Jim McGuinness said he can’t understand why Leo McLoone didn’t feature for Donegal in Sunday’s Ulster SFC final defeat to Tyrone.
GAA: Jim McGuinness has expressed his surprise that Leo McLoone played no part at all in Sunday’s Ulster SFC final defeat to Tyrone – and also said Donegal’s game-plan was too predictable and one dimensional.
McGuinness led Donegal to three Ulster SFC titles during his tenure as manager, and had the Indian sign over Mickey Harte, getting the better of him in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
However, McGuinness feels Donegal only had one strategy on Sunday, and that it was very one dimensional.
At times during the match, especially in the second-half, McGuinness grew frustrated as he feels Donegal should have went more direct as there was loads of space inside, but said there unwillingness to exploit that was their undoing.
In his weekly column with The Irish Times, McGuinness wrote, “Donegal, to my recollection, kicked one long ball in to Michael Murphy in the whole game. It was in the first half, and it caused mayhem. Niall Morgan came to meet it under pressure and thumped the ball anywhere: it spilled out over the sideline.
“The point I am making is this: in terms of asking questions of the opposition, there has to be an unpredictability to what you are doing, yet it has to be 100 per cent predictable within the game plan.
“So you have a number of strategies: every time you see an attacker isolated inside, let’s go long. Every time you see space to exploit, run into that space. Next time, support from behind. Next time kick it on the diagonal. It is varied, but it is still a script.
“Donegal came with only one strategy and that’s why people were looking at their players hand-passing and going over and back across the pitch for most of the second half.
“Tyrone just put all their concentration into dealing with that and they were highly disciplined and were rewarded with countless turnovers. All their points from play originated in turnovers in their side of the pitch. So I felt the predictable nature of Donegal’s play made them stall.”
McGuinness also felt that Rory Gallagher’s decision not to utilize the bench was a big mistake.
He expressed his surprise that Leo McLoone didn’t feature at all, and said the bench had won big games for him during his spell as manager.
“I do feel Rory could have run the bench a bit earlier. A lot of the times the reason we won big games was because of our bench. Go as hard as you can for as long as you can on a sweltering day like Sunday.
“When you have players like Leo McLoone, Colm McFadden and Christy Toye on the bench who have won All-Irelands on the field of play, I don’t understand why they weren’t involved earlier or, in Leo’s case, at all.
“It meant there was a situation where the same players were asked to do the whole job so you didn’t have that spike in intensity. And it is tough because it doesn’t take a huge leap of imagination to see Donegal as back-to-back Ulster champions this week.”
Donegal face Cork in the qualifiers at Croke Park, and will be aiming to bounce back from Sunday’s disappointment to book their place in the last eight of the All-Ireland series.
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