For all the microscopic attention paid to the patterns of football designed by Jim McGuinness, it is only recently people have begun to sit up and notice the importance of goalkeeper Paul Durcan.

Dublin's Stephen Cluxton has rightly been lauded for revolutionising the role, becoming a lethal long-range scoring force and the source of many of Dublin's attacks.

For the first three seasons of the McGuinness era, Durcan has gone about his business almost invisibly – no easy feat for a 6ft 4in goalkeeper. But the quality of his restarts have drawn comparison with Cluxton this summer and his save against Diarmuid Connolly during Dublin’s early burst has been identified by many as the key passage in that match.

“I don’t think he hit it well,” the Four Masters man recalls of Connolly’s goal attempt. “I just got the body down and got a knee to it and it didn’t fall to one of their players. There were a few turning points. Possibly we shouldn’t have been that far behind. We dropped three balls into the goalkeeper’s hands which is a no-no against Dublin because they will punish you from those. We were struggling at the time but, in fairness, Christy [Toye] made a big impact when he came on.”

Sustained shelling

It is arguable no player was under as much pressure as Durcan during that early sustained shelling by the Dubs. He saw point after magnificent point flying over his head, and behind him, the Hill was in full voice.

When he scanned the field to look for a target, there was nothing: the Dublin players pressed hard, and daring the Donegal goalkeeper to kick one on one. For the first 15 minutes, they suffocated Donegal, but Durcan remembers one instance where Odhran MacNiallais came deep into Donegal territory to look for the ball.

“I don’t know exactly what it was, but a lot of the ones at the end of the game [we won] whereas a lot of the ones we lost came in the first 15 minutes. After that the lads worked harder on breaks around the middle. In fairness to Odhran, he probably stepped up and won two kick-outs and they made a big difference. That was a young fella coming in and having the guts to stand up and win that ball when we were under pressure and that was brilliant.”

As the game turned, the power and range of Durcan’s kick- outs became an increasingly significant factor. For a big man, he has an uncanny ability to disguise his kick-outs, firing sliced, perfectly-placed balls out to the wings for his target men to take on the run.

Like Cluxton, he is not averse to taking frees and has been a place-kicker for Four Masters in the past but laughs at the idea of stepping up to the plate for Donegal. “Why would I when you have someone like Michael Murphy hitting them?”

Durcan has been involved with Donegal since 2004 and has enjoyed adapting to the increased emphasis on the kick- out. “The tee coming in was a huge thing. The tee has made it a lot more accurate and a lot quicker and even distance- wise. It has made a huge difference in football and one for the better in my mind. It is a possession game now and you are making it a 60-40 where it used to be a 50-50.”

He has trained under 1992 All-Ireland winner Gary Walsh and his reserve, Paul Callaghan, and Pat Shovelin has been goalkeeping coach since Jim McGuinness took charge.

Hero

Republic of Ireland international Shay Given also came in to guest at a training session. “He was a hero of mine when I was growing up and it was a great experience for me. He always texts the boys before the games wishing us luck.”

But Durcan is happy to acknowledge Cluxton is the goalkeeper whose play he appreciates most – except on the two championship occasions when they have met on the field.

“I was looking at the stats and his are way above our own. It seems when he sees a man running, it is going to his chest. He is unbelievable at it. It is a joy to watch, [but] not when you are playing against him though. You think you are able to take him on at them but it is hard. If anyone is lazy out the pitch it is on their chest.”

Durcan works and lives in Dublin and is among the group who have been making the long journey to Ballybofey weekly. After the semi-final win against Dublin, a chopper was arranged to deliver the Dublin-based players down for the evening. The trip was a gift from a businessman and Durcan found himself in his native county in just an hour.

This month, for the second time in his life, Durcan finds himself making the commute to Ballybofey in September and he is able to appreciate it a little bit more than he did in 2012.

“You can savour it a bit more in the run-up. You think more about what is going on. It’s an All-Ireland final. It’s special anyway and brilliant to be there. It’s a huge challenge. You are coming up against Kerry, the kings of football, in my eyes. That probably makes it more special. It is not going to occur to me on the day, but thinking about it now it definitely does.”