EAMON MCGEE says Gaoth Dobhair must take heed from Donegal’s run to the 2014 All-Ireland final as they look to retain Dr Maguire.
After a 3-8 to 0-12 win over Kilcar in Sunday’s semi-final, Gaoth Dobhair – the defending Donegal and Ulster kingpins – head for Sunday-week’s county final with the scent of glory in their nostrils again.
For the first time in this year’s championship, Gaoth Dobhair had the real look of champions again.
“That was the first time we walked into the dressing room and when we started to tog out, the buzz was there,” McGee(pictured by Evan Logan)says.
“Maybe that’s what it was. There wasn’t as much…we took our eye off the ball against Bundoran. Once we refocused we beat Bundoran. Maybe that was needed. We needed a Kilcar, St Eunan’s or a Naomh Conaill to take us up the level.”
Gaoth Dobhair emerged from the ‘group of death’ – a draw that handed them heavyweight clashes with St Eunan’s and St Michael’s – before almost blowing it last weekend. An eight-point lead was surrendered as Bundoran forced extra time before Gaoth Dobhair, finally, got over the line.
While manager Mervyn O’Donnell has suggested that his squad had been ‘disrespected’ in some analysis, McGee takes a different view.
“I know the craic and you can only view and make an analysis what’s in front to you,” the former Donegal player says.
“The plan was nearly to forget about the League and move up through the gears in the Championship. It didn’t go smoothly enough for us. We struggled. We came out of the group, but we struggled against Bundoran.
“It wasn’t as if you had an agenda against us. You can only analyse what’s in front of you and we just have to accept that.”
McGee played in the famous All-Ireland semi-final of 2014 when Donegal shocked Dublin.
A few weeks later, however, Donegal were pipped to Sam Maguire by Kerry in the final. Having beaten Kilcar, who were tipped by many to win the Donegal championship this year, McGee says that campaign should serve as a warning for Gaoth Dobhair.
“We have to learn from Donegal in 2014,” he says.
“They did the big one in beating Dublin in the semi-final. We don’t want to fall flat in the final; Glenties have been in the last two finals.
“The law of averages states that they’re bound to win one and it doesn’t want to be us. We need to keep our eye on the ball now.
“The Glenties age profile is a bit like ourselves. There are one or two coming to the end of the road and they don’t want to clock out with three losing finals.”
Eamonn Collum, Daire Ó Baoill and Kevin Cassidy bagged the goals on Sunday. Ó Baoill netted with only 31 seconds played in the second half with Collum having given Gaoth Dobhair the first-half advantage. Cassidy stuck the knife in with the third, six minutes from the end.
McGee says: “In fairness, it was a five-point victory, but we were fairly wasteful and we have to take that into account. We were fairly comfortable and that’s reflective of the work.
“We knew we had the homework done and if we ticked all the boxes it would fall into place. We ticked most of the boxes.
“We gave up a lot of possession. That’s one place we felt we let ourselves down. We gave up a lot of possession. I was the worst offender and while we let them back into it, it was a pretty comfortable five points.”
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