WAS IT EVER more obvious who Jim McGuinness’s coaching touchstones were when he first came onto the scene after eventually landing the Donegal job?

The studied, calm manner on the line. The hawkish eyes, taking on and in as much information as possible. The occasional waspish observation to an official nearby if a decision displeased him.

It was there from the start, an adaptation of the ways and moods of Mickey Harte. He disliked Tyrone. He was insanely jealous of a lot of what they stood for. But he coveted it.

For himself. For Donegal.

It’s nothing he shies away from. In his autobiography, Until Victory Always, McGuinness told a story of playing an underage game for his county. At any age grade, a Donegal team could end up being a bit of a gather-up. They would look on at their Tyrone counterparts with a mixture of awe and envy as they would arrive in pristine jerseys, togs and socks. They looked the business and played with an abrasive edge.

In one vivid scene, he talks of being marked by one player in Castlederg, when the Tyrone player, literally, walked all over him, his boot stamping down on McGuinness’s face before laughing when the referee didn’t act upon it.

That image was something he shared with his players when he took over the Donegal seniors.

From the very start, there was barely a training session would go by that he wouldn’t blow the whistle at some point and make some point about “what Tyrone do…”

In the winter of 2010, he started dripping that message into his players as they flattened the sand dunes on Donegal beaches during preseason. The draw already having been made, he was counting on meeting Tyrone in the semi-final of the 2011 Ulster championship.

But before that, he had a first meeting with Harte. It couldn’t have been any more poignant, Harte losing his daughter Michaela, murdered not even a fortnight before. The Dr McKenna Cup game was moved to Edendork, the cameras captured McGuinness extending his condolences to Harte before the game.

Tyrone won, 1-13 to 0-13, but McGuinness used the game wisely. He went man-for-man, keeping his defensive hedgehog style under wraps. A Mark Donnelly goal put Tyrone 1-6 to 0-2 ahead, but from that point, Donegal hit eight unanswered points to lead by one at the break.

McGuinness had snagged enough meat off the bone to keep him chewing over things.
By the time the two met in that year’s Ulster semi-final, he spent time thinking about all the usual pitfalls Donegal were inclined to fall into with Tyrone.

Top of the list was the 2007 Ulster semi-final, also in Clones. Donegal had come in fancied, a National League title bagged and having floored Armagh with a late haymaker goal in the previous round.

Tyrone played a different game though, with a wispy talent called Raymond Mulgrew showing what might have been from centre-forward as they decimated Donegal.

Late on, Brian Dooher was wrestling the ball out of the clasp of McGuinness’s brother-in-law, Colm McFadden. Frustration got the better of the Donegal attacker and he caught Dooher flush on the jaw with a stinging right straight. Red card.

So the 2011 team adopted a mantra. “Not today” was born. If a Tyrone player spoke to them on the field, they responded every time with one thing, and one thing only: “Not Today.”

When Ryan McMenamin called over at his off-pitch friend Kevin Cassidy, he received only one message back. “Not today, Ryan.”

Tyrone might have flown into a 0-6 to 0-2 lead, but soon afterwards their long-range potting suffered the yips. Donegal drew them into the spider’s web and Tyrone’s confidence eked away.

The dam bust when Martin Swift caught a high and loose delivery in. Unwisely, he tried to shimmy past Michael Murphy, who horsed the ball out of his grasp. It fell to Dermot Molloy to blast past Packie McConnell at the opportune time.

Donegal had done it. Tyrone were in a spin.

And on it went from there. Was it a true rivalry, Harte and McGuinness? Or was it a rivalry like Dublin and Mayo, where the main results only went one way?

On to 2012. They had no league meeting. When they met in Clones for the semi-final, it was the proverbial game so tight, you couldn’t manage to turn a sweet in your mouth.

At the very end, Martin Penrose had a shot that Donegal goalkeeper Paul Durcan got a toe on and turned it against the post. Donegal won 0-12 to 0-10.

At that stage, Harte knew it had fallen away from him.

In his book, Devotion, he reflected: “For various reasons, the Donegal defeat in 2011 is the one that bugs me. Their rise happened on our watch and we had so many opportunities to stop it that day in Clones. 2011 tilted the balance for Donegal…

“Our team was tired yet still good enough to win that type of game. Some defeats age players very quickly. The best of a generation in Tyrone, some of the greatest ever, looked beaten. Their time had come and suddenly it was gone.”

He adds later, “The regret for me is knowing their All Ireland could have been ours,” also stitching on the detail that they never got them in Healy Park either for a championship game.

When they did get them in Healy, it was for the National League game in 2013, where Tyrone welcomed Donegal with a guard of honour. Harte had acquired Niall Morgan from Irish League side Dungannon Swifts and had him hoofing over frees from the next townland. Morgan clipped over two long-range dead balls, and saved a Michael Murphy penalty, Murphy earning a second yellow card for his follow-up challenge chasing the rebound.

Donegal lost two men to red cards, and Tyrone won 1-13 to 0-12. Appallingly, some fool in the stand spat on Karl Lacey, landing on the reigning Footballer of the Year who was nursing an injury and unable to play.

Afterwards, Harte sought out McGuinness and offered an apology for what happened to Lacey. He also, as detailed by McGuinness, made a remark to the effect that Donegal had been great champions.

“Had”, was McGuinness’ takeaway. He allowed himself to stew on that and drove his players remorselessly with it.

When they met again in the championship, the grass was exceptionally long between the two 45 metre lines in Ballybofey. Morgan went to take frees and found several Donegal players coming far closer than the permitted ten yards, all with their hands in the air, all in chatty form.

He missed a series of chances. Tyrone ran out of road. They weren’t even close in a 2-10 to 0-10 loss.

And that was as far as the rivalry went. McGuinness enjoyed a clean sweep of 3-0 in championship games, two of them in Clones, one in Ballybofey.

Now, it’s back on. The years have flown by and it will be a decade since they eyed each other on a sideline. McGuinness has had an odd time, pursuing a soccer career that showed great promise, but work dried up fast after he lasted just six months with American side Charlotte Independence.

Harte has been back to an All-Ireland final in 2018. His last two Ulster titles coincided with McGuinness’s time away. He worked wonders with Louth but his ambition couldn’t be caged and he is now the man in charge of Derry. A mad, mad world.

The preparations have long begun in Donegal. McGuinness has arranged a training camp from 2 December for a week, believed to be in Tenerife.

Harte now has a team coming into their prime, rather than one that had seen such riches and was struggling with being poor.

And the game is fixed for Celtic Park as well. They’ll sell plenty of seats to this one.

You’ll only need the very edge of them.