Donegal 1-20; Dublin 0-20
Without reading too much into a first league fixture, it looks odds on that Donegal will be there or thereabouts once again this season while Dublin will be more Jekyll and Hyde than Superman as they strive to rebuild under new boss Ger Brennan.
An opening to a new season in Croke Park give such a fixture extra status both for the fans and the players and both teams treated us to an entertaining match where you always felt Donegal had that bit too much for the new-look Dubs who blew hot on the changeover and cold for most of the first 35 minutes.
Brennan must have wondered what he had let himself in for as they sides traipsed off at half-time with Donegal leading by six points, 1-9 to 0-6, and looking good for that margin in their general play.
Even in the round of the full 75 minutes, they were clearly the better side, though we must salute Dublin and Brennan for the way they attacked the Donegal kick out on the changeover and got it back to a one-score game by the final whistle.
Said Brennan, speaking on RTE afterwards: “We had a game of two halves. I guess the first half we lacked a lot of energy, we stood off Donegal. They played the game on their terms and credit to them. They were excellent at what they did.
“They cut us open on numerous occasions and we really couldn't get our hands on the ball. I think we gave the ball away seven times in a row during that first half and that just gave the impetus to Donegal. They're very accurate in front of the posts.
"There was a quick chat at half-time there with the group, maybe the few nerves that may have been there, I think they were gone and the fellas knew that there was a lot more in them. So delighted in how the guys did in the second half. They learned, they pushed on and we got it back to a goal. But having only played for 35 minutes to be within three points, against the All-Ireland finalists, happy but things to work on.
"If we performed in the second half with a similar energy to the first, you'd be quite worried. There'd be bigger problems there to probably try to unearth. We might have to get a couple of psychologists in if that was the case. But thankfully, we can see when the lads are tuned in and they back themselves that they can be quite competitive with the best.
“Donegal are the standard along with Kerry and a couple of other teams that Dublin are trying to close the gap on. We'll just have to try and start better now in Castlebar next weekend,” he stressed, almost a day before Mayo looked mightily impressive in running up a big score and winning by a goal in Galway on Sunday.
Donegal manager Jim McGuinness had seven of the lineout that lost to Kerry in the All-Ireland final and declared himself reasonably satisfied with the night’s work his panel put in.
“It was good and bad,” he stated and his hope would be that they will iron out some of the negative before entertaining Kerry at home this weekend.
“There were a lot of positives - any day you come to Dublin and you win it's a good day, I suppose, but we've a lot of tidying up to do as well. Dublin were very good in the second half on their own kick-out. They overloaded their strong side and got a lot of bodies in that area and asked a lot of questions of us.
“They went very direct in the second half and their scoring efficiency was very high. We were struggling to stem the tide. Overall, I think it's the first 70 minutes for a lot of the lads. You are kind of managing minutes throughout the pre-season and trying to give everyone a go at it and that's probably a good blast for them tonight,” he explained.
He can be thankful to Michael Langan for such a positive outcome as he controlled the middle of the park with his catching and overall play. The late addition to the team, Langan accounted for six points of his side’s tally and crucially they all landed when Donegal were under pressure in the second half.
Two pluses for McGuinness was seeing his goalkeeper Gavin Mulreany shoot two two-pointers while young sensation Shea Malone lived up to the hype of becoming the next big thing by expertly scoring the only goal of the game.
Considering they were without talisman Michael Murphy, Ciaran Thompson, Shaun Patton and Oisin Gallen, McGuinness cannot but be pleased at how the younger panellists slotted into his team format.
Of course, it is only fair to point out that the Dubs were also were understrength, too, without star names like Cormac Costello, Ciaran Kilkenny, Colm Basquel and Theo Clancy who will be huge additions when they become available.
Brennan will be happy how his changes of personnel and tactics worked so well with three subs accounting for eight second-half points - Luke Breathnach claiming five as Conor Tyrrell nabbed a brace and Sean Bugler earned his corn by getting a point but more importantly influencing a lot of the Dublin forward play.
Donegal: G Mulreany (0-4, 2 tpf); C McColgan, B McCole, F Roarty (0-1); R McHugh (0-1), C McGonagle (0-1), P Mogan; H McFadden, J McGee (0-1); D Ó Baoill (0-3, 1 tp), S O'Donnell (0-1), C Moore; C O'Donnell (0-2), M Langan (0-6, 1 tp, 1 tpf, 0-1f), S Malone (1-0) Subs: E Gallagher for McColgan 48, K Gallagher for Malone 54, T Carr for Ó Baoill 64, C McCahill for Conor O'Donnell 68.
Dublin: E Comerford; E Murchan, S MacMahon, D Byrne; R Shaw, N Doran (0-2), E Kennedy; E Dunne, T Lahiff; K McGinnis, N Scully, B Howard; P Small (0-2), C O’Callaghan (0-8, 1 tpf, 1 tp, 0-1 45, 0-2f), L O'Dell Subs: C O’Connor for Lahiff h/t, L Breathnach (0-5) for O'Dell h/t, S Bugler (0-1) for Doran h/t, C Tyrrell (0-2) for Kennedy 47, P White for Dunne 48.
Ref: N Mooney (Cavan).
GAA RESULTS
Allianz FL Division 1
Donegal 1-20 Dublin 0-20
Mayo 3-18 Galway 2-18
Kerry 2-18 Roscommon 1-20
Armagh 1-27 Monaghan 0-18
Allianz FL Division 2
Cork 0-24 Cavan 2-17
Louth 1-21 Offaly 0-19
Meath 0-19 Derry 1-13
Tyrone 2-16 Kildare 1-19
Allianz FL Division 3
Down 2-19 Clare 2-14
Laois 1-10 Limerick 0-13
Wexford 1-13 Fermanagh 0-12
Westmeath 2-14 Sligo 1-16
Allianz FL Division 4
London 0-21 Tipperary 0-21
Carlow 2-16 Antrim 1-15
Wicklow 1-17 Leitrim 2-13
Allianz HL Division 1A
Kilkenny 0-20 Offaly 0-16
Cork 3-25 Waterford 1-17
Tipperary 1-21 Galway 1-16
Allianz HL Division 1B
Clare 3-18 Dublin 1-22
Carlow 2-18 Down 1-11
Wexford 1-13 Antrim 1-12
Allianz HL Division 2
Laois 6-23 Mayo 0-12
Meath 1-20 London 1-10
Kerry 5-23 Derry 0-12
Allianz HL Division 3
Roscommon 2-15 Wicklow 1-16
Donegal 3-23 Tyrone 1-18
Louth 1-20 Armagh 1-15
Allianz HL Division 4
Cavan 3-13 Warwickshire 1-13
Longford 2-17 Leitrim 0-20
Sligo 2-20 Monaghan 0-8
Ladies NFL Division 1
Waterford 2-14 Armagh 0-8
Cork 1-10 Kildare 2-7
Galway 0-16 Meath 0-8
Kerry 2-9 Dublin 0-9
Ladies NFL Division 2
Cavan 1-13 Mayo 1-13
Donegal 2-11 Westmeath 1-6
Tyrone 7-11 Monaghan 0-11
Tipperary 2-12 Wexford 2-9
Ladies NFL Division 3
Antrim 3-15 Clare 1-8
Down 1-12 Louth 3-6
Laois 3-13 Fermanagh 3-13
Roscommon 3-6 Limerick 0-8
Ladies NFL Division 4
Kilkenny 0-1 Carlow 4-28
Leitrim 1-11 Offaly 1-8
Longford 3-8 Wicklow 0-7
Sligo 1-20 Derry 2-8
