Training camp leaves Donegal in good stead

BY RYAN FERRY

DONEGAL senior football manager Jim McGuinness says their recent training camp in Portugal has left the team in good stead ahead of the Ulster Championship.

McGuinness’s charges have enjoyed a super season so far after winning both the Dr McKenna Cup and the National Football League.

Now it’s time for the next phase of the season and Donegal, like a host of other counties, jetted off to sunnier climes to help get ready.

Sunday’s opponents Down went away for a warm-weather training camp during the league and the Mourne county are plotting an upset this week.

Donegal have designs on a good Ulster campaign, and a strong training camp should aid their ambitions.

“It’s absolutely huge. Time together is the main one,” said McGuinness at Donegal GAA’s Breakfast fundraiser at the Clanree Hotel.

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“We have a massive game coming and if we’re lucky enough to win that game there’s a week turnaround so the intensity of the season once it starts is off the charts compared with what it was.

“When I look back at the first time I took the job, we had just so much latitude.

“You could take them down for three or four days and get your head around the opposition and then you might have three weeks.

“Back then it was Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday – Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and by the time you got to that third weekend, if you didn’t have it nailed down there was something wrong.

“It’s a completely different animal now with the intensity of the games and what that asks of them. Physically they can’t really train until the Thursday.

“So if you have a one-week turnaround, you’re talking about one training session.

“And you can’t talk about the other team until you’re playing them and you have the first hurdle covered so it’s packing a lot into a real short period of time.

“That was the same last year and that’s what every county in Ireland is facing at the minute.

“So the opportunity to get away and spend time together and talk through things, and train every day and go the gym, the video analysis sessions, the team meetings, the one-to-ones, it’s maybe a month’s work in a week.

“And people are relaxed, they know they are there and they aren’t going anywhere else and they are in the same environment so you can get down to the weeds and into the areas that you’re struggling to because people are coming and going during a normal week at training.”

McGuinness spoke before last year’s All-Ireland Final about how Kerry have the mindset that they should be competing for the Sam Maguire Cup every season.

Donegal have only reached the prestigious showcase four times in their history so there certainly isn’t a similar sense of entitlement.

That said, McGuinness’s men are second favourites to land the top prize this year, and if the breakfast fundraiser is an accurate gauge, support remains high for the county team.

There’s nothing wrong with ambition but Donegal are not in a position to gloss over the provincial championships like other teams and an Ulster medal remains a cherished prize.

“It’s the difference between a dream and a fantasy, isn’t it?

“When you’re dreaming about something, you’re putting everything into it and you want to move forward.

“My own belief is that the National League was fantastic but there are two more competitions now and the Ulster Championship is really, really important.

“The conversations that we are having with the players at the moment is about the two competitions and one entails three games for us this year and to take that on its sole merit and break that down into three individual performances and please God we will put that to bed and then it’s the last piece of the jigsaw then.

“That sort of breaks the season down into manageable parts and that’s where our focus is.

“We’re not talking about the All-Ireland at this stage of the game, we’re talking about Down and trying to get ready for it, and Down is part of that second last piece if you like.”

Underdogs

Down are underdogs but that tag has suited them well over the last year and the bainisteoir certainly isn’t taking them for granted.

“They had a brilliant campaign last year and pushed massive teams to the pin of their collars. Galway were in that mix as well.

“We know what we are going to get from them.

“We played them last year as well and we had a tough battle.

“They are a strong running team and they have a goalkeeper there that’s really quick out with the ball, really accurate and asks a lot of questions of you and he did the same last year.

“For me, they have a young lad in the middle of the park who is in the top two or three in the country in Odhran Murdock.

“He is an exceptional football player. He can do everything. He’s two footed and has quality oozing out of him.

“They have a lot of pace up front and Pat Havern up front so they are bringing a lot to the table.

“They are probably going to look at it as a free hit in terms of their ambitions.

“It’s a massive opportunity to come down the road and really get stuck into us and I presume that’s what they are going to do.

“The one thing that my own playing career taught me is that the Ulster Championship is about one day.

“If you’re lucky enough to navigate that then it’s about the next day.

“That’s been my mantra the whole way through my managerial career and that’s what we’re focused on and trying to bring our best level of performance to that game and if that’s enough and please God it is, then we will start thinking about other things.”