Dean Rock Sees Shades Of Fergie In Jim McGuinness' Donegal "Siege Mentality"

Donegal remain many people's favourites to win the All-Ireland this year, even if Jim McGuinness' side must first navigate a preliminary quarter-final against Louth.

After claiming Ulster glory, Donegal only went up in power rankings up and down the country, but a loss to Tyrone in their opening All-Ireland round robin game stunted that hype somewhat.

They were left needing a win in their final game against Mayo to guarantee progression into the All-Ireland knockouts - a win they got, but not without controversy.

The final round of the group phase takes place at neutral venues and, after Donegal inched over the line to prolong their championship summer, manager Jim McGuinness was furious at the choice of Roscommon as the venue.

Its proximity to Mayo rankled McGuinness, who said that suggestions of Clones and Cavan had been shot down in favour of Hyde Park.

I think it would only happen because it's us. Disappointed in that. We made a case and we made the case early. It was on deaf ears. But, again, that's for another day but I don't like the fact that our supporters are always being taken advantage of.

It was one of the biggest Donegal-related talking points in the aftermath of the game, and Dublin great Dean Rock thinks Jim McGuinness is playing a very clever game.

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Writing in his column in the Irish Times, Dean Rock said that he saw shades of Alex Ferguson in the way Jim McGuinness is seeking to create a "siege mentality" around this Donegal team.

Rock argued that McGuinness didn't truly care about the fact the game was played in Roscommon - he was purely looking for something to rile his players up and create an "us against the world" mindset.

It felt like Jim McGuinness had ripped some pages from the Alex Ferguson playbook last Sunday - the chapter on “us against the world”.

McGuinness doesn’t strike me as somebody who expresses such sentiments without having first walked through the consequences in his head. It’s all part of a plan and a strategy.

It wasn’t really about the venue. It was about creating a siege mentality. Additionally, it was used as a deflection tactic because Donegal’s level of performance probably wasn’t where he would have wanted it to be last Sunday.

It's something Jim McGuinness has excelled at in the past, and it's no surprise that he is wheeling out the same tactics as he seeks to bring Sam Maguire back to Donegal.

The All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final sees them play Louth on Sunday afternoon in Ballybofey. Throw-in is at 4pm, with the game live on GAA+.