The football championship is clicking into gear this weekend and the incipient humming of The Sunday Game theme tune has heralded the return of one of the GAA's finest columnists: Jim McGuinness in the Irish Times. McGuinness is previewing the championship today, and along with the usual criticism of the archaic competition's structure, he is optimistic about Dublin being beaten.
McGuinness believes four sides are capable of dethroning the champions, one of whom are Mayo. The ex-Donegal boss says that, despite continued disappointment and management upheaval, Mayo's self-belief is strong, and believes that the seniors would do well to draw inspiration from their Under-21 side, who became All-Ireland champions as a result of striking an ideal balance between attack and defence.
McGuinness argues that, in order to beat Dublin, they need to be treated with the respect their dominance deserves, and if Mayo can admit to themselves that their forwards are inferior to Dublin's, and tailor a game plan aware of the fact, they can beat them:
I’ve watched Mayo in Connacht and in the All-Ireland series and I have very, very rarely seen a change in style. But they need to go somewhere new in order to take this Dublin team down.
Give Dublin the respect they deserve; fine-tune a very, very detailed game plan based on what Dublin are about. Then bring your strengths. Be cognisant of the fact that Dublin have six top quality forwards; that Stephen Cluxton brings what he brings; that they have a sweeper system. So what is the best way to get around that? You can’t just go in with a vague notion that you are good enough to beat this team. You need a game plan to get around Cian O’Sullivan.
McGuinness believes that Dublin have weaknesses in the void left by Rory O'Carroll and Jack McCaffrey that were not exploited throughout the league, and should Stephen Rochford find a way of exploiting that, Mayo have the players to win. It would, however, be fascinating to see how McGuinness would tackle Jim Gavin's Dubs.
Read the full column here.
