'No love lost, but Tyrone were the barometer for Donegal'

The Gaoth Dobhair GAA club ran a 'guess the score' competition for the 2012 All-Ireland football final.

It is a regular annual in GAA clubs across the country. Guess the score and win a share of the pool of money collected with the balance going to the club's coffers.

In 2012, someone nailed the correct scoreline in Gaoth Dobhair: Donegal 2-11 Mayo 0-13.

Donegal's preparation was meticulous to the point of precision in those days.

Eamon McGee thought of that precision again as he left Celtic Park on Saturday evening. Derry, the two-in-a-row Ulster champions, dumped from the provincial race and Donegal now ready for another familiar foe.

Tyrone were the target in 2011, the first year of Jim McGuinness's last stint as the Donegal manager.

When Antrim and Cavan were disposed of as Donegal – beaten out the gate by Armagh the previous summer in Crossmaglen – began to find some confidence.

Tyrone were a different proposition entirely.

“They were the benchmark,” McGee tells Donegal Live. “Tyrone were the team we talked about: 'We are gonna have to beat these boys'.

“Every night we were in the gym or at training it was a case if you weren't going to do it, they boy in Tyrone was going to do it. They were a big part of our preparation, that unseen force or unseen enemy.

“When we got through to play Tyrone, this was the game we had talked about for months. We were still about our own indicators and values, but we upped it a wee bit. 'This is the time to deliver'.

Tyrone were the barometer for us.

“For us, it was all about getting to the levels. We had 20 points in terms of what we were about. We went through most of those points every game. If you weren't hitting the targets, then why weren't you?”

St Tiernach's Park heaved under a high sun.

As if to add to the anticipation, a hurling game, also between Donegal and Tyrone. went to extra time, delaying the football.

Martin O'Reilly, who would be a member of the Donegal football squad a year later, played in that curtain-raiser, winning the Ulster U21 Shield.

On a boiling June Sunday in Clones, it all ratcheted up. The windows of the Donegal dressing room were opened to let a little fresh air in. A plastic bottle arrived in accompaniment. Down came the windows and the suffocating air felt unbearable.

Eamon McGee playing for Donegal

Donegal were slow to start. “As if we are spellbound by those white jerseys and the names and the pure authority with which Tyrone carry their game to us,” McGuinness recalled later.

By the 20^th minute, Tyrone were 0-4 to 0-1 ahead.

Kevin Cassidy landed a monster score to revive Donegal. It was a critical moment in shaping a story that would follow.

“It may well be the most important score he ever contributed to Donegal football,” was McGuinness's assessment when he penned his memoir Until Victory Always with Keith Duggan three years later.

With half-an-hour gone in 2011, Rory Kavanagh could see a familiar film playing before his eyes.

A couple of years later, the Letterkenny man said: “You were starting to think: ‘Here we go again’. Honestly, I thought we were on the road to a mauling at one stage.”

At one stage, Anthony Thompson, while deep in Tyrone territory, conceded possession with a wayward pass pass and Tyrone seemed set to punish. As Stephen O’Neill pulled the trigger, a magnificent block came in to deny him a goal. Having sprinted the lung-testing 80 metres, Thompson was at the rescue.

Colm McFadden found the net for Donegal and, late in the day, with the outcome still finely poised, Dermot Molloy rattled in a killer second.

“Relief more than elation,” was how McGuinness summed it all up. “Their players seemed to be in a little bit of shock by the end. It must have been an odd sensation for them, to shake hands with us as losers.”

Donegal looked enviously over the border at Tyrone.

Deep down, they knew they were as good, but they just couldn't rise to those same levels. Until the arrival of McGuinness changed the course of history.

“We had watched Tyrone win All-Irelands and get to the top,” McGee says.

“They were great opposition. There was no love lost, but I always had the utmost respect for them. They were fierce competitors. I wasn't nice to them at the time, but I respected them.

“You even look at Tyrone when they won the All-Ireland in 2021. People talk away about Covid and what have you, but they went out and won the bloody thing when they had the opportunity.”

Dermot Molloy celebrates scoring a crucial goal against Tyrone in 2011

In 2012, Donegal and Tyrone met again at the semi-final stage again.

Donegal were now the ones with the target on their backs.

McGuinness wrote: “Tyrone are coming. Always Tyrone. Gunning for us. Fixating on us. Mickey Harte has never lost to the same team twice.”

Martin Penrose put Tyrone ahead at half-time, but Donegal carved out a dramatic, breathless 0-12 to 0-10 win.

Down to fourteen men – McFadden having been given a second yellow – Donegal were leading by just two points when Tyrone launched one, last attempt at salvation.

Penrose appeared to have stolen the win for Tyrone until, from somewhere – nowhere, even - came Paul Durcan’s left foot to divert the ball onto the upright and wide.

Kavanagh had a perfect view of things: “I was right behind Penrose and I think it was Papa’s studs, not even his boot that got to the ball.”

“You can chat away about tactical analysis, percentages and possessions, but some things just come down to moments,” McGee says now.

“If Cass's point doesn't go over in 2011, I don't see us getting back. Or, if Marty Penrose's point goes to the net, it could've rocked us. It would have been just another promising Donegal team that came to an end.

“In the thick of it, you don't think that way. It's just the next thing, the next ball, the next kick. But in the analysis of it all, you quickly realise: 'Flip, we were lucky there.'

“It was wild satisfying. That was the test. And we passed it. We got over the test.”

McGee played 154 times for Donegal until he stepped away in 2016.

The Gaoth Dobhair man was rejuvenated during McGuinness's first tenure.

“These Donegal players are really lucky to be in an environment to max it out,” he says.

“Jim McGuinness is a once in a generation person but he has come back to answer the call.

“People will talk about what Jim brings, the preparation and how he looks after the players – and it is such a good thing to be a part of.

“Very few people get a chance to push themselves to the limit. Most people sit in a comfort zone throughout their lives.

“These boys will have gone through the wringer in the winter, done all the dog work pre-Christmas. People always talk about 'commitment' and whatever people win or don't win, but being a part of a group where everyone is putting the shoulder to the wheel; there is real value in that.”

His brother, Neil, and McFadden – two stalwarts from the first McGuinness era – are on the current backroom team.

“I think it was very deliberate who Jim got involved,” McGee says.

“Colm and Neil are steadfast in what Jim is about and the values. After Rory Gallagher left in 2013, Jim brought in Damian Diver, who was someone he looked up to himself; someone who epitomised what it was to be a Donegal footballer. Everyone there will be bringing some value.”

McGee can recall just how deep McGuinness's planning went – and how a real belief went from manager to players.

“The All-Ireland semi-final in 2014 (against Dublin) Jim was talking about goals to be got,” he says.

“We bought into it, but we still were thinking: 'Where are these goals going to come out of?' You could feel the confidence.”

The winnings from Gaoth Dobhair's guess the score competition lay unclaimed for quite a few days.

Its winner was otherwise engaged as Donegal brought Sam Maguire home.

After all, Eamon McGee played at right half-back in the team.

“Jim was brilliant. It was almost a case of 'if we do this and this then it'll end up like this'. He had meticulously planned and practically predicted things.”