“WE were able to play in a zone where very few people can go, where you are physically exhausted but you keep going. Most footballers back off from that place. They say ‘naw, naw that’s me done.’ We were consistently in that zone and that’s better than any medal.

“Like, Karl Lacey had to be physically carried off after the All-Ireland quarter-final in 2011. That was our zone.

“To be way out there. That’s the true experience. That’s the real medal.

“In the Dublin semi-final in 2014, I was gassed out. I’d given an awful lot. I was out on my feet. I felt naw I don’t have nothing, I’m just gonna say right Jim that’s me. Frank McGlynn probably doesn’t remember this, but he came over and said to me, “Give us one more run.” And I got up and I went again. That there is something pure. Just your pure feeling that you hold inside you forever.

“I’m proud of all those moments I experienced because I could have given up. I was buggered. Gassed out. It was natural for us to go over to each other and say Give us one more run. Those are the great memories. That’s what I will always, always cherish.”

– Eamonn McGee, Donegal All-Ireland winner 2011.

I WATCHED Donegal training in 2011 and marvelled at the ferocity. The gruelling sprints. The tackling, like hyenas round an impala. The shooting practice where the forward was double and triple marked. Jimmy at the heart of it, seething with obsession, driving them on and on until they must have wondered why they had signed up to this world of pain.

After two hours I left and they were still bursting their lungs, Jimmy roaring them on. I thought to myself who the hell is going to beat these lunatics.

Jimmy was perhaps the first manager to appreciate that the new rules are all about scoring rate. A rigorous logician, he quickly unveiled the all-new Donegal 2025 model based on outscoring the opposition.

So, Donegal have endlessly rehearsed the most efficient ways to score. Each player keeps moving to his optimum shooting zone, cutting back door, looping round, running at right angles behind the man in possession for a reverse pass and so on. When he gets the ball, if the shot isn’t on, a team mate is already doing exactly the same. If he gets the ball and the shot still isn’t on, another team mate is presenting himself. Making it even more difficult for the defence, they constantly change direction, using their dummy and dragging defenders away from the shooter.

They have worked endlessly on keeping their heads up, scanning the scoring zone for the free man, never rushing, always timing the pass. If you don’t look you can’t see. Most difficult of all to track is that they work in threes to open the gate for the shooter, using a series of simple basketball moves that as a basketballer, I am very familiar with. The result is that the defence has an impossible task.

As the legendary basketball coach Terry Kennedy is fond of saying, “If players can get free and score in a 15 by 30 metre court, it should be easy to score in one measuring 90 by 150 metres.”

Jimmy played a bit of basketball, but given their attacking patterns, I am certain Donegal have been using the services of a top class basketball coach. The result is that they know precisely how to unlock any defence and how to create the best possible shooting opportunity. Which means they never take stupid shots (the greatest adrenaline boost for an opponent) and their scoring rate is remarkable.

Then there is the sheer speed of their players, from minute one to 70 and beyond, coupled with that memorable embrace of exhaustion Eamonn McGee spoke about.

Derry All-Star corner-forward Paddy Bradley told me after playing Donegal in 2011/2012, the defenders took it in turns to pick him up then sprint 100 metres upfield. “Again Paddy, again” they would say to him as they took off. He said he was never so exhausted in his life.

When Monaghan went in seven up at half time a fortnight ago, Donegal just kept sprinting and scoring. Eventually, Monaghan caved in under the massive physical and emotional strain.

After the hooter in the Mayo match, with the draw suiting both teams, Donegal’s corner-back Ciarán Moore, who had spent the day sprinting upfield, made one more 120-metre run, galloping away from two Mayo men to score the winner.

This is the zone that Jimmy’s teams train and play in, an uninhabitable atmosphere for most humans, but addictive for the few.

Their multi-purpose game plan means that no individual has to star. Unlike Kerry who are dependent on one forward, or Dublin, whose challenge died with Con O’Callaghan’s injury, Donegal are a collective. As Paddy McBrearty said after the Galway match when he was asked if he would win a starting place for the final, “The big job with this group is to make the match day squad of 26.”

Donegal to win. Player of the Year will have to do be David Clifford.

Part one of our All-Ireland final preview pod – Glenswilly manager and Donegal coach Gary McDaid looks ahead to the showdown