that has good body language towards Mr McGuinness,’ was the swift response from Horan.
The barbs continued up to the quarter-final in 2013 and this year’s League meeting at MacHale Park had plenty of niggle with Ryan McHugh, in particular, the subject of some close treatment.
“There is a real intense rivalry between the two teams, they are two of the game’s heavyweights over the last number of years and that is what you expect when two big teams collide,” Gallagher says.
“It is a healthy rivalry as well, there is great respect between the two teams.
“They may feel aggrieved over 2012, we feel disappointed and aggrieved over 2013. It’s unfortunate the way we live our lives, but you remember the days you are beat nearly more than the days you win.”
The Chinese whispers in Donegal reached fever pitch in recent weeks with all sorts of murmurs doing the rounds. It hit a peak last Friday night when Brendan Devenney, the former Donegal forward, claimed on UTV that Murphy was set to miss Saturday’s qualifier with Galway.
Gallagher says: “When you’re on the inside of something and when you’re together, you can see the real story.
“Everyone inside knows the truth of what goes on. Thankfully the stories were all unfounded. It was typified when we woke up on Saturday morning and we heard that Michael was out.
“You just move on. There’s nothing we can do about that. You’d prefer if it didn’t go on, but it doesn’t have an impact. We have a very good bunch of lads who get on very well.
“We laugh and joke about it. We take it for what it is.”
In 2013, Aidan O’Shea lorded the midfield battle, but this weekend the Breaffy man is expected to line out at full-forard.
Gallagher says: “He is a huge handful. In 2013 he gave an exhibition in the middle of the field against us and it is a testament to his skill that he is in there now and he is up there as one of the top players in the country now.
“It is going to be old fashioned because there is going to be a lot of one-on-one combat with him all over the pitch and whether he is inside or outside it will be up to whoever is marking him to get the better of him.
“Same as Mayo we have got to try and get our match-ups right. Go back to 2013, our biggest problem was in the middle of the park where they absolutely destroyed us with clean fetching and in breaking ball and that is going to be a huge area as well.”
The feelings are still raw from that Sunday 24 months ago, but it’s not quite revenge that Donegal are after this time. The prize is much greater.
Gallagher says: “Unfortunately we can never take that day back. We have to take it on the chin and learn from it.
“You can never take that back and what we felt that day, being beaten and how we felt afterwards, you just have to grind your teeth and it tests your character and resolve.
“You can see the way the boys bounced back last year when it would have been easy for them to throw in the towel, but you just move on
“It is all about now trying to get into an All-Ireland semi-final and that is the big prize. We wanted to get to this stage and now that it is here we want to enjoy it and put our best foot forward.”
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