The best system wins
Photo by cathalmcoscarphotography.com
Twelve years is a long time to hold a grudge but Donegal manager Jim McGuinness clearly doesn’t think so.
Before attending this year’s press briefing for the Ulster Championship, McGuinness sent word to the organisers that he would not be speaking to the media if Declan Bogue was in attendance.
Bogue was the journalist who wrote the award-winning book, This Is Our Year.
Bogue’s crime was that his book contained interviews with Donegal’s star player Kevin Cassidy.
McGuinness famously refused to speak to Bogue at the press conference after his team’s All-Ireland victory in 2012.
But Bogue got off lightly. Kevin Cassidy got kicked off the squad, a long-serving and truly heroic footballer was thus denied an All-Ireland medal.
It was a sad, sorry and squalid affair, made all the more tragic because it was totally unnecessary.
Declan Bogue did nothing wrong. For that matter, neither did Kevin Cassidy. He didn’t give away any trade secrets. Moreover, This Is Our Year was published AFTER the 2011 Championship.
So why did Jim go so apoplectic?
Why did he deny one of the Donegal’s best ever players the chance to win an All-Ireland medal?
And why, 12 years later, is he black-balling a journalist whose only misdemeanour was to write a thoroughly engaging and readable book that doesn’t contain one negative word about McGuinness or his methods?
I believe I know the answer.
During Jim McGuinness’s first spell as Donegal manager, football was in a very different place.
Even some of the best teams in the country were tactically very naive.
Well, they were naive compared to Donegal.
McGuinness and his coach Rory Gallagher were light years ahead of the pack.
Donegal’s tactical supremacy gave them a considerable advantage.
Even though Donegal didn’t have the most gifted players in Ireland, their tactical brilliance allowed them to punch well above their weight. They were 6/1 outsiders when they beat Dublin in 2014!
Donegal’s system of play was the main reason they won the All-Ireland title in 2012.
McGuinness remains convinced that they could have won at least one more title if everyone in Donegal had played deaf and dumb.
McGuinness thought Kevin Cassidy let the cat out of the bag.
It’s a ridiculous reading of the situation - and that’s putting it mildly.
The truth is, the other counties got wise to Donegal’s rope-a-dope tactics and simply replicated them.
This was painfully illustrated in the 2014 final between Kerry and Donegal, one of the most boring All-Ireland deciders in history.
It was a tactical game of brinksmanship as both teams parked the proverbial bus.
Denied their tactical trump card, Donegal blinked first, and Kerry won.
When he was managing Donegal at that time, Jim McGuinness once said: “The best system wins.”
This explains why he was so tyrannical in his efforts to keep everything under wraps.
Here’s a classic example.
At that time our club organised a fund-raising bike ride to Donegal. We cycled to Downings, stayed the night, then returned the next day.
On the Sunday morning before heading back to Maghera, we realised that the Donegal senior squad were training at a nearby pitch.
One of our club members walked across the road to watch the session. (I kept eating my breakfast and stayed put).
As our football-loving clubman stood outside the perimeter fence, he was approached by a member of the Donegal management team who told him in no uncertain terms to go away! (The poor chap is still not right over it!)
But when your system is your advantage, you can understand why Jim McGuinness was so obsessed with keeping everything as secret as possible. That’s why even Sunday morning cyclists were treated as potential spies.
This perhaps explains why a man reportedly known to McGuinness was caught spying on a Kerry closed session which took place on the eve of the 2014 final. He was spotted hiding in a tree.
It also explains why Donegal's exiles in London have been asked to contribute to a proposed privacy fence for the county's training pitch in Convoy. The sole purpose of the eight-metre barrier is to keep out prying eyes. It will come at an estimated cost of 55,000 euro!
Systems can be expensive too!
All of which brings us back to The Shred.
While I totally disagree with Jim McGuinness’s appalling treatment of Declan Bogue and Kevin Cassidy, I do agree with him on one thing.
THE BEST SYSTEM WINS.
We saw that again on Saturday night in Celtic Park!
But winning systems don’t just relate to football.
It is equally pertinent to this business of getting leaner, fitter and stronger.
For example, you don’t change your body shape by jumping around the gym like an eejit.
You transform your body composition by following a weight training programme that includes the best lifts and incorporates progressive overload.
Similarly, you don’t lose weight by submitting yourself to an extreme diet which is totally unsustainable.
You lose weight by understanding the necessity of being in a calorie deficit. You need to have an awareness of portion size, calorie content, and you should pack your diet with quality, nutritious foods. This will allow you to lose weight in a healthy and sustainable manner.
While the best system can help you win Championships - it can also be the game-changer when it comes to getting lean, fit and strong.
Thank your lucky stars if you signed up to The Shred because we’ve got the best system - and the best system wins!
PH
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