 | This article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. (February 2024) |
In Gaelic football, "The System" (Irish: An Córas[1][2]) is a style of play pioneered by the Donegal senior football team during the 2010s.[3] It is regarded[by whom?] as having caused a revolution in the sport, with establishment counties unable to comprehend it or work out how to deal with it.[4] The System was used during the managerial reign of Jim McGuinness with Donegal, who overcame traditionally stronger counties to win two Ulster Senior Football Championships and one All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in the space of two years.
Donegal's winning of the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was described as "one of the great GAA managerial coups" in history.[4] Prior to this, Donegal had had little success in the Championship since 1992.[5][6] Admirers of "The System" from other sports reportedly included Europe's 2014 Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley and the soccer manager Neil Lennon.[7]
Joe Brolly said as early as 2011 that "Gaelic football has never seen anything like it."[8] Malachy Clerkin, writing in The Irish Times on 27 December 2012, described Donegal as "the alpha, the omega, and everything in between [...] just a sheer joy to watch".
Donegal didn't just dominate football in winning this year's All-Ireland. They reimagined it. They took a game that had been listing for a few years and made it a thrilling experience. In so doing, they interrupted the decision-making cycle of every team they met. Each game Donegal suited up for this summer was played on their terms, not the opposition's. When you consider the opposition – Cavan, Derry, Tyrone, Down, Kerry, Cork and Mayo – you can't but marvel at the achievement.[9]
- ^ "Na Dubs – an mbuailfear i mbliana iad? | An Tuairisceoir". Archived from the original on 19 September 2014.
- ^ "Mo ghraidhin an té atá ag súil le peil thaitneamhach, oscailte, spleodrach". Tuairisc.ie. 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Gallagher answering McGuinness' call". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. 18 September 2012. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
Now, they talk on the phone at least an hour a day and spent countless hours on that same field, coaching and exhorting the players into becoming genuine All-Ireland contenders and devising a style of play that has become nationally known as "the system".
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
fearless_shift_axis_of_powerwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ O'Shea, Joe (27 August 2012). "Donegal one step from Sam after 20-year wait". Irish Independent. Independent News & Media. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
Cork never really got going. Outnumbered, out-sung and watching a supposedly "negative" team suddenly transform themselves into the FC Barcelona of Gaelic Football, the Rebels were left muttering about "lads who didn't show up" and a manager who, to many of them at least, made some questionable calls...
- ^ "Jimmy's like Messi! Donegal are the Barcelona of GAA, say Cork legends". Donegal Daily. 27 August 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
Double All-Ireland winner Tony Davis stood by his insistence that Donegal played awful defensive Gaelic football last year. But he has changed his mind now about this year's team – and reckons Donegal play GAA the way Barcelona play soccer!
- ^ "Looking after number one". Sunday Independent. Independent News & Media. 30 September 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
- ^ Houston, Rory (28 August 2011). "As it Happened: Dublin 0-08 Donegal 0-06". RTÉ Sport. Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Archived from the original on 15 March 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2011.
1520 The ever-brilliant Joe Brolly: "It is the mother of all defensive systems. Gaelic football has never seen anything like it."
- ^ Clerkin, Malachy (27 December 2012). "Donegal take a listing vessel and refloat it on a wave of thrilling proportions". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. Retrieved 27 December 2012.