By Ronan Scott

SAY to a Donegal player or fan that they are going to be Ulster champions and they might shrug and say, ‘yes, we hope so.’

The achievement has been a common occurrence during the last decade, so for many success is expected. But 10 years ago attitudes were very different.

When Jim McGuinness walked into a room full of u-21s in 2009 and told them that they were going to be the 2010 Ulster champions, the lads were sceptical. But that’s exactly what McGuinness did.

For many that was their first experience of the man who would change the fortunes of the Tir Chonaill county.

Kevin Mulhern was part of the 2010 u-21 panel and he remembers McGuinness’s steadfast belief in his team’s ability.

“I remember him coming in and saying that we were going to be Ulster champions.

“He said to us that we were going to be Ulster champions but not once did we believe it.”

It wasn’t thought of because in 2010 Donegal were not regarded as serious contenders.

They were a strong team yes, with some great talent, but they were not regarded as a team with the will to beat the likes of Tyrone or Armagh.

McGuinness’s plan to turn these unbelievers into provincial champions began with the training.

Mulhern said: “It was unreal. It was serious. I have never seen running like it, and I have never done running like it since. In fairness it stood to us.”

As he was grinding out the runs, Mulhern realised something.

“When I was doing it I thought, this is the simplest thing that you could be doing. They were the simplest training sessions ever, but you had to get the runs done.”

At the time, Mulhern thought the training was tough, but he enjoyed it. He enjoyed it because he could see that there was a purpose to it. He could see that the training was building the team for the greatness that was to come.

Team mate Declan Walsh was experiencing his last year of u-21s. He had been part of the seniors under Brian McIver, but he had not played for Jim McGuinness before, nor did he know his style. The first thing Walsh noticed was the difference in intensity.

Walsh said: “It was different to anything that I have ever experienced before, in terms of intensity and focus that was expected of us.

“I remember doing 100 press-ups becaue we weren’t at the level that he wanted us.

“Those were the toughest sessions that I have ever done.”

To emphasise the point, Walsh put on a stone in weight through the work that he had done during that time. Conditioning was very important for McGuinness.

Walsh had been in county squads for years. He was living in Dublin and had been used to training on his own in Dublin. But that year McGuinness travelled to Dublin to train Walsh and a few others.

Walsh said: “That sort of commitment was not something I had seen before at county level. It was a big change. I was at the right age, so I was mad keen to train.”

It seems that McGuinness’s priority in the early days was to build the players’ fitness, the second was to impress upon them the strategy that McGuinness wanted to implement. And at the heart of that strategy was one point.

Kevin Mulhern said: “We knew that in training you did not go into contact. No joke, we would be stopped anywhere from 20-50 times in training if you went into contact. The training was stopped and you would be told ‘that’s what I don’t want, players going into contact.’

“In practice matches the game would be stopped every time someone went into contact. They would be told not to go into contact and the whole team would have to do press-ups. We learnt the hard way with press-ups.”

As well as not going into contact the players were encouraged to keep the ball moving.

Mulhern said: “He said, ‘you keep the ball moving and no one is going to stop you or tackle you.’

“It was the first time that I had seen a clear structure coming into any kind of team.”

Mulhern remembers repeated runs from behind the goals to the 45 that would have been done 50 times in training. That developed into hitting a diagonal ball to two poles set at the other end of the field.

“He had all this mapped out in his head, and how he was going to bring everyone’s fitness on, and develop those drills. I think a perfect example of it was Karl Lacey was coming up the line and hit the diagonal ball into (Michael) Murphy (All-Ireland final v Mayo). That was a pure training ground drill there. That was drummed into you.”

Mulhern said that McGuinness was dead against taking the ball into contact. He said the Donegal manager wasn’t as strict with tackling. He didn’t mind loose tackling as long as it wasn’t in the scoring zone.

The clarity of his goal is what impressed Mulhern, as well as his attention to detail.

“He would have spent 45 minutes on the phone with you, breaking down what he would expect from you. He would be saying ‘you are one of the best players there is.’ I remember going into games thinking that I was better than I was. He made me believe that.

“I remember being on the phone to him one time for an hour and a half. At the end of it I was going to run through walls. That is what he did to you.

“I know for a fact that he would have done that with other players.

“When you were on the phone with you it was all positive, it was all about the good points and what he wanted. But there was no craic. There was no ‘what were you at at the weekend?’”

The psychological element was very important for Jim McGuinness and he had many ways to mould these players.

Declan Walsh explained one way he did it.

“When we were doing training sessions, after every drill we would huddle together. Jim would be in the middle of it and he would be motivating, encouraging and constantly talking and as a group. He would make the group feel as a collective.

“At the time you don’t think of the psychology of it, you just think about the huddle.”

A serious focus from McGuinness was important. He demanded a serious focus from the players as well.

Mulhern recalls that perhaps McGuinness created an environment where attitude was put before talent.

Kevin Mulhern said that McGuinness had a good way of whittling down his squad. “The kind of boy that McGuinness is he susses people out quickly. He will know if you will do the work or not. He is very tense. He is always sussing people out.

“I think there were were one or two lads who could have been there who were just as good as the rest, but they were headers. They whittled it down to who was going to buy into the system and who wasn’t.

“The way he sussed people out was to do the running. I used to think at the time that the running was about getting us fit. But I was as fit as I had ever been. I was one of the fittest people up here. But I don’t think it was to be fit. He was trying to suss players out. The running was about sussing people out if they could do what he wanted.”

There were talented players in the group, but McGuinness wanted to bring the very best out of anyone.

Mulhern said: “The group didn’t have a massive amount of standouts bar Michael Murphy and a few other boys who went on afterwards like Paddy McGrath, Declan Walsh, ‘Brick’ (Dermot Molloy) and Leo McLoone, Mark McHugh.

“But we were all on par, we were good players.”

Declan Walsh reckoned that the squad was talented and had potential.

“We had got beaten by Armagh in the minor final of Ulster three years before that. We weren’t coming in with a great track record, but once we got to play friendlies we found that we weren’t going to lose games. Jim made us believe that we were going to win before we went out. That was something different.”

Walsh felt that the connection of players was important.

“We kind of managed ourselves. It wasn’t just Jim shouting down at us. Murphy was really becoming a strong leader at that point. You had characters like himself, Leo McLoone, Paddy McGrath, Kevin Mulhen, Myself. There were a strong core of leaders. The self-management was important and that moved into the seniors.”

The Ulster Championship arrived and they opened with a game against Armagh on the first day.

This was an important moment for Donegal football though they didn’t know it.

Kevin Mulhern said: “I remember he (Jim McGuinness) was saying, ‘beat the first team and then get knocked out, that was the pattern for Donegal’. He had everything written down. He knew how we were going to bridge that gap that the county had not been able to.

“After we beat Armagh, that was a massive lift. He would say ‘there is something special in here. I can see it. Youse may not know it yet, but there is something very special in here.’”

Declan Walsh said that travelling to Enniskillen, where all the games took place, created a mindset among the team.

“We got use to going there and winning. The night of the Derry game it was called off and we had to go back on Saturday.

“That created a resilience in us. Then we had to play Cavan four or five days later.”

Kevin Mulhern agreed that as the competition wore on, the Donegal team were stronger, and that was showing in the team selections.

Mulhern said: “By the Derry game boys who were comfortable in their positions were feeling uncomfortable in their positions. There were good players there who didn’t get in. There were players who slipped up and got dropped up. Good players like James Carr were in and out. Even if you were a good player, if you weren’t going in the right direction you were out, no matter what.”

After beating Derry, that led to a final against Cavan. Mulhern marked Barry Reilly in the Ulster final.

“I was told to go with him wherever he went. But nothing really stood out for me. They had pieces on how he played. I had to look at where he went, what sort of runs he did. In fairness the detail that was done on each player was very good. McGuinness had all the work done on him, and on how he plays. I thought I did a good job on him.”

Winning the Ulster final was

the biggest medal that Mulhern would ever win.

Mulhern said: “It was massive in Donegal town. It was crazy. We were late getting back but the crowd was massive. All my family was there and all my club mates.

“To date it is the biggest achievement of my football career.

“Those days of celebrating afterwards were the best craic. We were allowed one day but we ended up doing two days.”

Declan Walsh agreed that the memory of Donegal town on that Wednesday night was important.

“There were hundreds and thousands of people waiting for us. It showed that something had happened. Maybe we hadn’t appreciated it till we saw those crowds.

“A Wednesday night at 11 o’clock, seeing a crowd like that showed what it meant. Donegal lost an Ulster final recently and it was a crisis, but back then we weren’t used to winning.”

Donegal played Tipperary in the All-Ireland semi-final.

Walsh said: “It was a challenge to get us focused on that game. We had not been used to winning, but then we win something and then have to go play in an All-Ireland semi-final.

“I do remember we did a lot of work getting ready for that game. We didn’t play particularly well but we just got over the line.”

Mulhern said: “That was the best game that I played in. I broke the line well. That was the best performance that I had for the u-21s.”

But the build up for the final against Dublin would take a terrible turn, with the arrival of the ‘flu.

Declan Walsh said: “That took a lot of men down. We went down to Breffni and got a session, and that was cool, but the bug took the focus away.”

Mulhern said: “It was really exciting at the start and then came Tuesday. We were training on Tuesday night, and a few lads got sick. Knowing my luck, I got a cleg bite on my leg. Wednesday came and it was a red thing. Thursday came and it got bigger. Friday came and my whole leg was pure red. The bite had got infected. The morning of the final I went to the doctor and got two injections.

“I was frustrated, and kind of freaking out.”

As well as the rake of players who had got the ‘flu, this was a real problem. Yet Mulhern was able to play and he thought that he did a fair enough job in the match against Gary Sweeney.

“I thought I was doing well, but there was that split second and he got in for the goal. We still had the chance to win it with the last minute penalty (Michael Murphy’s penalty came off the cross bar at the end of the game).

“We hit the cross bar and it wasn’t to be.”

The loss was hard to take for the players. Yet for Walsh, using the bug as an excuse was not for him.

“It was bad luck but it wasn’t the reason we lost. We could still have won.”

Winning the Ulster title with the u-21s was an important stepping stone for the county. It meant that McGuinness took over the seniors as a winner.

Yet the senior players needed more convincing than the speech about McGuinness believing that they could be Ulster champions.

Mulhern said: “I remember some of the senior lads asking me what he was like. I said: ‘you are all in or you are not.’

“Myself Neil McGee, Eamon McGee, Adrian Hanlon and Kevin Cassidy would drive up together and they would ask what he was like. I’d say: ‘You’d better be ready to run.’

“Us younger ones had tunnel vision and knew what he could do. The other boys sort of laughed it off. But they soon got on board.

“He did the same thing with the seniors, that he did with the u-21s and told us that we were going to be Ulster champions. People were sniggering and laughing.

“I can remember he had a newspaper article that listed all the counties and it said Donegal ‘was a mickey mouse county, but you’d at least get a good session.’

“He said to us that we were a laughing stock and that everyone thought we were drinkers.

“But that all changed and he really changed the mindset of everyone.

“He is still the best operator I have ever worked with.”

Walsh emphasised that the success of 2010 carries through to today.

“It was a massive year for Donegal to bring that whole level of professionalism and dedication into the county. Not that people weren’t trying before. But that was a turning point. For Jim to move up to the seniors and bring that winning-culture mentality into the seniors, and translate that into Ulster titles. It changed the landscape for Donegal football and you are still seeing the young lads coming through onto the senior team as a result of underage teams who followed in the footsteps of that initial victory.”