From humiliation in Killarney to Sam's for the Hills

By half-time, Donegal were five down and, beyond the O’Sullivan Stand, even MacGillycuddy's Reeks seemed to be taunting them.

It was March 2012 and Donegal were on their way to losing a third Division 1 game out of four: Laois had even won in Letterkenny.

Little, then, to suggest that, a mere six months later, Donegal would be standing at the top of their own mountain, Sam Maguire in hand.

On their way to All-Ireland glory, Donegal beat Kerry 1-12 to 1-10 on the August Bank Holiday weekend.

The same fifteen players started that game as began the double-scores hammering (2-16 to 1-8) in Killarney.

“By the time the Championship came around, we had gone to the well a lot more,” Eamon McGee says.

“Basically what changed was the block of training that we had done. We were more developed and we had won Ulster before playing Kerry. Jim (McGuinness) instilled a belief in us. He took us to that dark spot we had to go to.”

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There was something of a mystery about Donegal that spring.

The remnants of their 2011 All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Dublin were still in the air. McGuinness’s ‘system’ was the talk of the town in Killarney. Kevin Cassidy, an All-Star on the flip side of the winter, was cut from the panel and remained central to most conversations.

Donegal had been close but not close enough against Dublin. They were onto something, though. Few observers would’ve believed that on a March Sunday in Killarney as Bryan Sheehan popped 1-7 to send Donegal packing.

Last year, McGuinness described the defeat as ‘humiliation’.

Jack O’Connor, as he is now, back for a third stint, was the Kerry manager and McGee remembers the Dromid man as having ‘put a lot of stock into that match’.

Eamon McGee and Kieran Donaghy contest a ball during the 2012 All-Ireland quarter-final.

“He spoke about it afterwards and actually put a lot of emphasis on it,” McGee said.

“In a lot of ways, McGuinness didn’t give one hoot about the League. That was very evident from that time. I do believe he didn’t care about relegation because it was all about peaking for the summer. You can argue that you needed to keep the Division 1 status - and that would be my take, that you can’t discount - but Jim was just all about going towards the summer. It was all about the process.

“I think you need to be operating in Division 1, with the Kerrys, Mayos, Dublins - they’ve all been about Division 1 for so long - to be in contention.

“The whole process we over our heads a bit at the time, I think - especially after a hammering. We all have egos and we’re all proud men so that would have affected the pride. For Jim, it was looking at a performance and just asking: ‘Are these boys on an upward curve?’ For us, we’d have been pissed off, definitely.

“If anyone came off a field after a defeat like that and was saying we attacked or defended well . . .

“We lost against Dublin that year, we were comfortably beaten. Jim was delighted because he could see something happening. A lot of coaches think only about the small picture, but the good ones see the big picture in front of them.

“McGuinness was driving into us all that year that we’d be Ulster champions and be going for the All-Ireland. It didn’t matter about the League. It was all about the Tuesday night and going to the well again. The group totally bought into that”

McGee was sent off that afternoon in Killarney after getting a second yellow card. He recalls a conversation with the referee: ‘We’ll not be seeing you later on in the summer.’

‘The way youse are going, we’ll not be seeing youse either.’

“We were talking about this recently,” McGee says. “Thankfully he was proved wrong and we got a nice long summer out of it.”

Eamon McGee with the Sam Maguire after the All-Ireland final in 2012

McGee missed the 2012 Ulster final win over Down.

His replacement, Declan Walsh, posted two points in Clones and had a fine afternoon standing in. McGee was fearful of his position.

McGuinness and his assistant, Rory Gallagher, clocked up mileage for the last weekend of the All-Ireland qualifiers: Dr Hyde Park to see Kildare beat Sligo; Cusack Park for Down’s win over Tipperary; and Tullamore to witness Laois edge Meath.

They hadn’t gone to the Gaelic Grounds to see Kerry hammer Clare 2-22 to 1-6.

The All-Ireland quarter-final draw pipped Donegal against Kerry.

“The only draw that would’ve got me back in the team,” McGee recalls. “I was the only one to match up with Kieran Donaghy. I was delighted with the draw. Declan had taken his chance, he played a brilliant Ulster final.”

Privately, McGuinness was happy with the draw.

In his memoir, Until Victory Always, he wrote: ‘This is the match we want, boys. This is exactly the team we want. This is our chance to knock out a big county and move on.’

McGuinness spoke about the need to ’strip down the myth’ of Kerry.

At Croke Park, in the first ever SFC meeting of the counties, Donegal nails were bitten to the quick as Kerry inched their way ominously back into contention.

There was something different about Donegal that day.

In Jimmy’s Winning Matches, the 2012 documentary shown on RTÉ, Jack O’Connor recalled the difference in the teams.

“Donegal had our measure. The intensity of their tackling wore a few fellas out.”

It was the same team they had faced in March.

In fact, it was a totally different one.

“We went to play Kerry with a new offensive weapon,” McGee says. “It was a big test, but it worked out.

“All year, we had done simple drills, but effective drills, working on what we do when we get a turnover. We worked on our kicking game. A lot of the stuff was simple and repetitive. McGuinness had a great grasp that you didn’t have to complicate the shit out of things. It was get the turnover and basically sprint as hard as you can. It wasn’t rocket science - but it worked.

“We were fairly comfortable against Kerry, until Donaghy got a goal that was maybe my fault. He palmed it in.

“We were never going to win an All-Ireland with how we played in 2011. People look at the Cork game (the All-Ireland semi-final), but the Kerry game was a defining moment for the group. That was our big chance. Against Kerry.

“March wasn’t in our airspace that day at all. We knew ourselves that we were in a different place, mentally and physically. Maybe Kerry were still thinking about March.”

It wasn’t plain sailing, though.

Donegal were in front thanks to Colm McFadden’s fortuitous goal in the sixth minute and there were wobbles.

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Kerry’s Patrick Curtin missed a chance to level it up and McGuinness mind seethed and worried all at once.

He recalled: ‘How is this happening? Are we going to fucking lose tis game? In disbelief at Donaghy’s goal because this is the first goal we have let in all summer. In their minds, we don’t concede goals’.

Enter Karl Lacey.

A couple of months later, the Four Masters man would be crowned the Footballer of the Year. It was Lacey’s late point that sealed the deal for Donegal.

“He took a chance,” McGuinness remembered.

“He had a bit of courage in a moment it was badly needed. It was a moment that signified the difference in us from the previous year.”

“Instead of closing the game out and keep the foot on the throat, we let Kerry back in,” is how McGee reflects, ten years on.

“There was an element of ‘we’re going to actually do this’ and we pulled the handbrake. We were relatively inexperienced in big games like that. It was a great buzz and a great feeling when we won it.

“We were back to earth on the Tuesday night again. If you weren’t back to earth, you’d be pulled into line. We had to have the A game every night.”

Defeat didn’t sit well with Kerry.

It never does.

As McGee and his team made their way off the pitch with their county and its people beginning to dream - really dream - Kerry let their feelings be known.

“They’d see themselves as being above Donegal,” McGee says. “For Donegal to beat them at Croke Park, they were hurt. Some of them were even saying walking off: ‘Youse are going to het hammered’. They were disappointed and hurt, nothing more than that.”

Ten years on, McGee still sees something to stir in the Donegal squad.

“I have no bother saying that Donegal are capable,’ the Gaoth Dobhair man says. We have the quality. We just have to have the belief that Kerry do. They believe that they’ll win the All-Ireland. Every year. They believe that and they seem as if they’re nearly entitled to it.

“We need to be in the conversation all the time. It has to be the target and Donegal have the quality.”