The Alternative View: Bus trips; noisy Stats Men and a tame exit for Louth

Louth gave a whole new meaning to losing your way at a football match on Sunday last. There are at least four different routes from Enniskillen to MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey but going via Sligo has given SatNav a very bad press.

Their arrival in MacCumhaill Park at 3.13 for a 4 pm throw-in after travelling the evening before for an overnight in Enniskillen was not the best possible preparation for such an important fixture. Surely someone on that bus must have had an alarm bell going off as they headed towards Benbulben.

Donegal is regarded as a remote county but it is just impossible to fathom what was happening on that team bus on Sunday. With the Donegal Rally bringing so much extra traffic to the county you would have expected the Louth bus to be pulling into Ballybofey two to three before the game to give the players the chance to unwind.

According to Google Maps it’s a 59 minute drive from Enniskillen to Ballybofey. You could go by Ballyshannon and make it in an hour and 20 minutes. Just what the Louth bus driver and the team mentors were doing we will never know.

 Whether the detour had any effect on the Louth performance against Donegal is also in the realms of conjecture. But they did seem to lose their way in the second half after a good showing in the opening 30 minutes. The Logistics Officer will have had a red face when the debriefing meeting was held in the aftermath.

By the end of Sunday’s game Donegal had amassed their second ever highest tally in a championship match and all but one point of the 2-22 came from play. It was an impressive second half display which came after one of the dullest opening halves we have witnessed in quite a while.

It was Donegal’s eighth game of the championship and at times in the opening half you wondered if they were feeling the pain of such a punishing schedule.

But once they got into the rhythm of the game in the second half everything came so easy to them. The cracking finish from Ciaran Thompson to the Louth net put the seal on victory and it was so easy after that for players to express themselves. The finish from Thompson was the perfect seal on his 50th championship appearance. What a record - 50 games on the trot since his debut.

The huge Donegal following were so quiet in the opening half and they were not given anything from the pitch to get them going. At the back of the stand in the overflow press area, the Louth stats men were making the most noise, barking instructions to the players on the pitch, which was so strange as the players were well outside earshot. They were more like Louth spectators than stats men, calling for fouls and overcarrying; the referee was getting it full blast.

Louth had requested but were denied a 15 minute delay in the throw-in. It seemed as if they were accommodated at half-time as the break extended to 25 minutes and 13 seconds.

It took Michael Murphy’s two pointer and Thompson’s goal to get the Donegal followers to get in the mood. It was more like a carnival atmosphere for the final 20 minutes. By that stage the stats men lost their voice, just like the Louth players had lost their mojo.

How do you sum up the Donegal performance? Were they just plying their time in the opening half and allowing Louth to run out of steam? To be fair to Louth, they did suffer a number of injuries with arguably their three best players having to leave the field - Tommy Durnin, Craig Lennon and Ryan Burns. Their talisman, Sam Mulroy, was kept on a short leash by Brendan McCole.

There were many positives for Donegal - not least that they were able to rest Ryan McHugh, Michael Murphy and Eoghan Bán Gallagher in the final quarter.

Oisin Gallen looked back to near his best, especially in the second half and apart from his five points, he also set up Ciaran Thompson for the goal and Finnbarr Roarty for his first half point.

And what about Finnbarr Roarty? The young Glenties starlet is just a joy to watch. His tackling is tenacious, doing the work of two men at the one time. But it is his ability to get forward and create havoc on the break which was so enjoyable to watch on Sunday. He didn’t get man of the match, but he was the first choice with nearly everyone I spoke to afterwards. I can’t wait to see him in Croke Park.

That opportunity comes for him on Saturday and it will be his first time to play at headquarters. Monaghan was the team that came out of the hat for Donegal in the Monday morning draw. The quick turnaround has been debated and Donegal GAA issued a statement indicating their displeasure at not getting a Sunday slot.

Their argument has plenty of substance but the biggest issue is not just the six day turnaround but the fact that Donegal are playing a ninth game in 12 weeks. That is just a crazy schedule and has to be addressed going forward. Amateur players should not be subjected to such a schedule.

Looking at Saturday’s match-up with Monaghan - Donegal are playing their ninth game while it will be Monaghan’s fifth. There has to be a fairer way at running a national championship.

Still, Donegal have to forget about the injustice and get on with it. Galway and Donegal were in the same boat before the draw, both looking for the Sunday slot, both also provincial winners. The Armagh-Kerry and Dublin-Tyrone games were always going to be kept apart to ensure full houses on both Saturday and Sunday. We will never know how the decision was arrived at, that Donegal were given the early Saturday slot. Last team to finish on Sunday evening; first out the following Saturday.

Croke Park will probably be half empty when Donegal and Monaghan take to the field for the 4pm throw-in on Saturday next; the Dubs will be arriving for their game with Tyrone as Donegal and Monaghan are going down the stretch. At €45 a pop, it will be an expensive trip for Donegal supporters but they must get there in numbers to get behind the team. That support will be needed this weekend.

A win on Saturday will give breathing space. But while Donegal are being quoted at odds of 4/11 for the weekend encounter with Monaghan, anyone who remembers their tilt in Clones back in April will  know that those odds are crazy. But it seems punters are looking at Donegal in a very good light at the moment as they have been installed as low as 3/1 favourites to win the All-Ireland after the weekend matches.

Monaghan were a little aggrieved at the way the match with Donegal ended in Clones in the Ulster quarter-final. The hooter for full time went when a Monaghan lineball was about to be kicked with Donegal ahead by 0-23 to 0-21. Referee David Coldrick was surrounded by the Monaghan players and management but he was just applying the rules.

No doubt that moment will be used by manager Gabriel Bannigan on Saturday in his pre-match pep talk. But it will come down to the players on the field. One would hope that Croke Park will suit Donegal and their running game. The Monaghan threats from the last day in Clones are now well known to the Donegal set-up - Dessie Ward and Conor McCarthy in the half-back line and up front Micheal Bannigan, Stephen O’Hanlon and Jack McCarron. Most of their scores come from these sources.

Jim McGuinness will be on the road to some location outside Dublin on Friday evening and you can rest assured the McGuinness bus will not be taking any detour to Croke Park come Saturday.

There will be little hope also that Monaghan will mess up in this regard. It’s do or die from now on and it would be nice for Donegal supporters to have a final 20 minutes like they had in MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey on Sunday last. 

Fingers crossed for good news around 5.30 p.m. on Saturday evening and we can then enjoy the battles between Dublin and Tyrone, Meath and Galway and especially Armagh and Kerry.

READ NEXT: It is disappointing that Donegal's request not heard - GPA

MATCH FACTS

Scorers for Donegal: Oisin Gallen 0-5; Conor O’Donnell 1-2; Ciaran Thompson 1-0; Michael Langan 0-3, 1tp; Michael Murphy 0-3, 1tp 1f; Finnbarr Roarty, Dáire Ó Baoill 0-2; Peadar Mogan, Shane O’Donnell, Niall O’Donnell, Caolan McColgan, Hugh McFadden 0-1

Scorers for Louth: Ryan Burns 0-4; Sam Mulroy 0-3,1f; Paul Matthews, Craig Lennon, Dara McDonnell, Peter Lynch, Ciaran Downey 0-1

Donegal: Shaun Patton, Finnbarr Roarty, Brendan McCole, Peadar Mogan; Ryan McHugh, Eoghan Bán Gallagher, Caolan McColgan; Jason McGee, Michael Langan; Ciaran Moore, Ciarán Thompson, Shane O'Donnell; Conor O'Donnell, Michael Murphy, Oisín Gallen. Subs: Hugh McFadden for McGee (half-time), Dáire Ó Baoill for McHugh (49), Patrick McBrearty for Murphy (51); Niall O’Donnell and Odhrán McFadden Ferry for C O’Donnell and Gallagher (54)

Louth: Niall McDonnell; Daire Nally, Dermot Campbell, Donal McKenny; Emmet Carolan, Peter Craig, Craig Lennon; Tommy Durnin, Dara McDonnell; Conall McKeever, Ciaran Downey, Paul Matthews; Dan Corcoran, Sam Mulroy, Ryan Burns. Subs: Conor Grimes for Carolan (half-time), Seán Callaghan for Durnin (48), Ryan Walsh for Matthews (51), Kieran McArdle for Lennon (53), Ciaran Byrne for R Burns (56)

Referee: Barry Cassidy (Derry).