Jim McGuinness won't be employing the same tactics that famously frustrated Dublin in the 2011 All-Ireland SFC semi-final.

The metropolitans, then managed by Pat Gilroy, scraped an 0-8 to 0-6 victory on a day that McGuinness and his players practically invented the blanket defence but the Donegal manager admits the same approach won't work against Jim Gavin's well-oiled machine.

"It was a different type of (Dublin) system under Pat Gilroy," McGuinness pointed out to the Examiner.

"They kept the six defenders back. It was rare to see the half-backs push on. That's not the case now. Everyone pushes on.

"It's a totally different dynamic from that point of view. In terms of their attack, it's not that much different. They still like to get the ball in, they still like runners off their full-forward line. They're dynamic in the middle still.

"What they have done is give their half-backs licence to bomb on."

McGuinness learnt lessons that day that he put into practice and helped Donegal capture their second All-Ireland success 12 months later.
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"Our thought process was to win the game. We put the team out with a gameplan to win the match. Defensively we did a phenomenal job. Offensively we didn't - we only scored six points.

"That's what let us down. Every game is taken on its own merits. If we'd got things right offensively, we'd have been in the final. But again, that probably would have been too soon for us.

"We'd won nothing in 19 years. We weren't that far enough down the track in terms of development. It might have been too much, too soon. We were working on things and talking about things, getting up the field and supporting the attack. But we just weren't far enough down the track to implement that. Our score average wasn't enough that year, 12 points.

"The season after when we won the All-Ireland it was 17, because we paid attention to how we attacked."

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