Broadcaster Pat Spillane has today spoken out about Donegal’s elimination from the championship last weekend, citing Rory Gallagher’s reliance on Jim McGuinness’ strategies as the cause.
Donegal’s season came to a screetching half last weekend in Sligo after losing to Galway, 4-17 to 0-14.
Galway’s win dashed Donegal’s hopes of making it to Croke Park for the seventh year in a row.
For the first time since 2010, a year prior to McGuinness’ take over, Donegal did not make it through to the quarter-finals.
Writing in his column in the Sunday World, the Kerry GAA pundit said that last week’s exit, which he referred to as “Donegal’s unravelling”, “casts a shadow over the coaching credentials of McGuinness.”
Spillane is not a fan of McGuinness’ strategies. Picture taken by Brian McDaid in 2012.
“It’s time Donegal tore up the McGuinness template”, he said, adding that the strategies used by McGuinness are no longer applicable as it is not “suited” to the current county squad.
He remarked that Gallagher is “clinging to a playing system devised by Jimmy McGuinness, that is well past its sell-by date and is not suited to the players now at its disposal.”
He also says that he never “accepted [McGuinness] was an innovative coach – he merely took the template that was established by Mickey Harte and took it to an extreme level.”
“His strength was his man-management and his ability to convince a bunch of players to put their lives on hold and become the hardest working team in the country.
“Winning the 2012 All-Ireland was an amazing achievement but the flaws in his plan became evident fairly quickly afterwards.”
Tags: