WITH DUBLIN INSTALLED as even money favourites to retain their All-Ireland Senior Football Championship crown before a ball was kicked in anger this year, a recent winner of the Sam Maguire thinks one of the reasons they will retain the trophy is that the capital have it easier than most.
Geography, population and money are all in Dublin’s favour according to Donegal boss Jim McGuinness, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for everyone else to catch up.
It just makes it that much harder.
“I don’t think it’s as difficult [for Dublin] to be honest,” said McGuinness.
“One of the big problems for us is the geographics; we have so many players travelling.
“If we could get over Derry - if I could project three weeks into the future and we had won that match – then we would be in a really good position because we’d have everybody home from college.
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“This year we’ve people in Belfast, Dublin, Galway and Limerick driving up the road.
“They’re arriving fatigued and, because they’re working, we’re training later, so we start at eight o’clock and it’s 10 o’clock before they’re getting a bite to eat. And then they’re getting into a car and going to Dublin.
“So that’s one or two o’clock in the morning. That’s a massive, massive commitment.
“Dublin don’t have that problem.”
Jim McGuinness congratulates Alan Brogan after the 2011 All-Ireland semi-final. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
According to the 2012 All-Ireland winning manager, other advantages Jim Gavin’s men have over the chasing pack is the financial backing Dublin receive – with McGuinness pointing to the difference between both teams’ facilities – and their population base.
“We’ve to fork out €1.75 million on a centre of excellence and Dublin get one handed to them – which is handy – and which is worth €20 million.
“And they’ve a huge pool of players, whereas last year we get hit with injuries and we really didn’t have the squad to take the hits.
“Looking at the U21s and the minors that Dublin have won over the last period, plus the All-Ireland senior, and the competition [for places] is ferocious.
“I was reading Bernard Brogan’s comments about the A versus B teams. He was talking about how the Dublin B team would beat most county teams, and it’s hard to disagree with that.”
However, that’s not to say McGuinness thinks it’s impossible to compete with Dublin. Instead, teams just need to adopt a different mindset, something Donegal have tried this year.
“We took a different approach in terms of our preparation. Traditionally, we’d like to do things at a certain pace at a certain time of the year. This year we’ve kind of changed things around and steadied the ship a lot more.
“Through steady training instead of intensive training we’ve tried to bring – just for example Eamonn McGee, Karl, Neil Gallagher, Christy Toye, Paddy McGrath and David Walsh – they’re all long-term injured from last year.
“We could have went hard at it and maybe broke them down and maybe not had them for the championship, but now we nearly have them all for championship and we’re just starting to turn up the heat in our training.
“So that’s a different approach for us this year on the back of what happened last year.”
'We’ve to fork out €1.75m on a centre of excellence and Dublin get one handed to them'
WITH DUBLIN INSTALLED as even money favourites to retain their All-Ireland Senior Football Championship crown before a ball was kicked in anger this year, a recent winner of the Sam Maguire thinks one of the reasons they will retain the trophy is that the capital have it easier than most.
Geography, population and money are all in Dublin’s favour according to Donegal boss Jim McGuinness, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for everyone else to catch up.
It just makes it that much harder.
“I don’t think it’s as difficult [for Dublin] to be honest,” said McGuinness.
“One of the big problems for us is the geographics; we have so many players travelling.
“If we could get over Derry - if I could project three weeks into the future and we had won that match – then we would be in a really good position because we’d have everybody home from college.
“This year we’ve people in Belfast, Dublin, Galway and Limerick driving up the road.
“They’re arriving fatigued and, because they’re working, we’re training later, so we start at eight o’clock and it’s 10 o’clock before they’re getting a bite to eat. And then they’re getting into a car and going to Dublin.
“So that’s one or two o’clock in the morning. That’s a massive, massive commitment.
According to the 2012 All-Ireland winning manager, other advantages Jim Gavin’s men have over the chasing pack is the financial backing Dublin receive – with McGuinness pointing to the difference between both teams’ facilities – and their population base.
“We’ve to fork out €1.75 million on a centre of excellence and Dublin get one handed to them – which is handy – and which is worth €20 million.
“And they’ve a huge pool of players, whereas last year we get hit with injuries and we really didn’t have the squad to take the hits.
“Looking at the U21s and the minors that Dublin have won over the last period, plus the All-Ireland senior, and the competition [for places] is ferocious.
“I was reading Bernard Brogan’s comments about the A versus B teams. He was talking about how the Dublin B team would beat most county teams, and it’s hard to disagree with that.”
However, that’s not to say McGuinness thinks it’s impossible to compete with Dublin. Instead, teams just need to adopt a different mindset, something Donegal have tried this year.
“We took a different approach in terms of our preparation. Traditionally, we’d like to do things at a certain pace at a certain time of the year. This year we’ve kind of changed things around and steadied the ship a lot more.
“Through steady training instead of intensive training we’ve tried to bring – just for example Eamonn McGee, Karl, Neil Gallagher, Christy Toye, Paddy McGrath and David Walsh – they’re all long-term injured from last year.
“We could have went hard at it and maybe broke them down and maybe not had them for the championship, but now we nearly have them all for championship and we’re just starting to turn up the heat in our training.
“So that’s a different approach for us this year on the back of what happened last year.”
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