26 Years since winning an All Ireland 
13 Years since winning All Ireland
Preview by Gerry Hand
Since his return to the helm at Donegal, Jimmy’s been busy winning matches again, and also seemingly preoccupied with engendering an everyone hates us mentality in his squad. His team will be even warmer favourites against Meath in Sundays All Ireland semi final than Dublin, Kerry and Galway had been in previous rounds. Robbie Brennan has also found a winning formula with his young team confounding a lot of the footballing critics through the All Ireland Series since their loss to Louth.
Meath won all three of those tussles and deservedly so and in doing so defied the expectations of even the most diehard Royals fan. The question is can they go to the well once more, and the only honest answer is nobody knows as a team of youngsters, even one as clearly talented as Meath tend by nature to be inconsistent, a trend in fairness Robbie Brennan’s boys have been bucking.
Donegal’s talisman Michael Murphy is many things, a great score getter, a brilliant high fielder amongst them, but whether he can beat the one opponent nobody has yet been able to overcome, old father time, remains to be seen.
The Glenswilly man is 38 and the wide open spaces of Croke Park are no place for ageing legs, and in Murphys case that issue is amplified by the fact he goes full pelt from throw in, so far he has got away with it and Meath will be well aware that a 15 minute Murphy cameo of brilliance can cause them problems.
Facts are though, that the best in all sports tend to go that one time to0 often, think Muhammad Ali vs Larry Holmes, Bobby Charlton at the 1970 World Cup.
Donegal have other potential match winners in O’Donnell, Langan and Thompson as well as the evergreen Paddy McBrearty but one truism in football is you can’t score if you haven’t got the ball. With that in mind, it is crucial to note Meaths aptitude for winning breaking ball best exemplified by Ruairi Kinsella and Ciaran Caulfield.
The incredibly simple but incredibly effective tactic of breaking the ball and winning the fight for possession has served them well in their season defining successes so far and will surely be employed once more on Sunday.
Then there is the Jordan Morris factor. The Nobber native operates on a simple principle, if you taken enough shots enough will be scores which will make a difference, the 1-6 he nailed against Galway proved his theory correct.
Donegal were poor in the first half against Monaghan but blitzed the Farney men in the second period. When Galway with 2-3 in four minutes threatened to do the same Meath dug in and came through. Donegal have the capacity to hammer Meath whereas the Royals have the tenacity to stay in the fight long enough to edge a win.
Meath to write another chapter in their very welcome version of ‘Tales of the unexpected’. Expect a capacity crowd at the Jones road venue this Sunday. If you are going, get there early throw in is at 4.00pm. On Saturday, Kerry will play Tyrone in the other semi-final at 5.00pm. Kildare will be hoping to emulate Meath in winning the Tailteann Cup as the curtain raiser against Limerick. The All Ireland games will be televised on RTE Sports and BBC.
