Sport

Donegal facing same questions as confronted Tyrone on youth

Has the time come for Donegal manager Rory Gallagher to introduce some new blood?
Has the time come for Donegal manager Rory Gallagher to introduce some new blood? Has the time come for Donegal manager Rory Gallagher to introduce some new blood?

THERE is only one team every year that finishes their season with a victory.

Outside of Dublin, post-mortems will have been held everywhere else over the last few months. A win tends to mean the negative aspects of a performance are ignored. On the other hand, the nature of sport means defeats are analysed to death and we tend to lose a bit of perspective.

Most of the discussion after losing tends to focus on the future of the older players within a squad. We are far too quick to write off the more seasoned players as ‘finished’. A poor display by an older player means their legs have gone or they don’t have the same desire anymore.

In contrast, the younger players just need more game time to come to terms with inter-county football. Managers face an extremely difficult task in deciding when to blood young players and when it is time to leave out the more experienced members of the squad. I experienced both sides during my career.

I was called into the Tyrone squad in 2002 and got some playing time during the league campaign before starting the semi-final and final of the NFL. When it came to the Championship opener, Art McRory and Eugene McKenna decided to go with experience and I was dropped from the starting team.

It was tough to accept their decision as I felt I had earned my place. They had taken the safe decision to pick the experienced player. Looking back now, I can understand their decision, even if I still think it was wrong.

It’s often said managers are too loyal to experienced players, but I don’t believe a manager picks a player based on loyalty. They know what the player is capable of; he has produced performances before and has shown he can cope with the pressure of Championship football. That is a more relevant point than ever now.

Managers are under huge pressure to get results and taking a long-term view might isn’t easy. They need to weigh-up the safer choice of sticking with what they know with the risky decision that has the potential for greater reward.

In my last few years playing for the county, I regularly heard and read supporters questioning my place in the team. Unless I was one of the best players on the pitch, there always seemed to be doubts raised about what I had left to offer to the side. The usual criticism was that I didn’t have the same fitness or sharpness I had when we were winning All-Irelands.

The reality was I was fitter and faster in my later years. I was training more and doing everything possible to maintain my performance levels. That criticism made up my mind not to retire in 2009 as I wanted to prove that I could play at a high level again.

The one thing the supporters don’t see is what happens on the training field. When Mickey Harte was being criticised for being too loyal to the older generation, his selection decisions were being supported by performances on the training pitch. It would take a brave manager to pick younger players who are being outplayed at training. It would send a bad message to the squad.

I felt we were All-Ireland contenders up to 2010. Mickey relied on the experienced players as he believed we were good enough to lift the Sam Maguire. After that, maybe it was time to give those younger players more opportunities to revitalise the team. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, though.

The challenge for every manager is to get the correct blend of youth and experience in their team. The increased pace of the game means the number of players aged over 30 will always be low. However, you will not see a successful team without some seasoned campaigners. They are needed to guide the younger players in the crucial moments of games and, more importantly, to influence them during training.

Younger players bring energy to a squad and the fearlessness of youth. You play without pressure and tend not to overanalyse your game. Sometimes older players can get caught up trying to live up to others expectations instead of focusing on their game.

The older generation, though, can get energised by the exuberance of youth. As long as they have the correct attitude, then that mix can be a winning one.

Sometimes, attitude is the issue with young players. I finished playing with a lot of players that had come into the squad after tasting underage success. They felt that success would automatically follow at senior level as Tyrone had been winning All-Irelands. Not enough of them brought the energy that would lift the team or the determination to threaten the places of the experienced players.

The benefit of bringing young players with the right mind set into the squad was clear with Tyrone this year. The impact of a number of the U21 team that won the All-Ireland was crucial in the run to this year’s All-Ireland semi-final. There was a new-found confidence and aggression about the team as a result.

The league is the place to blood young players and it may well be an area of regret for Rory Gallagher. Donegal have been very strong at underage level in recent years, but we haven’t seen enough of those players break into the senior team. They may well not be worth their place, but Gallagher failed to give them opportunities during this year’s league campaign.

The lack of depth within the squad came back to bite Donegal when injuries hit during the Championship. Donegal look like a team in need of a boost that could be provided by some of their underage talent. They have been contenders for the last five years and appear overly reliant on the same bunch of players.

Rory Gallagher faces the same choices as Mickey Harte did. Do the current bunch have it in them to win an All-Ireland? If not, then it may be time to be brave and give youth its chance.