Bonner surprised by Dublin's "juvenile defending"
September 02, 2014
Dublin's Andrew Foley and Andrew McGowan with Michael Carroll of Donegal during the All Ireland MFC semi final. INPHO
Declan Bonner couldn't believe how bad Dublin's defending was in Sunday's All-Ireland SFC semi-final.
Having led Donegal to victory over the Dubs minors in the curtain-raiser, the 1992 All-Ireland winner and former Donegal senior boss stayed on in Croke Park to take in the senior semi-final and was stunned by the naivety of the Leinster champions:
"It surprised me how Dublin folded easily," Bonner says in The Irish Independent. "Their defensive shape just disappeared. There were gaping holes right through the middle of their defence.
"Dublin must have thought we'll score more than Donegal, no matter what Donegal score we'll score more than them, it's just all out attack. There was no defensive plan. We could have got five goals.
"It was unbelievable. Even from as basic thing as a kick-out, you set up your team to make sure they are as best they can be defensively, you don't want to concede.
"But I think Paul Durcan had two kick-outs in the second-half, I think [Michael] Murphy went up for one ball, actually, two of them and knocked down to Ryan McHugh and a goal came out of one of them and the second one was his goal opportunity that he put over the bar. That's juvenile defending."
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