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JayP
County: Dublin
Posts: 974
1660814
All this talk of Fitzmaurice out "Jim-ing" Jim is nonsense.
Lets talk real likelihood. Everybody and their mother knows the way Donegal play! Fitzmaurice looked at the Dublin game and said lets match the system Donegal play, don't concede space in behind our midfield and make them play through us. He then relied on something that we all KNOW is true. Kerry just have better footballers than Donegal. The Donegal system is set up to counter and the reality is if everybody plays their part you'll win or at worse, not be beat by a cricket score.
McGuinness got lucky against Dublin, Gavin set up naively and Donegal rode their luck early on. If Dublin had of scored either goal chance early on we would all be talking about a different All Ireland Final and quite possibly a different All Ireland winner.
Fitzmaurice would have been delighted Donegal won.
After the final McGuinness started by saying his players just didn't get their level of performance right. Well, Dublin clearly didn't do that in the semi final. But Jim was lauded as this truly heroic figure who stopped the Dublin machine, a tactical genius. After the final he looked more Steve McClaren under the Umbrella than Jose Mourinho.
My point is....... the winners will always gain plaudits. Fitzmaurice is now a hero of epic proportions, bringing Kerry to Sam without the Gooch. The reality is but for some poor Mayo play, Fitzmaurice wouldn't have got the chance to joust with McGuinness "Yoda" like tactical awareness.
Or in Donegal's case, a poor miss by Diarmuid Connolly gave Donegal a chance in a game, up that point, they had looked like they had no chance of winning.
McGuinness can hold his head high leaving Donegal, he owes them nothing. But he wasn't a tactical genius. Was he a tactical Maestro against Monaghan in last years Ulster Final? How was his zen-Master management in the quarter final last year against Mayo? Why couldn't he reverse the fortunes of his team in the final this year, when they were clearly getting outplayed?
McGuinness was great for his county, No doubt.
But so was Heffo, Micko, Mickey Harte, Joe Kiernan, Paudi, Gilroy, Sean Boylan etc.....
It would be interesting to see if he the likes of McGuinness could do a job with a county other than his own.
Good post JayP, I agree with nearly everything you say. I maybe wouldn't be as sore on him for 2013 as he had a lot of injuries to contend with, but apart from that you have it spot on.
JMcG is not the greatest manager of all time, but he was the best we'd ever seen & he shone like a beacon amidst some truly poor efforts down the years.
His biggest attribute was that he got a team of talented losers, who were a laughing stock, to believe in then selves & in the system he promoted to the extent that they won 3 Ulsters In 4 years, one Sam, one final, one semi & a QF. He started from a lot farther back than Paudi, Gilroy or even Micko.
Because of that I believe he could do a job for many counties. Would they all win All Irelands? No. But they would all be hard to beat, respected & give 100%.
No supporter can ask for much more than that.
MuckrossHead (Donegal) - Posts: 5028 - 07/10/2014 14:11:49
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