Ciaran Thompson a crucial part of what makes Donegal tick explains Leo McLoone

Ciaran Thompson’s form for Donegal this year has been excellent but Leo McLoone explains it’s how he brings others into the game that really sets him apart.

Modern football, even with the new FRC rules, can still be a linear chessboard. But Thompson’s ability to ghost in between the lines there is often the thing that opens up a world of possibilities for Jim McGuinness’ side.

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Thompson honed his skills tagging along after older brothers Leon and Anthony. Anthony, of course, is a 2012 All-Ireland winner.

But it’s easy to forget just how good Leon was before an ACL injury interrupted his early progress in a Donegal jersey.

Housing estate battles on the old tarmacadam pitch behind the Comprehensive School back in Glenties, often involving the Thompsons’ Ard McGill against the nearby Ard Patrick, were always thick affairs.

But it was an experience that not only toughened the youngest Thompson up, but also developed a real off-the-cuffness to how he goes about playing the game.

I don’t think you can really pigeonhole him. He’s not what you’d call an out-and-out midfielder and he’s not really an orthodox wing half-forward.

On a soccer field, you’d call what he does a number 10 — in that he operates between the lines in a sort of tucked-in fashion and just roams.

“Growing up, Ciaran would have been tagging along and there were games on the tar up the back of the Comp,” McLoone explains.

“He’d have ran after the older brothers and he’d have only been around six or seven years old. And he’d be stuck in kicking about there most evenings.

“I remember having him as a minor in 2012 with Naomh Conaill. He’d a serious skill level but what I’ve been impressed with is how he’s sort of now developed into a real leader.

“I’ve seen that in our own dressing room here in Glenties now, just how well he’s respected. I’ve no doubt he’s the same in that Donegal dressing room.”

As well as being a clear and present danger from two-point positions, McLoone says that threat often opens up avenues for others to exploit.

“He kind of operates in pockets in a really intelligent way. And it’s very hard to stop that.

And we all know he loves winding up that left foot. He can do that from his natural side but he also likes drifting over to the other side and curling them over on what we’d normally say is the wrong side for a left-footer.

“He can pluck a ball, too, which is a huge benefit around the middle, under the new rules as he again tucks into an area that is sort of hard to read.

“I find that in games or moments when Donegal have needed someone to step up, kick a big score, he’s one of those that can do that.

“When he gets the ball you can see the alarm bells going off in the opposition. They are holding a defensive line around that 40m mark.

“But Ciaran’s range and radar are so good it sort of breaks that and you see players rushing to close him down.

“Ciaran still gets his shot away most of the time but what I really like about that is that it breaks the opposition’s shape and when the runners come off the shoulder, the likes of Peadar Mogan, Finnbarr Roarty or a Ciaran Moore, Ciaran just slips them in.

“And he can decide to just drop a shoulder too, after feinting to shoot, and progress on himself. He’s got a real variety of threats in that sense.

“And I know some of the efforts he takes on might feel ambitious but he’s rarely off target. He has a real handle on what’s within his locker in that sense.”

McLoone will watch on from the vantage point of the Hogan Stand on Sunday and a part of him would, of course, love to be slap, bang in the middle of the action once again.

He envisages the game going right down to the wire but hopes Jim McGuinness’ coaching acumen, as well as his players’ desire to get the job done, trumps the tradition and even arrogance, that will fuel Jack O’Connor’s team’s efforts.

“It’s going to be so tight and Kerry, they have that sort of arrogance where they feel that they should not only be in All-Ireland finals every year but they should also be winning them.

“But Donegal, from a system point of view, I just hope we have the capacity to deal with Clifford and that in turn keeps the score down.

“And it’s a thing that is thrown about a lot but I have no doubt there is a serious hunger there on our lads’ part.

“And the lads that are knocking about from 2014 will be so determined not to let that happen again.

“That was such a sore one, such a disappointment. And that has to be very potent this week in the lead-in.”

“People ask me, ‘Would you like to be there?’ Of course you would, you’d love to be. So I just hope for all the lads’ sake, and the supporters too, that they get the right result”.