GAELIC GAMES:Dublin didn't allow frustration to get to them in the second half and this was a great test for them to come through, writes JOHN O'KEEFFE, football analyst
IT GOES without saying that this was not a game to be enjoyed. We’ve seen Tyrone go defensive in the past and we’ve even seen the Dubs themselves do it but I’ve never seen a more defensive display than the one Donegal put in yesterday.
They came to Croke Park with a fear of losing and set out their stall to keep the score down. But it’s very hard to win a game playing like that and when the possibility came their way after they went three points up in the second half, they just didn’t have the mindset to go and get the victory.
They were sadly lacking in attacking options and when Dublin drew level they had no answer. A big part of the reason for that was that they ran out of steam and their skills deserted them as a result. They started making mistakes, their passes weren’t finding their men and the tackles that were winning the ball in the first half were getting whistled up for fouls.
Dublin were patient and sustained their effort far better coming to the end of the game because Donegal just couldn’t keep up that effort for 70 minutes. You wouldn’t expect any team to be able to. Donegal’s attacking plan was based around turnover ball. They wanted to break up the Dublin play and then maraud forward with possession, keeping the ball tight and playing short passes. That can work for a while but it can’t work all day.
I was very surprised we didn’t see Michael Murphy as a target man at any stage because at least they could have tried playing some long ball into him. That told me they had no idea how to win the game.
Credit Dublin though – they were not going to lose another semi-final. Pat Gilroy would have told them at half-time to be patient and to allow the opening to come. Bernard Brogan was trying manfully in the inside line when he was triple-teamed at times. But Kevin McManamon made a big difference when he came on. He ran at the Donegal defence, he was able to break the tackle and get some space for himself and it was him who kicked a point from play to draw the teams level.
This was McManamon’s kind of game – very physical, with no space and no time to look around you. In that way, it just wasn’t Diarmuid Connolly’s type of game. Diarmuid had to come outfield away from the goal for possession and he couldn’t deal with the swarming that was going on around him. He likes to play football and yesterday wasn’t a game for people who like to play football. There was no time for him to shine and the game passed him by.
In saying that, I thought his red card was very unfair. Marty Boyle went down far too easily and made sure to get Connolly sent off. It wasn’t justified that he got the line for it and there’s no way he would have been sent off if Boyle had stayed on his feet. It was a far from manly thing to do, diving like that, and the punishment of missing the final doesn’t fit the crime. I really hope it gets rescinded because there’s no way a player should have to miss an All-Ireland final for something like that.
That was the one black spot on Dublin’s day though. This was a great test for them to come through. We’ve seen Dublin’s mental fragility on countless occasions in the past, even as recently as the league final and at this stage last year. A game like yesterday shows they have rectified that in no uncertain terms.
This win was about character and Dublin showed they have it in abundance. It wasn’t a pretty game but, as the saying goes, semi-finals are for winning. Especially a dogfight of a semi-final like this one.
So Dublin deserved to celebrate their victory last night. They’ve made it to the stage they set out to make it to and they found out plenty about themselves along the way. The manner of this victory will stand to them because they didn’t allow frustration to get to them in the second half.
Time and time again their efforts to create anything came to nothing but they kept at it and didn’t panic.
To be so shut down when you’re used to running up big scores must have been so alien to them but they found a way to keep their heads and win. Mentally, this will be a huge boost to them because that strength of mind is what they were missing. But they prepare for a final now in the knowledge it is something they have to hand. That’s massive going in against Kerry because if they had to play them without it, they’d be in big trouble.
As for Donegal, we shouldn’t be too hard on them. Jimmy McGuinness will take a lot of flak after this but we have to remember that this is year one of what he’s trying to achieve up there. He’s going to find an awful lot of people who don’t agree with what he sent his team out to do yesterday but, as a starting point, this is exactly the kind of year he would have sought.
They will learn from this. He will know they are going to have to develop a more expansive game for the future – because they have the players, they have the drive and they have the work ethic that an elite team needs. They work so hard for each other and they put an awful lot of thought into the game.
But the reality is they’re going to need a better attacking strategy if they’re going to win an All-Ireland title.
In the final stages, Dublin had players like Bryan Cullen, Ger Brennan and Michael Dara Macauley who stood up in the last 10 minutes and made sure there was no way through for Donegal. They kept their composure and once Donegal started giving away unnecessary frees, Dublin went away from them. In the end, that was the difference between these two teams. Dublin were able to work out a way to score enough points but Donegal weren’t.
