JIM MCGUINNESS HAS today questioned why counties are going against their own DNA to set out to play football defensively.
The former Donegal manager, in his weekly column in The Irish Times, made reference in particular to the drawn Connacht final in Salthill on Sunday between Galway and Roscommon – although did emphasise his feelings are not solely confined to that match.
[adrotate group=”38″]“Gaelic football is in danger of becoming mired in a defensive stalemate that, in my opinion, is a debased and corrupt kind of parody of what Donegal set about achieving a few years ago,” McGuinness said. “I am not specifically talking about the teams in the Connacht final here.
“I understand that people are going to say this is rich coming from me. But just because it worked for us doesn’t mean it will work for everyone else. And there are huge gaps in how the defensive system is being interpreted.”
When McGuinness took over as Donegal manager in July 2010, the county was at a low ebb having not won an Ulster SFC outing in three years.
[adrotate group=”53″]“We had Michael Murphy, probably the best player in the country and one of the biggest, along with Colm McFadden and Patrick McBrearty. So in that trio you had size, skill and ball-winning ability on the edge of the square.
“It gave us two clear approaches of attack. When we went long to those three players, then opposition defenders would drop back to cover it off. They had to. And that inevitably left space for us to run the ball. And the team was and is blessed with natural ball carriers: Frank McGlynn, Karl Lacey, Rory Kavanagh, the McHughs, Leo McLoone, Anthony Thompson. The whole lot had the capacity to get on the ball and make serious incisions.
“But that gameplan was unique to us.
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“When I was learning the game in Donegal, as a young lad at county training the refrain was always: keep the ball! Keep the ball! Because our pitches are mostly on the coast in Donegal and we are exposed to the Atlantic winds, it made sense for Donegal to retain possession.”
McGuinness admits that his ultra-defensive system in the 2011 All-Ireland semi-final loss to Dublin – on an 0-8 to 0-6 scoreline – only brought Donegal so far
“When we were going well during my time in Donegal, we always had three up and our players who defended the periphery were there as the links between defence and attack.
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“Any day we only had two up we never had the same fluency. And only once – against Dublin in 2011 – did we have one man up. And we got nothing on the scoreboard that day. And we acknowledged that. And that had to change.
“This is not because I think defending is bad. Defending is an integral part of the game. But you do it to win the ball back! So you can go play. To attack!”
Please click here to read Jim McGuinness’s column in full
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