The Alternative View: No excuses for Donegal - but a super season to look back on

The post mortems will go on for  some time. Donegal have many wounds to lick but that’s the nature of finals - only one team can go home with the spoils.

First of all there can be no excuses. Kerry were much the better team on the day and deserve all the plaudits. Putting on your best performance on the most important occasion is so rewarding; the opposite was the case for Donegal. They were blitzed in the opening quarter and despite striving manfully for the remainder of the game, they never looked like bridging the gap.

Was the relative experience of the two sides a factor? Most of the Kerry side had experienced the All-Ireland final day before Sunday while only four of the Donegal  panel had that experience.

The build-up in the county and around Croke Park was a real celebration of joy for Donegal supporters. They travelled in their droves and found the tickets to completely dominate the occasion. 

Not everything went as planned for RTE though and their Up For The Match on Saturday night with broadband issues in Towney almost sidelining Marty Morrissey. We could have told him that Towney was a black spot for broadband long before last weekend. The programme format is getting a little dated at this stage and if I hear the story of the Bendix Washing Machine and the Kerry team one more time I will puke.

Before noon on a perfect Sunday for football, the scene on Jones’s Road was just mesmeric. It was covered with Donegal jerseys with hardly a Kerry top to be seen.  The supporters  were ready to play their part.

Inside the stadium it was much warmer than it had been a couple of weeks earlier when Donegal played Meath. The flags were hardly moving. Not a day for two pointers I felt. How wrong I was.

The ceremonial extras around All-Ireland final day were beginning with the Kerry All-Ireland winning team of 2000 introduced to a half-empty stadium. We watched as Donegal did their intensive warm-up and we were surprised when Hugh McFadden was not going to start with Caolan McGonagle getting the nod; not that McGonagle was starting but that it was McFadden who was making way. The Killybegs man had been a stalwart for the opening 45-50 matches during Donegal’s best spell in the run-up to Sunday.

Donegal were reluctant to get to the red carpet to meet President Michael D Higgins; they broke away for another huddle and had to be recalled for the parade with captain Patrick McBrearty leading 16 Donegal men around. But again they broke early while Kerry marched on until they were back at the Hogan Stand. There was an audible reaction to what Donegal did. Was it preplanned or was it nerves?

I was left wondering: What advantage was there to arriving late for the Presidential handshakes or breaking early from the parade? Or putting 16 in the parade?

I have always felt that a team should put their chest out, pick their team on a Thursday and stick with it unless there is a seriously good reason to change. And that would apply to adhering to the formalities that are part and parcel of the big day.

Whatever about the formalities, when the ball was hoisted in the air by referee Brendan Cawley there was one team more ready for the action and that was Kerry. Donegal  were hit by a Kerry avalanche and helped by a couple of Donegal errors, the Kingdom were in a 0-13 to 0-4 lead as the first quarter ended. 

By that stage it was clear that Paudie Clifford was pulling the Kerry strings; his brother David had pulled  the Donegal defence to the sideline for the opening nine minutes but by half-time he had hit three two pointers and one from inside the arc.

Brendan McCole was sticking to David but Paudie had the run of the field and by the end of the match had amassed 76 touches. Himself and David were nominated for man of the match but it went to the Kerry captain Gavin White. Joe O’Connor was also in the argument.

It was the Kerry show. They had got the all-round team performance. Donegal kept plugging away but couldn’t get within reach to hit a killer punch.

There was a period in the second half with the margin down to four, thanks to some terrific free-taking by Michael Murphy, but three wides followed and the little chink of light was extinguished.

Oisin Gallen on the ball for Donegal against Kerry Picture: Thomas Gallagher

It was a bad day for the Donegal zonal defence. Was a change needed after 10 minutes? David Clifford was being man-marked; if a Donegal player had been detailed to tag Paudie Clifford would it have made a difference? It will always be conjecture, but even after 10 or 15 minutes it was worth considering. If the sides were to meet again next week (or next year) a plan to make it more difficult for the elder Clifford to dictate the terms of the game will be just as pressing as trying to close down David.

One thing is for sure. The need to coach one-on-one defending will become a crucial part of the game going forward under the new rules.

There are many factors to consider when looking back on the game. It is important to remember that it was Donegal’s 11th (or 11½) game in 16 weeks.  Kerry were playing their ninth in 14 weeks.

I remember pointing in an earlier column that it was nigh impossible to ask Michael Murphy to go through that amount of games closing in on his 36th birthday. Not alone did he succeed but he was superb from start to finish and more than anyone emptied himself on Sunday last. He will collect a fourth All-Star at the end of the year, and it will be richly deserved. That he will only have four All-Stars is an indictment on the selection process.

Along with a few others, he will have a big decision to make in the next few weeks and months. I just hope Michael and the other Donegal players give it another year. They  have won Ulster twice; the target has to be to get back to the All-Ireland final day. I would like to see Michael Murphy used more sparingly in the 2026 season, more of a finisher than a starter. Imagine what it would have been like on Sunday last if we had to have the Glenswilly man entering the fray for the final half-hour.

The Donegal panel were given a hearty homecoming on Monday evening and everyone in the county should be really proud of what they achieved this year. There were a lot of learnings to take on board with new rules and a much-changed game. That they got to the All-Ireland final says much about getting a lot of things right. They met a Kerry team who were just sublime on the day. Sometimes, as Jim McGuinness said afterwards, you have to take it on the chin and move on.

I have had a number of long conversations with various friends since Sunday evening and the one that took me a little by surprise was about the rule changes and the negative effect they have had on the games since the quarter-finals.

All the media reaction to the rule changes have been an almost 100% positive love-in. The only change which seems to be getting some criticism is allowing two points for a free outside the arc.

My friend was surprised that not one of the various analysts was prepared to criticise the huge change and the way it has made GAA an almost no contact sport. And there is evidence to support his view. There were no cards shown in Sunday’s All-Ireland final. Getting a yellow card would almost instantly see you getting the curly finger. Being reduced to 14 men is almost suicidal for any team. He felt that having to leave three players up the field and then allowing two points for a kick from outside the arc was making the art of defending obsolete. The winning margin on Sunday was 10 points; Donegal’s margin over Meath was 20 points. His argument was that games are not exciting coming down the stretch and he argued that if Donegal and Kerry had played under the old rules last Sunday, it would have been much closer in the final minutes.

I have to say he made a compelling case, and it was not sour grapes. He felt changes were necessary but that there had been just too many of them at the one time. He was happy with the two pointer from play; the solo and the improved discipline. He felt that leaving two players up top might be enough.

It seems likely that most of the new rules will be put into the rule book with a special Congress later in the year. I suppose only time will tell whether they will all work but it is also good that there is a discussion around them.

There will be plenty of other issues to be discussed in Donegal. Jim McGuinness has taken Donegal back to the top table and it is important that he continues in the role. There were murmurs of criticism swirling around about tactical issues concerning Sunday and that is natural. But just remember Donegal were in their fourth All-Ireland final on Sunday last and Jim McGuinness has been there on all four occasions - as a player in ‘92 and manager on the other three occasions. 

That is not a coincidence.

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MATCH STATS

Donegal 0-19

Kerry 1-26

Scorers for Donegal: Michael Murphy 0-8 (6f), Conor O’Donnell 0-4, Oisin Gallen 0-3, Shane O’Donnell 0-2; Caolan McGonagle, Dáire Ó Baoill 0-1 each.

Scorers for Kerry: David Clifford 0-9 (3tp), Seán O’Shea 0-6 (2 tpf, 1f), Joe O’Connor 1-0, Gavin Whyte, Dylan Geaney, Paudie Clifford 0-3 each, Sean O’Brien 0-2. 

Donegal: Shaun Patton; Finnbarr Roarty, Brendan McCole, Peadar Mogan; Ryan McHugh, Eoghan Ban Gallagher, Caolan McColgan; Caolan McGonagle, Michael Langan; Shane O’Donnell, Ciaran Thompson, Ciaran Moore; Conor O’Donnell, Michael Murphy, Oisin Gallen. 

Subs: Daire Ó Baoill for Thompson (23), Hugh McFadden for McColgan (half-time), Jason McGee for McHugh (40), Patrick McBrearty for Gallen (50), Jamie Brennan for Gallagher (58).

Kerry: Shane Ryan; Paul Murphy, Jason Foley, Dylan Casey; Brian O Beaglaoich, Mike Breen, Gavin Whyte; Seán O’Brien, Mark O’Shea; Joe O’Connor, Seán O’Shea, Graham O’Sullivan; David Clifford, Paudie Clifford, Dylan Geaney. 

Subs: Diarmuid O’Connor for O’Brien (50), Killian Spillane for Geaney (54), Evan Looney for O Beaglaoich (63), Tadhg Morley for Breen (65), Micheal Burns for O’Sullivan (69).

Referee: Brendan Cawley (Kildare).