REGARDLESS of how you stand in the optimism stakes, Croke Park can be a strange place when it’s less than half full.
For a place where dreams have been spectacularly made and smashed with an equal but opposite force, this afternoon the feelings from Donegal weren’t even so penetrating. It was, in all honesty, pretty drab as Dublin won at a canter.
Photo caption: Donegal manager Rory Gallagher watches the final moments of the Allianz Football League Division 1 semi-final at Croke Park today. Photo: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE
The GAA have decided to scrap the semi-finals of the Allianz League Division 1 and whoever shouted ‘yay’ at that particular vote got plenty of ammunition to back up their stance today.
Dublin are going for four in a row and are the one side more than most that criticism cannot be levelled at. Donegal have shaved their feathers and even left them with egg on their faces in recent years, but today Jim Gavin’s team ghosted to a 1-20 to 0-13 win.
“Definitely harmless enough I suppose in the greater scheme of things,” Rory Gallagher, the Donegal manager, said afterwards. “It was played at a fairly pedestrian pace even in the first-half when it was fairly competitive but look the reality is the last 20 minutes were a non-event.”
Gallagher admits that when Donegal are pulled out of the hat for Ulster and a given date is decided, then he works his plans back from that date. That date in 2016 is June 12 when his side play the winners of the preliminary round in Ulster, which is between Antrim and Fermanagh.
So, what that fixture now just nine weeks away and the wheels in motion for the final push, did a semi-final spot that was only confirmed seven days ago land in the middle of Donegal’s plans?
“We came down to give it our best shot, there’s no doubt about that,” Gallagher said. “But at the end of the day just because we were in a league semi-final didn’t change our preparations overall. Once the draw is made you work towards that date and the league semi-final – don’t get me wrong we wanted to perform better than we did – but there wasn’t the same tactical focus as you would do for another game.
“We just met up Thursday and we travelled down. We’d a light kickabout and a stretch and that was it.
“If we got through, we’d have liked it but the reality is we didn’t. We just move on now, we’ve nine weeks now to the championship and that’s the way it is.”
Donegal aren’t the first team to get skimmed by Dublin and they certainly won’t be the last. With little in the way of bite in the contest, it was hard to assess just how good the reigning All-Ireland champions were on the day, but they’ll certainly take some beating and gained some potentially profitable situations from pressing Donegal high up the pitch and forcing turnovers.
“Dublin are very dangerous,” Gallagher added. “The last day we came down here, in fairness we weren’t turned over too often and we weren’t very open then on the counter attack. But when you lose the ball against Dublin, there’s no better team in the country for trying to get in for goal chances.
“Probably we got away light, they could have got another one or two. But that’s a great strength of theirs, when you lose possession, they’re very quickly through on your goal.”
That’s the league then for Donegal for another year and one that started so well had finished with some grey clouds. Those who think the glass is half-full might be pressing their case now.
Now it’s focus towards Ulster, where Donegal – who were forced to negotiate their way from the preliminary round in 2011, 2012 and 2015 – are now the last of the sides in action in the province.
We’re delighted about that,” Gallaggher added. “I think it’s the first time in a long number of years that we’ve been the last team out in Ulster and it’s something we’ve really been looking forward to all year.
“We always felt if we got over the league and were able to survive in the division then we’d look forward to that. We’ll have a lot of our players home so we’ll be able to train Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
“There will be club league and there is a round of the club championship but we have no problem with that. We’ll have a couple of challenge games as well and to be honest we think it’s a very positive thing that we have that gap this year.”
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