McGuinness return brings wild unpredictability

From the moment Jim McGuinness hung up his Donegal bainisteoir bib in 2014, a return to the county fold seemed inevitable. It was always a matter of when rather than if. The home county has always carried a powerful magnetism, its lure never fading even for its people on the other side of the world. It's why so many travel home annually to watch their county in All-Ireland finals, taking a fair hit to the pocket for their troubles.

So, when your life has pulsed to the beat of intercounty football for a couple of seasons, there is no repellent known to man capable of killing the temptations. No matter how far you travel, the game is menacingly pulling you back to the wet afternoons traversing the country for league games. And it cannot be said that McGuinness didn't try to stave off the pulling force. He travelled as far as Asia and North America in search of new experiences, new flavours, new beginnings. But no matter how far he travelled, Ballybofey proved to be his northern star. He couldn't ignore it forever. Last month, he finally gave in.

And his return couldn't have come at a better time for his native county. Within 24 hours, Donegal went from a county that endured a season of disarray to a place giddy at the thought of the chaos the Glenties man is sure to bring to next year's championship. Whatever happens next year in the northwest, it's going to be a wildly unpredictable experience for all concerned. Buckle up.

The year before McGuinness took the reins as Donegal manager for the first time, Donegal had been knocked out of the Ulster championship at the first hurdle – albeit against the eventual All-Ireland finalists, Down. A few weeks later they were out of the championship completely following defeat in the first round of the qualifiers. McGuinness was a largely unknown personality on the national stage at the time. He had won an All-Ireland title with Donegal in 1992, and his approach to coaching in the mid-noughties had turned almost every head on the county's club scene. But Ireland was essentially oblivious.

Within a year, McGuinness had begun to revolutionise the game, pushing Dublin all the way to a two-point win in the 2011 All-Ireland semi-final. It went down as a day of infamy. McGuinness had fostered a 'win at all costs' philosophy and, given Donegal had been slumbering off the beaten track for years, it was decided that the best chance of winning in Croke Park involved an ultra-conservative approach. Donegal invited the opposition's attack to break down a defensive system like no other.

Donegal didn't care what the pundits said. The county was relevant again. The game as we knew it had utterly evolved and it was largely down to the much-maligned McGuinness system. Some teams became more defensive, as a result. Other teams went into their bunkers and began pulling all-nighters in the hope of finding a way of dealing with the blueprint the Donegal manager had set out.

The problem was McGuinness was evolving at the same time, not satisfied with having returned Donegal to the top table of intercounty football. McGuinness had tasted All-Ireland success as a player. And like a child tasting sugar for the first time, he needed another hit. A year later, Michael Murphy was singing "Jimmy's Winnin' Matches" from the Hogan Stand podium. It was one of the great turnarounds in the history of the Gaelic Games. McGuinness will always be known for his defensive approach to football, but in only his second year in the job he opened up his side's style and made Murphy and Colm McFadden potent attacking threats. Evolution is the true McGuinness way.

As he returns for a second tenure, Donegal are in a stronger place than they were in the summer of 2010. Their season was, of course, a disaster by any standards, with Paddy Carr leaving before the league had even concluded in only his first year in the role. Yet, the foundations upon which McGuinness rebuilt Donegal haven't been completely demolished. Paddy McBrearty is still knocking about and hungry for success. The side remains a Division One side. And they've appeared in ten Ulster finals in the last twelve years, winning five. When McGuinness first took over, they hadn't won the Anglo-Celt Cup since 1992.

But while Donegal are set to be unpredictable in 2024 and beyond, some elements of the McGuinness philosophy are likely to remain intact. For a start, Donegal will be supremely fit. Their energy reserves will be bottomless. Stories of players throwing up along the sideline after sprint sessions during the Glenties man's first stint in the job have gone down in folklore. So while Donegal's prospects in 2024 have increased considerably over the last fortnight, the players seeking to be involved in the set-up going forward are in for a torrid winter. They could well be the fittest team in Ireland by the time the league campaign kicks off in spring. That's about the only predictable aspect to a McGuinness side.

The game has been going a little stale in recent years and McGuinness will no doubt have been mulling over just how he's going to reverse that. He revealed as much when he told the Irish Times, almost immediately after his return was announced, that it is "very hard to knock teams off their perch if you’re only copying".

He added, "We need to find out what we want to do and what our own identity is. I’ve my own thoughts on that."

Whatever tactics he puts in place, they will almost certainly divide opinions next year, and be a subject of conjecture over the coming months. His nomadic association football journey will have a significant influence in his outlook this time around. His experiences in Asia, Europe and North America will have opened his mind to new philosophies, ways of working, and techniques. Much of it will be transferable to a GAA pitch.

Regardless of circumstances in 2023, the 2024 version of Donegal will be no Renford Rejects. They will be relentlessly and dogmatically committed to a system devised by the man who has already brought the county from nowhere to Nirvana. A tantalising prospect for the championship.