Donegal GAA Discussion Thread

retalivity

Another handy win by the sounds of things...


http://www.donegalsporthub.com/14855-2/

Stoner

Super win, great start to the League, Cork were going well coming into the game.

eddie73

Great win, great performances by the new lads. Eoin McHugh and Ciaran Thompson were outstanding. The running and problems they caused Cork was very heartening. Thompson got black carded for something very innocuous at the start of the 2nd half, so it is a good learning curve for him too. McNeilis was breaking tackles today, something I have never seen him do as well or as consistently as he did this afternoon, and scored 1 4 as well as linked up with other players. Great display by Murphy, McGlynn, Neil Gallagher, Boyle in goals and Reilly and McB in the forwards. All to look forward to now for the rest of the league. I would say that we will see a lot of new players running out v the likes of Kerry and, of course, it is great that we are almost certainly going to avoid the drop now.

ghostfacekilla

I've never been more excited about anything to come back off a holiday.

Alvin Holler

Big game tomorrow, with three tricky away games to go after this it's important to win this one. Should be a good game with Mayo needing the points too. Think we should win but it'll be a good test for the younger players.

seligehgit

Alvin Holler wrote: »

Big game tomorrow, with three tricky away games to go after this it's important to win this one. Should be a good game with Mayo needing the points too. Think we should win but it'll be a good test for the younger players.

Yeah it should be a great contest,we really do need the points.Tricky away contest against Monaghan up next and the Kingdom at home.We can't really afford to be relying for 3 wins in our final 3 contests.

I'd be quite happy to take a point from the game,I expect we'll be pretty competitive although I think you guys may edge it.Has your team been announced as yet?

Nidgeweasel

seligehgit wrote: »

Has your team been announced as yet?

See post # 3331.

Nidgeweasel

Lovely stuff. Should be us safe now.

Triboro

Good win.
Great work rate today.
Should have a good chance in Tralee.

babybuilder

Great win alright. We seem to be a little bit further on and more focussed than most teams so time will tell. Thought that Mayo bossed the middle third the first 30 minutes with little to show for it. The introduction of McLoon, Toye and Thompson added the needed physicality. Think young Eoin McHugh did alright but came a cropper in contact. Ryan McHugh was immense - such a committed footballer. Mayo are obviously not at the same level of preparation as us with the new management structure not long in place. I still worry about dearth of direct ball going into a sparse full forward line. Teams in the championship won't allow opposition to solo up the middle. Onwards and upwards!

eddie73

babybuilder wrote: »

Great win alright. We seem to be a little bit further on and more focussed than most teams so time will tell. Thought that Mayo bossed the middle third the first 30 minutes with little to show for it. The introduction of McLoon, Toye and Thompson added the needed physicality. Think young Eoin McHugh did alright but came a cropper in contact. Ryan McHugh was immense - such a committed footballer. Mayo are obviously not at the same level of preparation as us with the new management structure not long in place. I still worry about dearth of direct ball going into a sparse full forward line. Teams in the championship won't allow opposition to solo up the middle. Onwards and upwards!

They mightn't have any choice! If you have players like the 2 Mchughs and Ciaran Thompson running up the middle of the pitch plus McBrearty in behind waiting for the ball, you cant cover both. Yes you can try and stop the runner, but you have to be inch perfect in the tackle. Our lads are fast this year, and there is variety in the attack too which is great to see.

babybuilder

eddie73 wrote: »

They mightn't have any choice! If you have players like the 2 Mchughs and Ciaran Thompson running up the middle of the pitch plus McBrearty in behind waiting for the ball, you cant cover both. Yes you can try and stop the runner, but you have to be inch perfect in the tackle. Our lads are fast this year, and there is variety in the attack too which is great to see.

MC Brearty will always have a man marker. We showed our hand in the magnificent semifinal win over Dublin. It ain't going to happen again.

Ceist_Beag

Great win and a really good challenge for the younger lads to come through. As RSF said before, I do think our discipline under Rory has fallen quite short of what was expected under Jim so I do think that could cost us in the summer. However the positives were the speed at which we broke and the fitness of the lads and the genuine depth in the squad we now seem to have. Leo, Thompson and Toye made a big contribution when they came on. It was very impressive overall apart from a spell in the second half when we lost our shape and discipline but all that said, we only won by two points against a Mayo team missing a number of big players so I wouldn't be getting too carried away with it. I'd expect Rory will rest a few lads for the long trip to Kerry so it's nice to be in the position where we can try out a few new lads or ideas for the remainder of the league campaign.
On a side note, two massive drubbings for Cork and Down yesterday again should put a bit of a lid on any hype to our start to the league.

K-9

Yep, it looks like we got the 3 weakest teams in the division out of the way, Mayo due to injuries and the Castlebar lads. Handy though as it lifts any pressure of us.

1 more win could mean a Division 1 Semi-Final which with no preliminary round this year would be no harm.

Redsoxfan

Handy loss coming up this weekend.

RMDrive

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Handy loss coming up this weekend.

Aye. It's time for one. To be unpredictable like.

jjdonegal

Many heading down? Pure sickening to have to make that journey 2 years in a row.

Redsoxfan

We made harder work of that than expected.

Awful stuff, on Mothers Day too.

jjdonegal

Redsoxfan wrote: »

We made harder work of that than expected.

Awful stuff, on Mothers Day too.

Nasty atmosphere. Verbal abuse at a gaelic game and hearing my team being called scumbags numerous times by said person is not my ideal day out. Every team has them but I normally never encounter them thank God.

babybuilder

As many would have predicted. I won't comment on the diabolical carry on by many players on both teams. Football wise Kerry were much more cunning on and off the field. Especially from the halfway point in the second half.

They always seemed to pose a bigger goal threat than Donegal. Who was supposed to be picking up Walsh? Thought that our midfield was again very sporadic other than when big Neil came on for 10 or 15 minutes. However, from then on Kerry made a couple of switches which negated his influence. Playing one up is pointless and any time McBrearty and Murphy came out no one seems to know how or when to go inside. Kerry on the other hand have more options and are very clever in the 'dink' pass inside. Our kick passing is yet again non-existant and could anyone explain what Hugh McFadden adds to the team? He receives a pass runs a few metres and then turns back and passes it behind.

There is no understanding at all between Boyle in goals and the midfield and I thought he should have done better with Kerry's goal as he seemed to dive to his left rather than make himself big.

Obviously Kerry needed the points more today and traditionally we have been poor on the road. I feel an Ulster title is possible but cannot see us threatening Sam this year.

Nidgeweasel

Dirty enough.

Cant say i'm overly bothered.

Nidgeweasel

babybuilder wrote: »

There is no understanding at all between Boyle in goals and the midfield and I thought he should have done better with Kerry's goal as he seemed to dive to his left rather than make himself big.

Great distance but no accuracy. I'm not convinced.

Redsoxfan

It's hard to tell from TV, but it looked to me like we were pretty clueless in the first half when confronted with a well manned defence. Fine, we were playing into a strong breeze, which limited our options, but I'm sure the likes of Monaghan will love watching the amount of turnovers we committed.

I'll certainly be very interested to see Boyle in action against Dublin and Monaghan. Durcan was always a good keeper (although not always first choice), but it was only in later years that he mastered his kick outs. Even then, he was typically kicking to players he was well familiar with. Boyle hasn't had that anything like that kind of experience so it's a big ask for him to come in and perform in that respect IMHO. His shot stopping has been pretty good as far as I can see.

Their keeper had to make a very good save to deny Paddy at the start of the second half and we had three shots off the post, which is a bit unlucky, but Kerry were good enough value for the win. It's not the end of the world, but I'm not sure what we can take from that game.

Alvin Holler

babybuilder wrote: »

I feel an Ulster title is possible but cannot see us threatening Sam this year.

I'd disagree in that if we win Ulster, we should be getting to an All Ireland semi final and then anything is possible. I don't think Kerry, Dublin or Mayo are better than they've been in the last few years. Winning Ulster is key to our season.

As for today's game, apart from all the off the ball stuff the thing really annoyed me was the amount of stupid frees we gave away. It's like we weren't aware how good Sheehan is from frees. We even gave him an extra 13 metres on a couple of occasions.

McLoone probably didn't merit a straight red but why did he run in the get involved in an incident when he's already on a yellow. Either way he deserved to go.

A defeat at this stage is probably no harm. Considering our points difference if we beat Roscommon we'll probably make the semis anyway.

doc_17

A frustrating match to watch yesterday. Donaghy should have got the line in the first half, he seemed to have permission to so what he wanted. And we really missed Frank yesterday.

I'd be a wee bit worried that we could yet be dragged into the relegation dogfight on the last day. Our record and performances in O'Donnell Park are awful and Roscommon are going well. Then away to Dublin and away to Monaghan. But hopefully we'll win this Sunday and put it to bed.

In other news the development officer role is to be filled at tonight's county committee meeting. There's a person going for it who has been a thorn in the side of the executive at recent meetings!

downthemiddle

It's hard to know where to start analysing yesterdays "performance". There is a difference between manning up and sheer stupidity. Yesterday we crossed that line. We allowed ourselves to become distracted , lost concentration and threw away a game that was there for the taking. To be successful at inter county level you need to play the game on the edge but the nonsense we saw yesterday went well beyond that. Kerry approached the game from the throw up in a cynical manner and we got sucked right in. We got involved in petty squabbles where the ball was secondary and we paid the price. If we don't learn the lessons from yesterday we can expect more of the same from other teams.
I would be extremely critical of our sideline. They appear to spend their time getting involved with match officials rather than concentrating on matters on the pitch. This indiscipline has crept onto the pitch as a result of the example shown on the sideline. If we continue to be distracted like this we are on a slippery slope. Their failure to curb the influence of Donnacha Walsh doesn't augur well.
I won't comment on individual Kerry players as they are of no concern to me. I will say, however , that as usual their supporters and past players are circling the wagons. The self appointed "spiritual guardians of the game" have been a disgrace for a considerable period of time.
The abuse Michael Murphy takes on a regular basis is an embarrassment to the game. He receives little or no protection from referees. If Gooch had taken the abuse Murphy received yesterday there would be uproar. Neil has always been more subtle in his approach than Eamonn but yesterday he got caught and he cant complain about the damage done to his nose nor could he complain if he was suspended. Leo deserved a red for stupidity. He lifted his arm and while he didn't appear to make contact it was brainless. Rory Kavanagh didn't cover himself in glory either. Sheahan didn't need any encouragement to get involved and Rory would have been better off concentrating on his own game as we were in trouble at midfield.
Our kickouts continue to be a major concern. I would like to think we are holding something back for championship but at the moment we are struggling for primary possession. It is difficult to win games if you don't achieve parity around the middle third.
Looking at the game yesterday we badly need the leadership Frank and Karl offer. We needed their calm heads to take control of things at the back, to pick up the runners and to get on the ball and break at pace. We have a squad that should expect to win things. Hard lessons need to be learnt from yesterday if this squad is to fulfil their potential.

Ceist_Beag

100% my take on it as well downthemiddle. More and more we are seeing a lack of discipline that was the hallmark of the team under McGuinness. Lads getting involved where there was no need and the more this happens the more the likes of Monaghan and Tyrone will be taking notes. It certainly can't help when the management team are acting like apes on the sidelines...
I couldn't care less about the loss and also don't really care about the shenanigans of the Kerry crowd but I really think we need to get our focus back and stop getting dragged into the type of nonsense we saw yesterday.

doc_17

But some of the Kerry support are a disgrace. I was there 12 months ago and the hostility was very evident. Smug and arrogant.

digiman

Ceist_Beag wrote: »

100% my take on it as well downthemiddle. More and more we are seeing a lack of discipline that was the hallmark of the team under McGuinness. Lads getting involved where there was no need and the more this happens the more the likes of Monaghan and Tyrone will be taking notes. It certainly can't help when the management team are acting like apes on the sidelines...
I couldn't care less about the loss and also don't really care about the shenanigans of the Kerry crowd but I really think we need to get our focus back and stop getting dragged into the type of nonsense we saw yesterday.

What happened on the sideline by the Donegal bench?

Jayop

doc_17 wrote: »

But some of the Kerry support are a disgrace. I was there 12 months ago and the hostility was very evident. Smug and arrogant.

Worst day I ever had in Croker was 2003 in the semi-final. That was the famous "puke football" day and the carry on from the Kerry lad on the hill there was unreal.