I WAS in Donegal last week and three different people told me – in absolute confidence (“Don’t mention my name Joe”) – that in their in house training games, Michael Murphy has been playing in goals. According to them, Jimmy has discovered a loophole in the no pass to the keeper rule, by not putting a keeper’s jersey on anyone and starting Murphy in nets. With Jimmy, you just never know.

The Rasputin of Gaelic football remains endlessly fascinating. He is an obsessive, original thinker. He is also charismatic, charming, ruthless and scary. Which also happens to be the definition of a cult leader. Though, to be fair, Charles Manson never won an All-Ireland.

One thing is for sure: The new game requires absolute discipline. Jim Gavin and his crew have worked through every possible way to manipulate those rules and closed them off. The starting point for next year’s All-Ireland champions will therefore be discipline. Here, Jimmy has an advantage. When he presented the bemused 2011 Donegal squad with their laminated copy of the Ten Commandments, Commandment One was “No fouling in the scoring zone.”

In a McKenna Cup not long afterwards, they were winning easily and Kevin Cassidy carelessly fouled his man giving away a tap over free. Kevin takes up the story. “At the video analysis session on the Monday night, Jimmy showed the foul. He then got me up in front of the group and asked me to explain what I had done. I said, “Ah Jesus Jim the game was over.” He went mad, roaring into my face, shouting did I think I was above the group, the flecks of spittle hitting me. I’m not afraid of any man Joe, but that night I felt fear. It was the last time I fouled inside the scoring zone.”

In 2011, I saw for myself the endless repetition of moments in a game plan at Donegal training. I was spotted that night, wrote a column and was barred from attending their training after that. “They’ve put security on the gate Brolly,” said big John Haran, the St Eunan’s Chairman. “I’m told it’s because of you.”

It was one thing to plan to subvert the 100 year old playing traditions of Gaelic football, quite another to persuade thirty lads that it would work. Very few managers could have pulled that off, but as Rory Kavanagh famously said, “Jimmy can make you believe anything.” The other thing about him is that there isn’t a lazy bone in his body. If something is not working, he will rejig it until it is. If he sees a weakness in an opponent, he will meticulously prepare a plan to exploit that weakness. In 2014, he saw that Dublin, believed by many to be unbeatable, were refusing to play a sweeper and sticking to their man to man principles.

For months, he rehearsed his team for an audacious ambush. That semi-final remains one of the greatest tactical triumphs I have seen. Last year, he saw – like every other manager – that Derry were playing a high press and committing every player to that press. Using it, we won the National League and looked terrific. But unlike every other manager, Jimmy didn’t just see. He saw and learned.

Going into the first round in Celtic Park, there was a general certainty that Derry would win. As I wrote in these pages, I feared disaster. The disaster duly unfolded. Jimmy’s plan was to get the ball over the top and beyond the Derry press, then score goals, either by kicking long over the backpedalling keeper’s head, or by using overlaps (like the 2014 semi-final) and clever interpassing. Four goals they scored into our empty net. All the other managers had seen what we did but had not acted or been able to act. Not Jimmy. It was another tactical triumph for him, and because he had shown how it should be done, the other managers then copied him, with Armagh repeating the dose in Celtic Park a few weeks later.

Jimmy is superior to every other coach, which means that with the new rules, he has an obvious advantage. However, I can say with certainty that he will not be playing Michael Murphy in goals to thwart the pass to the goalie rule. First off, Michael has a hamstring strain. Secondly, Mr Gavin, anticipating shenanigans, took the liberty of bringing a motion to Congress to amend Rule 2.1 of the GAA’s Rules of Specification, Official Guide Part 2: “A team shall consist of fifteen players comprising a goalkeeper, and fourteen outfield players.” Then, rule 4.1 (iii) of the same rules, which states: “In all games, the goalkeeper shall wear a jersey which is distinctive from the goalkeeper’s own team’s and the opposing team’s colours.” Having been ambushed once by Jimmy, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.

Wouldn’t it be the irony of all ironies, if after destroying Gaelic football with his defensive system, Jimmy were to win this year’s All-Ireland on the basis of rules brought in to abolish that system.