GAELIC footballers have long memories. In 2004 reigning All-Ireland champions Tyrone were beaten by Donegal and the defeat stung so much the Red Hands were determined to avenge it next time out.
They waited three years before their chance came and they hammered the Tir Chonaill side by 11 points in an Ulster semi-final and went on to win the Anglo-Celt Cup. Kevin ‘Hub’ Hughes scored a point that day.
“We went out all guns blazing because we wanted to make a point,” he said.
“Thankfully it went well.”
Tyrone had goals from Raymie Mulgrew and Colm Cavanagh to go along with five points from Brian Dooher which sealed a 2-15 to 1-7 success.
The Red Hands were in their pomp then. They were a tight-knit unit crammed with stars driving each other on but things can change quickly and when the counties met again four years later in 2011 the footballing landscape had been transformed.
Wily Jim McGuinness had taken over as Donegal manager and sacrificed attacking flair for a meticulous defensive-minded system that focussed on “minding the house” and limiting space in the scoring zone. Donegal won 2-6 to 0-9.
“That was Jim’s first year and we probably weren’t ready for it,” Hughes admits.
“When you look back now they were soaking up the pressure that we were putting on them and we weren’t getting the scores on the board to reflect the amount of possession that we had.
“It maybe tired us out a bit and they were sitting back and blocking us out – we weren’t getting balls into our inside men and they were taking shots on from far out.
“Once they tagged on a few points then with their fitness levels, that probably were at their first stages, that pushed on in the second half and got a couple of good goals at the right time towards the end.”
Donegal’s tactics took the strategy Tyrone had enjoyed huge success with to another level. If a team scored 20 against them, the Red Hands went out to score 21, but Donegal seemed happy to win 5-4.
“Ulster was always tight, high intensity and a lot of workrate and Jim’s style was a progression,” said Hughes.
“The way Armagh and ourselves would have played would have been tackle in numbers and then once you got possession it was all-out attack in numbers as well.
“In 2011 Jim was probably saying to them ‘right, we have to mind the house here first and foremost’. That’s what they did and that’s why they took a lot of stick in 2011 – it was the first phase of Jim’s five-year plan.
“There was a lot more intensity with their tackling and they way they bunched out the opposition’s forwards. With their fitness levels and physicality it probably was the start of the new era that we’re watching now.”
In terms of footballing talent there wasn’t much between the sides in 2011. Donegal’s system gave them the edge but Hughes says there was, and is, enormous talent in the Tir Chonaill team.
“The talent was there and what Jim was trying to install in them was a bit of belief,” he said.
“Donegal always had talent and it was probably discipline, determination and belief that lacking. He was trying to instil that in them and the best way to do that is to minimise the threat of the opposition.”
