The Alternative View: New rules, new challenges and old faces

You probably already heard that there’s been a lot of talk about these new rule changes - or core enhancements as some call them - with the Allianz League throwing in.

With Donegal unable to make the trek to Killarney to take on Kerry on the opening weekend due to Storm Éowyn, there was a chance to sit with the fire lit to see how these things worked out from afar.

It wasn’t overly clear if truth be told, particularly with TG4 frozen with about seven minutes remaining of Naomh Padraig’s All-Ireland JFC final, tantalisingly all square against An Cheathrú Rua, with not a word of a two-pointer or the three-up and three-back.

By the time the picture eventually thawed, Daniel McCauley’s panel - who played the old rules without the core enhancements - were back in Muff and two Division 1 fixtures had come and gone. Even when GAAGo did work later that Saturday evening, a local powercut in Donegal meant a bit of blackout when Tyrone welcomed Derry.

Anyway, there was plenty of commentary over the changing face of Gaelic football, although more confusion with some counties not getting a rulebook and others getting one that didn’t seem to correlate with what they were led to believe the rulebook should be. Joanne Cantwell, the anchor of RTÉ’s League Sunday, has been leading the investigation ever since.

Donegal and Jim McGuinness sat back and took stock, with whatever advantage perceived from having the weekend off soon eradicated with a glance at the fixture list ahead. To surmise, Donegal might have one free weekend by the time of the next hybrid solar eclipse, which, following a quick Google, is pencilled in for Friday, November 14, 2031.

Donegal’s first three Division 1 fixtures this year are against the last three All-Ireland champions, with the fourth, away to Galway in Salthill, against the team who lost out in two of those finals and have settled the quickest this year.
With no McKenna Cup and a postponement to start 2025, Donegal drew their curtain four weeks later than last year when a youthful Armagh made their way to Ballybofey on January 3.

And although the early start to the Ulster SFC - Donegal play Derry in the preliminary round on the first weekend in April - isn’t necessarily a new thing, it sometimes takes a little more time to hit home, seeing as the memories of the same two sides’ clash last year in April took place in summer-like sunshine - so there’s a little bit of the subconscious at play here.

Dublin had opened with a challenge-match type of game against Mayo at Croke Park, winning 1-17 to 1-15 - or was it 1-0-17 to 1-1-13 - with a fresh-faced team. By the time they landed in the Twin Towns, manager Dessie Farrell was aware that he was down to one of the nine-time All-Ireland winners in Stephen Cluxton, saying Michael Fitzsimmons was unlikely to return, with James McCarthy already gone since before Christmas.

Donegal’s veteran - Michael Murphy - decided to return over the winter and although not in the playing panel - as goalkeeper, full-forward or anything else - to begin with on Saturday, the move brought excitement over the winter into what might lie ahead.

One man who certainly has plenty to look forward to is Finnbarr Roarty, with the Naomh Conaill teen down to make his first league start.

Michael Langan had the honour of leading the team through the tunnel, skippering the side on the night his late uncle Don was remembered with a minute’s silence before throw-in.

A lot of the murmurs before the game started concerned the new role of the goalkeeper, with Ethan Rafferty having been reinstated for Armagh and scoring five points in a more-emphatic-than-it-looked-on-the-scoreboard 1-23 to 0-18 win over Tyrone at the Athletic Grounds. With it, last year’s All-Ireland winning goalkeeper Blaine Hughes was relegated to onlooker.

More than any position in any sport in recent times, the goalkeeper in Gaelic football has had to revolutionise. Surely GAA teams were ‘pushing up on the kick-outs’ before opponents started trying to do it to Manchester City?

For those old enough to remember, it was a throwback to when the back-pass rule - not back-pass core enhancement please note - was cemented into football back in 1992.

Part of the reason for that change was because Fifa had retrospectively put the stopwatch on Packie Bonner - a proud son of Donegal- at the Stadio La Favorita in Palermo, Sicily at the 1990 World Cup. They discovered the ball was in his hands for a combined total of six minutes when Ireland and Egypt served up one of the least memorable games in World Cup history, a scoreless Group draw from which the highlight was Eamon Dunphy flung a pen in disgust across the RTÉ studio and lamented “Rubbish … Bill” well into the evening.

That day, Sunday, June 17, over at St Tiernach’s Park in Clones, a youngster from Glenties called Jim McGuinness was picking up the man-of-the-match from Sean O'Loughlin of Donegal Parian China, even though his team lost the Ulster Minor Football Championship semi-final 3-6 to 2-6 against Derry.

Four nights later, not at St Tiernach’s Park, Ireland and Holland, as they were known then, played out a 1-1 draw to ensure the progression of both, with Bonner and his opposite number Hans Van Breukelen possessing the ball for spells so long, the money-men missed a trick as they could’ve horsed in a commercial break or two as the clock ticked down.

When Bonner was learning his trade as the Atlantic bounced in nearby at Keadue Rovers, being proficient with his feet was not high on the list of priorities. However, the rule change - no more core enhancement mentions now, I promise - brought difficulties for his generation and a new type of custodian developed, with those of the more recent era needing to be more useful with the ball at their feet as some of those in front of them.

Shaun Patton, Donegal’s No 1, has shown he’s a quick learner having made the transition from football to Gaelic football under Declan Bonner and at St Eunan’s since 2018, and alongside McGuinness, there’s bound to be frequent conversations as to how to maximise that.

Twenty-four hours before the Dublin game, the Donegal GAA socials were showing off the new goalkeeper’s jersey, light blue, which caused a bit of consternation under the lights in Ballybofey with its similarity to the visitors’ jerseys. So much so, that Patton played with a fluorescent yellow bib in the second half.

By half-time, Donegal were in a decent position but felt their cushion should’ve been softer. Quick build-up and pop-passes here and there had created a lead of five points, 0-11 to 0-6, with the excellence of Daire Ó Baoill’s kicking - he scored six first-half points, two two-pointers and a couple in the old currency - the differential.

Donegal certainly has a raft of players capable of kicking two-pointers, which is a facet of their game that will surely flourish in the coming weeks, but a spate of wides in the opening 35 minutes, including five in succession - one of which from Ó Baoill was pulled back for no advantage - meant there were a few creases to iron.

Dublin would be hamstrung by the forced withdrawal of David Byrne, Colm Basquel and James Madden and both Farrell and McGuinness made stressful references to the need for more substitutes afterwards, because of the higher intensity of the actual game, as well as the increased frequency of games in a condensing calendar.

How this developed into a debate by the start of the week is even absurd. The Donegal manager had flagged the substitutes issue one night in Convoy before the league started and player welfare should be the single most important commodity in an amateur sport.

As the half-time whistle, sorry hooter, sounded, Dublin, who fielded a young, rather inexperienced starting team, had reasons to be encouraged, backed well by a healthy visiting support among the 12,560 crowd at the Town End. ‘Hill 16 on Tour’ as the flags used to say.

For those old enough - again - or adept at using the TG4 player, there was a momentary thought of the 1983 All-Ireland semi-final, where Cork GAA secretary Frank Murphy dug the heels in and refused to play the second time at Croke Park, following an initial 2-11 draw, so managed to get the replay at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Dublin took huge support, filled the Blackrock End of the ground, renamed it ‘Hill 17’ with the accompanying banners for the day and won by 11 points, 4-15 to 2-10, before beating Galway’s 12 Apolostoles in the final back on more familiar turf.

Enough of the history lessons. Donegal, with the Three Apostles at the back, now confined to their own half, were led by Brendan McCole. The St Naul’s defender made a brilliant block from Eoghan O’Donnell and the screams of approval from the home crowd that followed it as Shane O’Donnell gathered possession for the turnover were throwback to 2012. [Edit: Drop the history lessons. Please!]

The second half eventually got underway, with Des Cahill of RTÉ tweeting he’d grown a beard during the interval it went on that long. Sign him up for Movember folks, he’s aiming for sub-four hours this year.

Niall Scully and Basquel, then Greg McEneaney, got Dublin motoring and by the time Ciaran Kilkenny kicked their first two-pointer on 46 minutes, they were just the one down, at 0-12 to 0-13. Dublin had drawn in each of their last two visits to MacCumhaill Park - in 2013 and 2017 - and a few might’ve checked the live bets on another contest ending all square.

Donegal’s reaction to this, to stay ahead at all times, was what won the match, with Oisin Gallen and Patrick McBrearty’s scores seeing them home, 0-20 to 0-16. And plenty would have thought of how Murphy might impact this type of scenario.

This year’s Division 1 has the genuine look of a competition that has the eight very best teams in the country in it, with the final being something of a poisoned chalice, due to its proximity to the championship. Perhaps, going ahead, just give the table-toppers the trophy and be done with it.

The showpiece this year is a week before Derry visit Ballybofey. There’s nothing new to claim that the Ulster SFC is the most competitive of the provincial championships, seeing that’s long been the case.

But with no real frontrunner when it comes to picking an All-Ireland favourite, this year’s Ulster already has the appearance of being the most manic yet, with at least four teams possessing realistic aims of winning Sam Maguire, swinging elbows as they jostle for position in the peloton.

McGuinness, in early February, won’t be thinking too much yet about Sam or anything like that. It’s no secret the Donegal management and panel at this time of year have two punctuation points marked on the calendar - the April 6 showdown with Derry takes priority, with the shorter-term focus on the next league game, which is away to Kerry on Saturday.

The Kingdom left Derry with a smash-and-grab, calculators needed 5-15 to 1-24 victory at Celtic Park on Sunday, having trailed by five points with four minutes to go, only to pinch the two points with two goals in 23 seconds from Donal O'Sullivan and Paul Geaney.

And a bit like the Donegal supporters who tried in vain to get their hotel refunds after the initial Kerry postponement, McGuinness won’t be expecting much loose change come Saturday in Killarney as Donegal aim to make it two from two.