James Horan gives his views on Donegal

No love lost


James Horan made some interesting comments about Donegal

Daniel Carey

JAMES Horan says it “doesn’t really matter” who Mayo got in the All-Ireland quarter-final draw – but a close reading of his comments suggests that he and his players are relishing the chance to take on Donegal.
The Ballintubber man told last Sunday night’s media briefing at Breaffy House Hotel that the All-Ireland champions will try anything that’ll give them an advantage. And, reacting to Jim McGuinness’s comments regarding the physicality being visited on Donegal by other teams, he suggested that the north-westerners have been the leaders in that area of the game.
“Donegal and their back-room team, they’re competitive, they’re All-Ireland champions,” Horan noted. “Anything that’ll give them an advantage, they’ll try. Last year they mastered many new skills and brought football to a different level on many fronts… particularly in the area around physicality. They really ratcheted that up last year and put a lot of teams to the sword based on their strength, power and tackling. I don’t know if any of ye have been at the end of a Michael Murphy tackle recently, but there’s serious, serious physicality in that team. So they’ve been the leaders on that front.”
McGuinness’s comments regarding the serious injury to Donegal player Mark McHugh in the Ulster final prompted a lot of media comment. On The Sunday Game, former Dublin footballer Ciaran Whelan called the comments “a quite measured … bit of PR”, while ex-Kildare player Dermot Earley said physicality is “part and parcel of GAA”. Speaking on RTÉ Radio, Armagh’s Oisín McConville said McGuinness was trying to “rally the troops”, adding: “Donegal have dished out as much treatment as anyone else … If you’re gonna give it out, you’ve got to be able to take it.” The @MayoGAA Twitter account retweeted fans’ criticism of McGuinness’s comments on Sunday night.
Asked in the press conference if he had noticed more banter between himself and the Donegal management, Horan replied: “I wouldn’t think so, no.  Although maybe we’ve more banter with other teams, that might be a better way to say it. Look it, Jim McGuinness and Rory Gallagher on the sideline, they do their thing. When I’m on the sideline, I just focus on ... what can I do to help the team that’s on the field. That’s all I do. I try and stay as composed as I can.”
When one journalist suggested that the body language between the managers suggested there was no love lost between them, Horan responded: “Maybe show me a team that HAS good body language towards Mr McGuinness on the sideline! Maybe that’s a better question! Look it, Jim’s a successful manager, so good luck to him.”
Horan feels that Mayo are “definitely” in a better place now than they were going into last year’s All-Ireland final, with “a strong team, a stronger panel” and “a better understanding of our game, and what’s needed to play at the top level”. They had strived for “relentless improvement” in areas that had let them down in last year’s final – their “first touch” in the full-forward line, balls that “didn’t stick”, intercepted hand passes, inadequate ball retention. “[We’re] looking forward to showing how much we’ve improved,” he said.
Asked whether Donegal were also a better team this year than last, Horan replied: “It’s hard to say”. While acknowledging that the Ulstermen had suffered a number of key injuries, he said being without players was “par for the course” for inter-county teams. Mayo’s injury count in 2013 had been “phenomenal”, he added – “We lost eight players off our match-day 26 in the first round of [the] club championship” – but there was “no point whining or whinging” about it.
“We’re lucky that we’ve such strength in depth, and each time someone gets injured [or] something goes wrong, we just brush ourselves down and get on with it,” he added.