THE much-anticipated return of Michael Murphy was put on ice due to a hamstring strain. Peadar Mogan - Donegal’s Duracell bunny - spent the last 10 minutes loitering in the square, so busted was he from a serious shift on Saturday night. Dublin left Ballybofey with three big names added to their absentee list.
If the opening weekend of the National League sparked debate about what impact the new rule enhancements were having on certain areas of play, with the goalkeeper overload the weapon of choice when it came to early season soundbites, now was the turn of the physical toll taken.
As well as losing the game, Dublin lost experienced defender Davy Byrne and former Aussie Rules hopeful James Madden to hamstring injuries before the break, with Colm Basquel completing the hat-trick nine minutes into the second half.
Jim McGuinness was happy enough with how his Tir Chonaill side managed the game in their first outing of the year, after last week’s scheduled opener against Kerry was postponed due to Storm Eowyn.
A stiff Ballybofey breeze at their backs, they hared out of the traps, two superb Daire O Baoill scores - from virtually the same spot outside the 40 metre – helping them to a 0-11 to 0-6 lead into the break.
Dublin responded well at the start of the second half, Niall Scully, Basquel and Greg McEneaney landing the first three scores, before a Ciaran Kilkenny two-pointer closed the gap to one.
That, though, was as good as it got, with an Oisin Gallen-inspired Donegal kicking for home down the straight.
It was clear, though, that the Glenties man wanted to get something off his chest rather than deliver a performance post-mortem.
Because, with victory over the Dubs marking the first of five consecutive weekends of action – the rescheduled Kingdom clash takes place in Killarney on Saturday, then All-Ireland champions Armagh, Galway and Derry – he warned that “these lads are going to be stress-tested, big time”.
And one bugbear in particular was a shift from the original copy of the new rules received from the Football Review Committee which, according to the Donegal boss, included the introduction of a sixth substitute to mitigate the heavier load.
Dessie Farrell beat the same drum too after the pair stood and chatted on the top floor of the MacCumhaill’s clubhouse, with both left counting the cost.
“The game is very, very quick - that’s the bottom line,” said McGuinness.
“I feel for Dublin, they’ve lost three men tonight with hamstrings. Peadar Mogan would be one of our fittest players and he was really struggling there in the last 15 minutes… that aspect of it will definitely have to be taken into consideration when they go to review it.
“These boys are putting their life on hold, the sacrifices are huge and if the demands are just too much, then you need to have a release valve. I picked up, on the very first FRC document that came through, there was talk of six subs.
“I saw that, and I thought ‘well that makes perfect sense, because it’s going to be serious going’. We know from our any own training even, the metrics that are going up, and they’re the explosive ones - they’re the ones that challenge you most.
“So, Dublin have lost them tonight, but that could easily be us. We know from our own experience that, when you get a hamstring now, like… when I was managing last time it was a week or 10 days. It’s a completely different ball game now; it’s a month or six weeks because they’re doing so much work in the gym.
“They’re so finely tuned, they’re so strong, that the tears are more aggressive and deeper and all that. So I do think asking fellas to play at that sort of a pitch for this period of time, there definitely should be that flexibility for another sub.”
As for the specific metrics that had soared as a consequence, McGuinness was unwilling to go into further detail.
“That’s what you would call family business,” he smiled.
“There’s certain metrics that are noticeably up, and there’s a lot that aren’t. There’s a lot that are the same. So it’s trying to understand that and being clever about that, but the more explosive ones, the ones that ask the questions of the major muscles… that’s why I say it’s not idle chat, it’s not trying conjure anything.
“These lads are going to be stress-tested, big time, over the next four or five weeks from us, so we just have to be very careful about that.”
Veteran Murphy is a part of that conundrum.
He is one of several who have to be treated with kid gloves looking into the weeks ahead; after two years away from the inter-county arena, the 35-year-old cannot just be tossed into this different ball game while still readapting to its rigours.
“We’ve tried to manage the boys as best we could… some of the lads that have maybe niggles or knocks like Ryan [McHugh], Eoghan Ban [Gallagher], through pre-season, you have to be in a situation where you’re careful.
“Michael Murphy wasn’t togged tonight for that very reason – we need to make sure that it’s perfect for him because the challenges are so high.
“I can’t see a team in the country coming into the last 15 minutes and not having all their subs on either…. you can’t just hold them and saw ‘aw, I’m going to wait for a tactical sub’ - you’re going to have to be flushing them out anyway, so I do think that extra body would make a big difference.”
Farrell was in full agreement, with men lost to Sigerson Cup calls further muddying the picture for the Dublin manager as he fielded a side with a bit of an O’Byrne Cup feel, a host of huge figures either unavailable at present, or from the scene altogether.
“I saw it somewhere on a document that was sent out - that it was part of the whole package, and then that was removed it from it,” said Farrell, who admitted it was unlikely Cuala’s nine-time All-Ireland winner Mick Fitzsimons would return to the Dublin squad.
“I actually had to seek clarity on it before our first National League game [against Mayo] because, in my head, I thought six subs was part of the rule enhancements, but that seems to have got lost in the ether somewhere.
“There is something slightly awry in terms of pre-season, the new rules, the collective training date, the load you are trying to get into lads and then the games are coming hot and fast, and then you throw in the colleges on top of that.
“There definitely needs to be a rethink somewhere along the line on that.”
Donegal: S Patton; F Roarty, B McCole, P Mogan 0-1; R McHugh, E Ban Gallagher, C Moore; C McGonagle, M Langan 0-2; D O Baoill 0-6 (2tp, 0-2), H McFadden, S O’Donnell 0-2; C Thompson 0-1 (free), C O’Donnell 0-1, O Gallen 0-4 (1f). Subs: J Brennan for McFadden (51), P McBrearty 0-3 (2f) for C O’Donnell (51), E McHugh for R McHugh (61), O Doherty for S O’Donnell (61), M Curran for Gallagher (63)
Yellow card: O Doherty (68)
Dublin: G Sheridan; D Byrne, T Clancy, S MacMahon; B Howard, C Murphy, G McEneaney 0-2; J Madden, K McGinnis 0-2; K Lahiff, S Bugler 0-2, C Kilkenny 0-3 (1tp); C Basquel 0-3, E O’Donnell, B O’Leary. Subs: T Lahiff for K Lahiff (26), C Tyrell for Byrne (29), N Scully 0-1 for Madden (29), L Breathnach 0-2 for Basquel (44), S Lowry 0-1 for O’Donnell (63)
Yellow card: E O’Donnell (33)
Referee: P Neilan (Roscommon)
