If taken as gospel, it begins and ends with exposing Cian O’Sullivan.
Here follows a brief lecture by Jim McGuinness (and James Horan) on how Dublin can be beaten. McGuinness delivered a game plan that did just that in 2014, before leaving Donegal for a new role coaching Glasgow Celtic, while Horan guided Mayo past them in the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final.
In simplified terms, it comes down to flooding the space occupied by O’Sullivan and dragging him away from his defensive sweeper role.
“I think the team that is going to beat them will need a very good number 11. A number 11 that can get on the ball, dictate the pace, score individual points and make incisions, and he has to be marked,” said McGuinness.
“You got to pull [O’Sullivan] out of position and then that guy has got to get the ball. If he gets the ball, he has got to have the capacity to do damage.
“If he is doing that on one level and then he picks up the next ball and fires a diagonal and you got two massive men in there with a Cillian O’Connor coming on the loop, then you got an aerial threat on the inside and a top-quality forward on the loop and you also got this number 11 that is dictating that space, and he is not there because he is being shifted left, right and out in front with runners coming off him.”
McGuinness, and Horan, also emphasised the loss of Rory O’Carroll. “If you have forwards who’re 6’4 or 6’5 and Philly McMahon is picking up one of them and Michael Fitzsimons maybe the other, it’s a different dynamic,” said McGuinness. “That means the aerial threat is real. There are only a couple of teams with that capacity. Mayo, Kerry, I don’t think Tyrone could because of the size situation, Monaghan possibly.”
Horan, speaking at the Sky Sports championship launch, concurred but in the next breath noted that Dublin have grown as a tactical entity.
“Maybe try that for 10 minutes but you are going to have to try a few different things because Dublin have evolved so much as a team they can adjust to what’s happening.
“But you can’t lose players of the quality of Rory O’Carroll and Jack McCaffrey and it does not impact somehow. It’s fine in national league and early rounds of the Leinster championship but when the pressure is greatest I think some of the guys brought in, like John Small, will be really tested.”
McGuinness does not envisage his role at Celtic changing after the appointment of Brendan Rodgers.
New ethos
“I don’t think there are any guarantees in life, never mind football,” he responded. “A lot of the systems at the club will continue because it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to bring in a whole new ethos, system, culture, processes every time a new manager comes.
“It’s almost like 80 percent of it is constant and then the manager comes in and on the coaching side of it decides what’s the philosophy of the club, what’s the style of play he feels is best on the pitch.
“But the sports science predominantly will not change; the way we look at our young players and developing them won’t change. There might be different bits and pieces but nothing major.”
Sky Sports’ live coverage of the football championship begins with Dublin versus Laois on Saturday June 4th, with Dublin or Wexford facing Kilkenny in first hurling match on June 11th.
