One of the great movie villains of the 1980s, Gordon Gekko, uttered these words in the 1987 film Wall Street. Many others will have said them over the course of human existence, but Gekko (played brilliantly by Michael Douglas) was relating it specifically to market trading and how he could gain an edge over his opponents in the corporate broking world. The general concept however can apply to a range of subject matters, not least sports betting, but also to the world of sports preparation and indeed Gaelic football. Leading up to this Saturday's meeting with Donegal, Derry carry at least one edge over their opponents: information. Put simply, we know more about them than they do about us.
This is not just because the Derry management have been able to watch Donegal already in this year's Ulster Championship, it's based more on the general fact that we know exactly how Jim McGuinness' side are going to play. We watched them throughout last summer, including two intense games against Kildare and Dublin, as well as having seen them in that championship match against Cavan back in May.
Anyone who thinks Donegal might deploy a more attacking system this season can think again. McGuinness is still in charge and nothing will change.
As the manager, he is the person most responsible for the performance of his football team. Forget about any nonsense analysis that suggests the players are ultimately responsible for a team's results - just because they're the ones actually playing on the pitch. The manager is the person who creates the environment for their team to play to their strengths, stifle opponents and try and put a system in place that will win football matches. If the manager has a strong enough voice and can get his players believing in his preferred method of play, that team will go further than a manager whose message is incoherent or who doesn't have the respect of his players.
When judging the results of their previous few seasons, Donegal are a brilliant example as to how the manager is the key difference maker in any team (as was Joe Kernan's influence in Armagh and Mickey Harte's in Tyrone). Using - by and large - the same group of players his predecessor John Joe Doherty had at his disposal, McGuinness transformed Donegal from a team who were knocked out in the first round of the qualifiers in 2010, to the verge of an All-Ireland Final in 2011, as Ulster champions. A remarkable turnaround. He dilligently put a system together that would give his group of players the best possible chance of winning football matches. A system that leaves very little to chance, avoids risk and uncertainty and will be almost equally effective despite the quality of opponent. As far as he possibly can, McGuinness will be drumming this same method into his players in 2012. He told us as much following their victory over Cavan in May.
Most of the time, pre-match and post-match interviews from players and managers gleans little other than clichéd soundbites, but the best managers generally speak honestly about their team's performances and their contentment (or lack of it) can often tell us a lot about what to expect from their team the next day out.
After the preliminary game at Breffni Park the Donegal manager had this to say:
“When you’re working on things you want to execute it. A lot of things in the second half weren't ruthless and for 20 minutes there was a feel of a challenge match. We weren’t clinical. If we were professional from the first minute until the last we wouldn’t have gone down that road.”In other words, during the second half when his players were wandering forward, McGuinness was not happy. They were veering from their predetermined system of play. As mentioned above, it's a system that pays little regard to differences in opposition. Whether they are playing Cavan, Derry, Kerry or Dublin, McGuinness will set his side up to execute in the exact same way.
“It’s irrelevant who we play and we gauge ourselves against what we want to do. It was Cavan today and it’ll be Derry the next day and then it’ll be Tyrone or Armagh, if we get through, the game after that. What we need to do is get our own house in order. It really is about ourselves, how we see the opposition and how we see it unfold.”It appears the fact that Donegal won't really know what to expect from the Oak Leafers is of little consequence. Donegal's is an approach built to withstand whatever or whoever is thrown at it. Derry have struggled with defensive gameplans throughout the last decade, but few of the teams we have faced in that period are as well drilled or organised as this Donegal side (as we found out to our cost in last year's Ulster Final). What have the Derry management and players learned from these defeats? Can we counteract these teams with a defensive system of our own? Will we apply a more patient style of play in order to control possession?
Recent history goes against us, as does an ever-lengthening injury list. So in order to break the mould Brennan must come up with a plan that will negate Donegal's strengths and take their key men out of the game. Derry took pragmatic approaches against Monaghan in 2009 and Tyrone in 2006. Fire was met with fire and the Oak Leafers came out on top. As those games - and indeed Donegal's performances last season - proved, aesthetics don't matter, nor does the margin of victory. The one objective is to win the football match. As Gekko himself said: "It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses."
McGuinness has been kind enough to show us his hand; we have all the information we need. John Brennan and his Derry players know exactly what to expect from the opposition this weekend in Ballybofey. That's the good news. The question now is, what are they going to do about it?
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