'Donegal in 2014 helped us win six All-Irelands in-a-row' - Paddy Andrews

Former Dublin star Paddy Andrews has claimed that his side would not have won an historic six All-Ireland football titles in-a-row had it not been for that shock defeat to Donegal in August 2014. 

The seven-time All-Ireland winning corner forward states that his side was ‘naive’ in terms of their preparation and that Jim Gavin and his team, who were chasing two All-Ireland's in-a-row at the time used that 3-14 to 0-17 point defeat as their greatest lesson which helped them to go on and become one of the greatest teams in the game. 

Donegal's win that day was their first against Dublin in the championship since their 1992 All-Ireland final victory and only their second ever over the capital.  

The game was the only championship loss suffered by Jim Gavin as Dublin senior manager, a role he held for much of the decade until his resignation in the last weeks of 2019. 

Speaking at a GAAGO Live event in Croke Park last week, the St Brigid’s man said, “We were champions at the time. There was a responsibility as champions, you need to expect people are going to watch what you guys do, and ask themselves; ‘how were you successful?’ 

“We prided ourselves on playing very traditional football, similar to Kerry. Our philosophy under Jim, was playing this really attacking style of play.” 

In analysing the style of football at the time, Andrews claimed that Dublin wanted to be the team to win All-Ireland titles by breaking down the blanket defence system but admits that his side lost sight of how to adapt their play when challenged by opposition teams. 

“We kind of had this mentality that we were going to be the team to break the blanket defence,” said Andrews. “That was our North Star. Winning the All-Ireland was magic, but you need something else then to try and retain it. 

“The reality of it was that Jim McGuinness and other teams were looking at us going, ‘well, Dublin plays this way, we know they’re going to attack, that means if they go man-to-man, then we can create gaps, we can drag players around the pitch’. 

He uses the example of the 2013 Footballer of the Year Michael Darragh Macauley being forced to play fullback on Neil Gallagher when the Glenswilly man moved into full-forward and left space around midfield. 

“Michael Darragh Macauley ended up at fullback on Neil Gallagher. It was naive of us at the time not to expect that sort of analysis to be done by opposition teams.” 

But Andrews added that the scars from the defeat acted as the catalyst for Dublin’s subsequent six-in-a-row between 2015 and 2020 – claiming there wasn’t a “chance” it would have happened without Donegal’s input. 

“The reality is, I’d always say the players have to take responsibility for that day. We didn’t prepare for all eventualities. We didn’t expect that, because we weren’t humble. You get your feedback on the pitch, and we got it that day. 

“I don’t think we would have won the next six All-Ireland titles without that defeat to Donegal . . . not a chance.”