THE LAST LINE
WAS speaking to a Donegal supporter the week after they played Armagh and we were discussing their chances of coming up with a plan to beat the Dubs.
He told me that he watched Donegal training the night before and they only trained on half the pitch.
This was, of course, a tongue-in-cheek reference about how the Tir Chonaill were going to set up their team against Dublin.
Even though there may be a semblance of truth to it, just getting men behind the ball won't be enough to stop Jim Gavin's men.
Jim McGuinness has been probably one of the most astute managers in recent years in the way he sets up his team and the pattern that they play, but you get the impression that he is almost going to have to pull a rabbit out of the hat to thwart what looks like the All-Ireland champions in-waiting.
Many people have intimated that it is only a team like Donegal, who set themselves up defensively and hit you on the break, who can cause Dublin problems.
However, a performance similar to that witnessed against Armagh will effectively spell the end of Donegal's season.
It is one thing to contain Dublin, but they must also score enough to win their place in the final. Whilst I can see them frustrating and disrupting the fluency in Dublin's play, I would assume they would have to score at least 16 points to have a chance of victory - and this could be where they struggle as their main score-getter, Colm McFadden, has been quiet of late.
Michael Murphy dragged Donegal over the line against Armagh with some inspirational play, but as a forward unit they will have to up their game considerably to lay down a potential challenge against a Dublin team that has averaged around 29 points in their four Championship matches to date. So far Laois are the only team that has posted a decent tally against Dublin - 16 points.
Three years ago these two teams met in the most talked about match for decades - mostly for all the wrong reasons, with the scoreline finishing 0-8 to 0-6 to the men from the capital.
Dublin, believe it or not, only managed two points from play in this much-debated match, with many pundits hailing this style of play as the potential 'death of football'.
The chances of the Donegal defence keeping this rampant Dublin forward division to eight points on Sunday are virtually nil as they have been blowing all opposing defences to smithereens, regardless of how they are set up.
Much has been made in the last few weeks about the resources and finances available to the Dublin cause and how it is not a level playing field, but I don't necessarily buy into this conspiracy theory.
All the money and resources in the world would never turn me into, say, a 'Gooch' or a Bernard Brogan as these players honed their considerable talents from a very young age with their clubs and then into their county career. Dublin, quite simply, have a team that oozes skill and class from their goalkeeper out and the fact
they have a substitutes bench full of players who could grace most opposing county teams is the reason they are favourites to win not only the match on Sunday, will have met this year, and the fact that Dublin have yet to play in a match where questions have been asked of them may prove to be the ace in Jim McGuinness's hand.
Donegal need to start well and not afford Dublin the space they have been exploiting in their first four matches of this campaign.
Apart from the Ulster semi-final against Antrim, Donegal have been involved in three good battles, against Derry, Monaghan, and Armagh, which shows they have the stomach for hard work and the character needed to come out on the right end of tight encounters.
Donegal will ask more questions of Dublin than any other team has this year and I expect them to still be in the game after 40 or 50 minutes.
However, Bernard Brogan, Michael Darragh Macauley and Diarmaid Connolly have far too much firepower for the Dubs to bow out at the semi-final stage.
Unlike most, I am really looking forward to this game and am intrigued as to how Donegal will play and, even though I will be cheering on the Ulstermen, it looks like Dublin with four or five points to spare.
WAS never as happy to see a game go to a replay as I was on Sunday afternoon because, if we are to be treated to anything like the excitement and entertainment that we witnessed in the second half of the Mayo-Kerry match, then bring it on.
There is a man who lives beside me and he coined the phrase that he was only ever wrong once and he found out six months later that he was in fact right.
Even though in my footballing predictions I seldom get it right, last week I pointed out that that Kieran Donaghy (pictured) could well determine the outcome even in his role as a substitute - and, boy, did he deliver.
Donaghy's impact was incredible and he is the main reason we are being treated to a replay, which should definitely be in Croke Park and not the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. It is laughable that an All-Ireland semi-final will not be in Croke Park.
Mayo manager James Horan was right to point out that his team showed immense character in overcoming a five-point deficit with only 14 men, but on the flipside - and something he won't publicise - is how they blew a five-point lead with only minutes remaining and could so easily have been beaten.
But to dwell on the negatives of this match would do it a great injustice as both teams deserve credit for serving up a second half of football which was absolutely enthralling and a brilliant advertisement for our great game.