McShea's Say: Donegal put in heroic showing in their loss to Meath

A comment in relation to Sunday's epic All-Ireland hurling final, which ideally summed up a wonderful occasion: “It’s the game of the Gods, the Riverdance of sport, played by Warriors and Wizards”.

Donegal, in their TG4 All-Ireland Ladies SFC semi-final, reminded me of Kilkenny in the hurling final as they had much in common with the defeated finalists.

Playing the All-Ireland champions Meath, Donegal matched them every step of the way and were only caught in the closing moments of a good battle.

In a country where it’s become increasingly common to denigrate the young and suggest that morally and socially, we are going to hell, ladies’ football is a credit to players and mentors in every county.

It seems that manager Maxi Curran’s approach to football is characterised by a kind of innocence. Other teams bang on about stats and percentages and even the necessity of gamesmanship and persistent fouling because nothing matters except the result.

Donegal always wanted to win but over the years players played with panache and style, and players were allowed to express themselves.

You never heard Curran talking in grim terms about the pressure on his team and the need to win at all costs. That simply has nothing to do with the way he views football. You could dismiss him as naïve and idealistic if he had not brought Donegal to such great heights in recent years. I do hope that Maxi Curran gives his team another year, and while there is never a guarantee of success the mood in ladies football in the county has never been more positive.

An epic hurling final
Limerick and Kilkenny was compulsive viewing, the tackling was tough, but fair and the sportsmanship was of the highest order, no brawls or handbag stuff in a match where the referee Colm Lyons was in no way fussy, and he let the play flow.

In Brian Cody Kilkenny have arguably the most successful manager in the history of hurling, who has the unique ability to calmly set about changing his plan when things are going wrong.

There is not much any manager can do at half time, but the myth is that if you win you give a great speech, and if you lose there was a row in the dressing room.

The emotional banging of the table stuff is now thankfully a thing of the past, while I do find it a bit grating to listen to some of the terminology borrowed from other sports.

Most years now the championship seems to throw up a new cliché of choice. First it was the “impact sub”, next it was that “teams were executing their game plan”. I do not believe that Gaelic football and hurling seem amenable to an integrated plan.
Many commentators now come out with the gem “their gameplan is working”. A gameplan is a very simple thing, like a decision to play a lot of long balls. I do not see the need for the blackboard - Armagh used it frequently when introducing subs to little effect - because football is too fluid a game.

The biggest game plan is common sense and thinking on your feet. That’s where leaders come in. I believe that players should always be given the licence to take the initiative. The modern game of both football and hurling see players interviewed by the media after any game of significance.

No reporter gets the okay to appear until the manager gives his word, so matters of grave importance must be transpiring in the dressing room. Only players and management will ever know what goes on in there. In the age of television, radio and much more besides, the championship dressing room is one of the few remaining unbreeched citadels.

But when the interviews do take place, they are bland in the extreme and it is not always the player’s fault. To this day I still remember a Donegal official standing on a dressing room table in Croke Park before their first ever All-Ireland football semi-final and to say that the team was getting objective advice on that occasion would be a serious understatement, but as already clarified those days are in the distant past.

In relation to next Sunday’s football final featuring Kerry and Galway my heart says Galway, but my head says Kerry .Greater fire power in attack may well define the outcome on this occasion and Kerry would look to have a much greater spread of scorers that a Galway side who are very dependent on full forward Damien Comer to deliver a big performance yet again.
Tonight, may well be a defining evening regarding the status of a Donegal senior football manager when Declan Bonner meets with the County Executive, as many fans throughout Donegal wondered why clarity took so long?