Donegal GAA Discussion Thread

Redsoxfan

So, we won, and won fairly comfortably.

But, I don't think anyone is surprised with what we saw. It was all too familiar and that is so so worrying ahead of Monaghan in less than two weeks.

The good points - Frank McGlynn,Eoin McHugh and the 2nd half performances of MacNiallais and Michael Murphy.

The negatives - well, a lot of the play was the same auld shyte that we have become used to seeing under the current manager.

And then there was the discipline. Wtf. Neil McGee needs a clip round the ear, that was incredibly stupid and now the nonsense in Killarney really begins to bite. As for his brother, he is in for a rude awakening after his clowning with Quigley. There better not be any high fives against Monaghan.

Midfield was an issue, and the keeper owed us that penalty save after some pretty awful kicking. Again, we could all see this was going to be the case. Disappointing that are turned out as expected.

Fermanagh seemed to be able to cut through us too easily - the centre of our defence is a concern and I wonder if this is where the absence of Big Neil is hurting us as well as at midfield. Losing Neil McGee won't help.

I thought James McCartan was spot on re Murphy on The Sunday Game tonight. I said the same myself some time ago - wouldn't it be great if we had someone else to do all that grunt work to free Michael up to do more damage closer to goal?

Let's face it, we are looking at taking in our current nemesis without Papa, Neil McGee, Lacey and Big Neil (even if the latter two play, I don't see how they can be fit enough). We need to move on at some point but it's a big ask. I think we are capable of it, but FFS, we need to go at it from the word go and don't let up until the final whistle. A repeat of least year's Ulster Final won't be good enough.

Hope Eoin McHugh gets some protection. A filthy hit nearly took him out of the game in Castleblayney. You can be sure he will be targeted for more of the same after his good display today.

Dunno what the Kavanagh/McLoone job share strategy was about. Yeah, I saw them being booked. But why bring Rory back on when we were down a man? Experience? Rest of the bench looked a bit callow.

Anyway, after going a man down, we put our shoulder to the wheel and after being virtually anonymous in the first half, Murphy was much more visible. You'd wonder if he is carrying an injury and was told to/trying to remain peripheral but after what happened at the end of the half it was clear that he had to step up. OK he took his first half goal well but I thought MacNiallais was much better in the 2nd half, working harder.

We had some nice scores. The potential is clearly there but it surfaces too infrequently.

charlie14

Redsoxfan wrote: »

So, we won, and won fairly comfortably.

But, I don't think anyone is surprised with what we saw. It was all too familiar and that is so so worrying ahead of Monaghan in less than two weeks.

The good points - Frank McGlynn,Eoin McHugh and the 2nd half performances of MacNiallais and Michael Murphy.

The negatives - well, a lot of the play was the same auld shyte that we have become used to seeing under the current manager.

And then there was the discipline. Wtf. Neil McGee needs a clip round the ear, that was incredibly stupid and now the nonsense in Killarney really begins to bite. As for his brother, he is in for a rude awakening after his clowning with Quigley. There better not be any high fives against Monaghan.

Midfield was an issue, and the keeper owed us that penalty save after some pretty awful kicking. Again, we could all see this was going to be the case. Disappointing that are turned out as expected.

Fermanagh seemed to be able to cut through us too easily - the centre of our defence is a concern and I wonder if this is where the absence of Big Neil is hurting us as well as at midfield. Losing Neil McGee won't help.

I thought James McCartan was spot on re Murphy on The Sunday Game tonight. I said the same myself some time ago - wouldn't it be great if we had someone else to do all that grunt work to free Michael up to do more damage closer to goal?

Let's face it, we are looking at taking in our current nemesis without Papa, Neil McGee, Lacey and Big Neil (even if the latter two play, I don't see how they can be fit enough). We need to move on at some point but it's a big ask. I think we are capable of it, but FFS, we need to go at it from the word go and don't let up until the final whistle. A repeat of least year's Ulster Final won't be good enough.

Hope Eoin McHugh gets some protection. A filthy hit nearly took him out of the game in Castleblayney. You can be sure he will be targeted for more of the same after his good display today.

Dunno what the Kavanagh/McLoone job share strategy was about. Yeah, I saw them being booked. But why bring Rory back on when we were down a man? Experience? Rest of the bench looked a bit callow.

Anyway, after going a man down, we put our shoulder to the wheel and after being virtually anonymous in the first half, Murphy was much more visible. You'd wonder if he is carrying an injury and was told to/trying to remain peripheral but after what happened at the end of the half it was clear that he had to step up. OK he took his first half goal well but I thought MacNiallais was much better in the 2nd half, working harder.

We had some nice scores. The potential is clearly there but it surfaces too infrequently.

Monaghan and others have gotten around our defence by using the wings, which still leaves them with a fair bit to do. What worried me today was when Fermanagh ran directly at the centre, at times we looked shaky, but as you say, that could be down to Big Neil missing.
A worry though and something I`m sure Monaghan found interesting.
There were a few times when we ran into Fermanaghs version of the blanket all momentum died.
Not blaming anyone for that, but I thought that maybe seeing as this was inside their 45, then someone should perhaps take a pop in those situations.
Imo we were in serious trouble last year v Derry in the Semi when they did the same only for Michael Murphy nullifying it by hitting two(?) points to get us over the line
I would have hoped we learned from that with someone instructed to stand a bit off and have ago.

boxer.fan

"Redsoxfan wrote: »

Dunno what the Kavanagh/McLoone job share strategy was about. Yeah, I saw them being booked. But why bring Rory back on when we were down a man? Experience? Rest of the bench looked a bit callow.

Is there any chance RG was attempting a form of punishment for indiscipline? I know he sent Kavanagh back on, but maybe felt he would be better defensively when Neil got sent off?

Ceist_Beag

Ok so we got over the line but this was a pretty disappointing win given we all wanted to see the team evolving and it just isn't happening. The positives were as already mentioned, McGlynn, the two McHughs, O'Reilly, and MacNiallais. The two goals were really good training ground goals, well worked and executed. However there isn't really anything new in our style going forward so I'm sure Monaghan won't have any concerns in what they saw yesterday. As RSF said, we're also going in without 4 of our main players from the last few years but to that I would add Murphy as he clearly is nowhere near 100%. It's a huge ask of the lads.
The biggest issue remains our tackling in defence. As Charlie said already, when Fermanagh ran at us we looked really easy to open up. I was watching Hugh McFadden closely yesterday (I don't know what his role was tbh as he spent half the first half in the full forward line - wtf was he asked to do yesterday?) and his tackling is absolutely atrocious - he doesn't seem to know how to tackle so he either fouls the man or else they just breeze past him - and his speed is pretty poor for inter county as well. He wasn't the only one though to be fair to him - some of the tackling from others was equally bad. The other main concern is midfield - we just don't have one these days. I thought Rory K was very poor yesterday and why he came back on in the second half I don't know but it certainly was a slap in the face to those left on the bench. I would have like to have seen Ciaran Thompson get a run out yesterday as he has something to offer around the middle of the pitch but clearly Rory doesn't think he's ready yet!
Oh and one other mention to Mark Anthony - great saves yesterday but his kickouts were brutal.

eddie73

I think that in order to have good kick outs, you have to have a good mid field. we dont. The keeper doesnt have any options especially if the opposition pushes up on the kick outs and we have nothing to aim for then.

Mid field has been a huge concern for the past 12 months. We got away with it under mcguinness, as Kavanagh and Gallagher were younger, and the running game hadnt reached burn out stage. Now donegal face a huge challenge. We need McNiallais to either be a scoring forward, along with Murphy and get in a mid field, or run the risk of being exposed big time in our next game. MC N has a tendency to play fabulous stuff against weaker opposition, but to come up short against bigger players or stronger teams. We will see the next day out.

charlie14

eddie73 wrote: »

I think that in order to have good kick outs, you have to have a good mid field. we dont. The keeper doesnt have any options especially if the opposition pushes up on the kick outs and we have nothing to aim for then.

Mid field has been a huge concern for the past 12 months. We got away with it under mcguinness, as Kavanagh and Gallagher were younger, and the running game hadnt reached burn out stage. Now donegal face a huge challenge. We need McNiallais to either be a scoring forward, along with Murphy and get in a mid field, or run the risk of being exposed big time in our next game. MC N has a tendency to play fabulous stuff against weaker opposition, but to come up short against bigger players or stronger teams. We will see the next day out.

I don`t want to be hard on the young lad, other than his kick outs he had a great game yesterday, but other than a back being free at kick outs, he seems to just hoof it out the middle. When everyone is being marked tight, he doesn`t seem to be able to hit it into space for someone to run on to. Two attempts yesterday went over the sideline.
Then again, for one in particular, nobody seemed to know what to do, so perhaps it just hasn`t been worked on in training and it`snot the lads fault.
As you say, one way or another against Monaghan midfield will need to improve greatly.

Redsoxfan

The thing about modern keepers is, shot stopping is pretty much a given. Kick outs have to be better. And yes, it's hard to know who is at fault. Is he kicking it to where outfield players should be running to but they are not etc? Should there be more movement? But the way he kicks the ball doesn't look great. It hangs in the air too long.

The other thing that really bothered me was our tactic of pressing on the 45. We did it last year against Monaghan and they played the ball around until a runner sneaked behind the line and then popped the ball to them for an easy score. And if a runner breaks the line with the ball, they are clean through. It's high risk stuff.

Redsoxfan

eddie73 wrote: »

I think that in order to have good kick outs, you have to have a good mid field. we dont. The keeper doesnt have any options especially if the opposition pushes up on the kick outs and we have nothing to aim for then.

Mid field has been a huge concern for the past 12 months. We got away with it under mcguinness, as Kavanagh and Gallagher were younger, and the running game hadnt reached burn out stage. Now donegal face a huge challenge. We need McNiallais to either be a scoring forward, along with Murphy and get in a mid field, or run the risk of being exposed big time in our next game. MC N has a tendency to play fabulous stuff against weaker opposition, but to come up short against bigger players or stronger teams. We will see the next day out.

Under McGuinness, we had a tactic of playing Michael further up the pitch and if the opposition pushed up, Papa would kick it over the midfield and into the half forward line.

Other than the bunch tactic I saw once against Monaghan in the league, I haven't seen too much invention. And that was a tactic McGuinness had used against Dublin in 2014.

Look, you can only fool the people for so long if you don't have a midfield, but I think that's only half the battle. The players we have are capable of winning ball if the kick outs are reasonable. We won't dominate but we should do ok, especially in Ulster.

But we need to be able to vary it as well so that we don't have to rely on traditional kick to the middle.

Nidgeweasel

eddie73 wrote: »

I think that in order to have good kick outs, you have to have a good mid field. we dont. The keeper doesnt have any options especially if the opposition pushes up on the kick outs and we have nothing to aim for then.

Mid field has been a huge concern for the past 12 months. We got away with it under mcguinness, as Kavanagh and Gallagher were younger, and the running game hadnt reached burn out stage. Now donegal face a huge challenge. We need McNiallais to either be a scoring forward, along with Murphy and get in a mid field, or run the risk of being exposed big time in our next game. MC N has a tendency to play fabulous stuff against weaker opposition, but to come up short against bigger players or stronger teams. We will see the next day out.

I'd suggest that our midfield has always been fairly weak save for a couple of games where we've had Big Neil fully fit and a partner along side him. It's quite regularly been a difficult one for us switching and chopping.

Re: needing a good midfield to profit from kickouts, that's true when you're solely kicking to the middle. We don't need to do that.

I'll use Dublin v Mayop last year as a crude example. Cluxton spent that first half almost gently tapping the ball to the extremes of the 13 yard line to a receiver. Didn't tend to go down the middle in a traditional way as Mayo had a stronger midfield pair. Now, granted Cluxton is exceptional but the point remains.

Having a free man inside the 21 and kicking to him off a tee isn't beyond the realms of possibility for an average keeper.

Our problem is down to incompetent management.

On Sunday generally I still don't know where to start. There's that many fires I don't know which needs putting out first.

Nidgeweasel

Ok then, Sunday. The below is made without having the stomach to watch it back yet.

I was worried when I saw the line up and my fears were compounded within about 60 seconds of throw in. Same nonsense, different match. Surely, having had a long winter and plenty of tapes to review we'd have seen a belt and definite overhaul in our attacking play for the championship. As it was there was minimal (if that) development to our attacking play.

Going forward we are too static and too predictable. Nowhere near incisive enough, nowhere near committed enough and the result is we aren't scoring enough - again. We seem to be absolutely obsessed with meeting the 45 and passing laterally for no apparent purpose other than possession for possessions sake. Muck. Muck. Muck.

If we are faced with better opposition who are competent with bodies behind the ball, which we will be, then this tactic won't work. It cost us an ulster championship last year and will likely cost us in a fortnight if we don't change.

Our defensive intensity wasn't there- again. We were very lax around our own 40 and they kicked several long range scores. Not much harm you could say but this is a ploy that Monaghan have used successfully in previous years against us. They will be happy to kick from distance if necessary.

Of worry also was the our continued lethargy in the tackle and the ease with which Fermanagh broke ranks and were able to drive at our center time and time again.

I'll tie our discipline in with this part too. How many scoreable frees did we give away? Knowing that Fermanagh had Corrigan and also Quigley who can hit from distance. Was at least 6 frees in Fermanagh's total. Possibly more.In the modern game you simply can't be giving those type of gifts away. Tyrone did it against us last year handy fouls, Murphy punishes.

We have started giving guff to officials now and generally have an attitude creeping in.

As for the Bould Neil, can't defend what he did. I won't be overly critical of him for boxing a Fermanagh man myself mind you, god knows you'd never tire of it, but the fact remains now that we are without the best full back in the country for 2 games. We critically needed him to go on McManus next week and a possible final/qualifier. A really stupid needless act, the type of lack of focus that is starting to become a hallmark of the current management set up.

This lack of focus i've mentioned also extends to our regular 'downing tools' period. We seem incapable of being focused for a prolonged period. Now the scoring dearth wasn't as prominent as last season but it's still there floating around like a bad fart and won't be good enough against better opposition.

All the above are sideline issues that can be resolved. Discipline, approach, workrate- this all comes from the management.

I would never be naive to compare anyone to JmcG in terms of tactics but in terms of the simple basics and the standards set over the past 5 years these are the boxes that should be ticked as a matter of course. You don't have to be a genius like Jim to ensure your tackling is spot on and players are disciplined.

As it is our standards in how we are conducting ourselves have dropped and dropped worryingly. But it's probably no surprise that you see yon clouster talking about possibly appealing Neil's red card :rolleyes: Mouthpiece.

So yeah, poor offensive play, defence not all there, not scoring enough, not disciplined enough but we've been saying this repeatedly now. No confidence in Gallagher.

In terms of performances, MAMcGinley did well for his first day. He made critical saves and yes, his kicking needs work, so does our overall kickout strategy (apparently we don't have one now).

Didn't get the Kavanagh/McLoone axis at all. Not even going to try and work that one out. Hugh McFadden is a waste of time.

I don't want to leave on a negative. We beat Fermanagh in spite of the above because we have got damn good footballers. This is where my frustration comes from. We will beat most teams we come up against because we have better players but we need astute management when up against the top teams.

Ryan McHugh and Frank McGlynn were excellent on Sunday. As was Odhran. Paddy has a thankless task but does it well. Eoin McHugh was fantastic and his pace can be such an asset for us.

Marty O'Reilly worked hard, so did McElhinney. Michael was clearly not fit but his influence was there to be seen and he grew in stature as the game progressed. We've got Karl to come back in. We've got Eoghan Bán, Ciaran Thompson, Gillespie, Stephen McBrearty all continuing to develop. Christy goes on and on and on.

The footballers are there. I'm fully expecting an article from Jim tomorrow bigging us up. The absolute beaut. Would break your heart.

Tl:dr Rory's brother had an article over the weekend about when Rory managed Erne Gales U-16's despite only being a minor himself. Perhaps that's where his managerial level is.

ArnoldJRimmer

Nidgeweasel wrote: »

Ok then, Sunday. The below is made without having the stomach to watch it back yet.

I was worried when I saw the line up and my fears were compounded within about 60 seconds of throw in. Same nonsense, different match. Surely, having had a long winter and plenty of tapes to review we'd have seen a belt and definite overhaul in our attacking play for the championship. As it was there was minimal (if that) development to our attacking play.

Going forward we are too static and too predictable. Nowhere near incisive enough, nowhere near committed enough and the result is we aren't scoring enough - again. We seem to be absolutely obsessed with meeting the 45 and passing laterally for no apparent purpose other than possession for possessions sake. Muck. Muck. Muck.

If we are faced with better opposition who are competent with bodies behind the ball, which we will be, then this tactic won't work. It cost us an ulster championship last year and will likely cost us in a fortnight if we don't change.

Our defensive intensity wasn't there- again. We were very lax around our own 40 and they kicked several long range scores. Not much harm you could say but this is a ploy that Monaghan have used successfully in previous years against us. They will be happy to kick from distance if necessary.

Of worry also was the our continued lethargy in the tackle and the ease with which Fermanagh broke ranks and were able to drive at our center time and time again.

I'll tie our discipline in with this part too. How many scoreable frees did we give away? Knowing that Fermanagh had Corrigan and also Quigley who can hit from distance. Was at least 6 frees in Fermanagh's total. Possibly more.In the modern game you simply can't be giving those type of gifts away. Tyrone did it against us last year handy fouls, Murphy punishes.

We have started giving guff to officials now and generally have an attitude creeping in.

As for the Bould Neil, can't defend what he did. I won't be overly critical of him for boxing a Fermanagh man myself mind you, god knows you'd never tire of it, but the fact remains now that we are without the best full back in the country for 2 games. We critically needed him to go on McManus next week and a possible final/qualifier. A really stupid needless act, the type of lack of focus that is starting to become a hallmark of the current management set up.

This lack of focus i've mentioned also extends to our regular 'downing tools' period. We seem incapable of being focused for a prolonged period. Now the scoring dearth wasn't as prominent as last season but it's still there floating around like a bad fart and won't be good enough against better opposition.

All the above are sideline issues that can be resolved. Discipline, approach, workrate- this all comes from the management.

I would never be naive to compare anyone to JmcG in terms of tactics but in terms of the simple basics and the standards set over the past 5 years these are the boxes that should be ticked as a matter of course. You don't have to be a genius like Jim to ensure your tackling is spot on and players are disciplined.

As it is our standards in how we are conducting ourselves have dropped and dropped worryingly. But it's probably no surprise that you see yon clouster talking about possibly appealing Neil's red card :rolleyes: Mouthpiece.

So yeah, poor offensive play, defence not all there, not scoring enough, not disciplined enough but we've been saying this repeatedly now. No confidence in Gallagher.

In terms of performances, MAMcGinley did well for his first day. He made critical saves and yes, his kicking needs work, so does our overall kickout strategy (apparently we don't have one now).

Didn't get the Kavanagh/McLoone axis at all. Not even going to try and work that one out. Hugh McFadden is a waste of time.

I don't want to leave on a negative. We beat Fermanagh in spite of the above because we have got damn good footballers. This is where my frustration comes from. We will beat most teams we come up against because we have better players but we need astute management when up against the top teams.

Ryan McHugh and Frank McGlynn were excellent on Sunday. As was Odhran. Paddy has a thankless task but does it well. Eoin McHugh was fantastic and his pace can be such an asset for us.

Marty O'Reilly worked hard, so did McElhinney. Michael was clearly not fit but his influence was there to be seen and he grew in stature as the game progressed. We've got Karl to come back in. We've got Eoghan Bán, Ciaran Thompson, Gillespie, Stephen McBrearty all continuing to develop. Christy goes on and on and on.

The footballers are there. I'm fully expecting an article from Jim tomorrow bigging us up. The absolute beaut. Would break your heart.

Tl:dr Rory's brother had an article over the weekend about when Rory managed Erne Gales U-16's despite only being a minor himself. Perhaps that's where his managerial level is.

Agree with everything there, in particular how heartbreaking it is that there's a team there with an All Ireland in them, but its not going to happen

babybuilder

Positives
We didn't get beaten.
McNiallais, McGlynn, the McHughs played well and this should help build confidence.
McGinley, apart from kick outs, played well.

Negatives
As has been alluded to already poor tacking.
Slow and ponderous lateral passing in attack.
Midfield remains our achilles - a major concern
Kick outs terribly misdirected and looping - nothing more demoralising than watching balls going aimlessly over the sideline.
The sending off - indicative and symptomatic of poor team discipline

Our defensive frailties have been well analysed. A player running directly at the on-coming attacker usually results in a missed tackle or else a free. In the past we normally defended in twos and threes dispossessing the opponent. There are two aspects to what's happening. The first being that our opponents have been working on breaking the defensive lines with sharp angular attacks. The second is that physically we have been increasingly unable to match these attacks. This is due to a lack of fitness and energy - miles on the clock with many of our players. The strongest chain is only as good as its weakest link and we have too many players not performing at the required level.

In attack I've looked at one major deficiency. When we are attacking laterally and slowing the ball down our inside line - normally just Patrick McBrearty - eventually vacates the area inside the 20 metre area right across the width of the field. Kerry or Dublin or Tyrone teams always have at least one man inside as an option for the man on the ball. The net result of our play is that we crowd out the area between the 20 metre line and the 45 metre line and make it easier for the defense and harder for ourselves. Remember space is key for scores. The good teams can open up tight defenses by using football intelligence. Ryan mcHugh and Frank mcGlynn and Murphy (when he's not back in his own full back line) have this but they have so much other stuff to do.

Our game has always been based on high intensity work rate and unless we get this back we will struggle against a very physical Monaghan team.

Murphy14

For the first time this year I am reasonably positive about the teams prospects this year we won by 7 points with 14 men for entire 2nd half we hadn't played a competitive fixture in 8/9 weeks and I don't think we showed our hand to the watching Tyrone & Monaghan managers maybe just maybe Rory Gallagher has a trick or two up his sleeve for the Farney men

charlie14

Murphy14 wrote: »

For the first time this year I am reasonably positive about the teams prospects this year we won by 7 points with 14 men for entire 2nd half we hadn't played a competitive fixture in 8/9 weeks and I don't think we showed our hand to the watching Tyrone & Monaghan managers maybe just maybe Rory Gallagher has a trick or two up his sleeve for the Farney men

I hope you are right, but I`m afraid Rory may be very much a one trick pony.

Nidgeweasel

Murphy14 wrote: »

For the first time this year I am reasonably positive about the teams prospects this year we won by 7 points with 14 men for entire 2nd half we hadn't played a competitive fixture in 8/9 weeks and I don't think we showed our hand to the watching Tyrone & Monaghan managers maybe just maybe Rory Gallagher has a trick or two up his sleeve for the Farney men

I hope you are right. I'll happily eat humble pie but the evidence doesn't suggest it will happen.

Ceist_Beag

Murphy14 wrote: »

For the first time this year I am reasonably positive about the teams prospects this year we won by 7 points with 14 men for entire 2nd half we hadn't played a competitive fixture in 8/9 weeks and I don't think we showed our hand to the watching Tyrone & Monaghan managers maybe just maybe Rory Gallagher has a trick or two up his sleeve for the Farney men

That's definitely a glass half full view of things Murphy! It's hard to look beyond the concerns though isn't it - I mean do you think the lads are holding back and can just turn it on when they want to, cause I certainly don't see that happening. Be absolutely thrilled if I'm wrong though!

boxer.fan

The Monaghan lads will be content enough to see us moving the ball over & back the half way line. Especially when Murphy isn't firing on all cylinders. We will likely see RmcH get man handled early on. Yellow cards galore.
I do hope we can improve a bit. The keeper needs an A, B & C plan in tune with a few players out the field. Then maybe we might just get a result.

eddie73

Re the comment about McGuinness playing murphy further up the pitch, that is not true. 2013 and 2014 he was playing an identical role as he is doing this year, with the one exception of the antrim game in the ulster semis 2 years ago. He was well marshalled that day btw, by a 19 year old Antrim full back. It was an amazing performance by him. Anyway, I am not going to bash Rory Gallagher just yet, for the crime of not winning an ulster nor an all ireland. He has got to an ulster final, and 2 league semis in 18 months. I do believe that he has got to change a bit, as sitting back inviting the opposition on has not worked this year in both dublin games (forgivable) and particularly against ross and monaghan. The monaghan game showed me that if we continue using this tactic we are in trouble.

But who goes in mid field if murphy is to go up the pitch? Kavanagh is not the man he was. He will not last 70 minutes.
McNeilis has yet to play a good game in mid field against a tough team.
Gallagher too, is at the very end of his career.
Toye has not the mobility either despite playing very well the other day.

That leaves Hugh McFadden, who imo has not delivered. Both too slow/indecicive and poor at finding a man. Easy to dispossess.
McIlhenny is probably our only 70 minute mid field man that can potentially do the job.

Unfortunately it is most likely that he will be joined by Murphy at mid field. I think that the only silver lining out of this is that it will force the other lads to stand up to the mantle. Ciaran Thompson, Eoin Mchugh, Paddy MCBrearty and Martin Oreilly will all no doubt rise up to the challenge. It is a big ask but they are able to do it.

overshoot

Ceist_Beag wrote: »

That's definitely a glass half full view of things Murphy! It's hard to look beyond the concerns though isn't it - I mean do you think the lads are holding back and can just turn it on when they want to, cause I certainly don't see that happening. Be absolutely thrilled if I'm wrong though!

thats what i am somewhat hoping for in attack, i saw a few glimmers of training ground moves to cut through the blanket to give some hope...
but in defence, the lack of discipline remained. Its hard to see how that could be just switched on. I would especially doubt Neil would be picking up a ban. That surely should have been a big priority to fix this year. Having it in place wouldnt be showing a hand to anyone. Having the basics right would give us the confidence that the more intricate training ground stuff is to come, but the same flaws remain and its hard to see anything that has been addressed from last year.

Redsoxfan

eddie73 wrote:

Re the comment about McGuinness playing murphy further up the pitch, that is not true. 2013 and 2014 he was playing an identical role as he is doing this year, with the one exception of the antrim game

At kickouts he did. It was an option that was used more than once. I'm not talking about where he was playing the rest of the game.

Murphy14

Ceist_Beag wrote: »

That's definitely a glass half full view of things Murphy! It's hard to look beyond the concerns though isn't it - I mean do you think the lads are holding back and can just turn it on when they want to, cause I certainly don't see that happening. Be absolutely thrilled if I'm wrong though!

I wouldn't say it's has easy has switching on and off but I am guessing that training maybe geared to peak over the next 5/6 weeks there is certainly motivation to beat Monaghan within the team if we play the way we started against Monaghan in the league we will win with comfort however the worrying part of this is we faded badly and let them back into the game

Redsoxfan

Jim McGuinness (who?) has a good piece (well well) in the Irish Times (online) where he looks at our performance on Sunday and talks a little about Monaghan

Nidgeweasel

Talk that an appeal will be lodged today.

Ridiculous if true. I won't grumble if Neil gets off but for goodness sake.

Ceist_Beag

That's laughable. It was as clear a red as you could possibly get. GAA county boards are bringing the game into disrepute with their constant appealing of decisions (and then appealing the failure of the first appeal)...

harpsman

Hard to argue with the main criticisms of team and management, namely

1-the discipline has been getting worse and worse since Rory took over- and he seems to set the tone-it looked like he had to be restrained from having a go at the ref at half time after a stone wall red card. Its really come back to bite us now with McGee out for 2 games-probably the death knell for our prospects.

2- the same old game plan of hand passing over and back accross the 40 which will almost certainly come a cropper against Monaghan.

3-terrible tackling, again a feature in the league. Looks like we're sure to cough up 6 0r 7 handy points a game because of it.

Hard to see us beating Monaghan or going beyond qf if we even get there. But I've been a big defender of Rory so Im hoping its all part of his master plan!!

Alvin Holler

Ceist_Beag wrote: »

That's laughable. It was as clear a red as you could possibly get. GAA county boards are bringing the game into disrepute with their constant appealing of decisions (and then appealing the failure of the first appeal)...

To be honest, I'd give him the benefit of the doubt and think that he didn't mean to punch him in the face. Neil doesn't tend to lose the cool like that and I'd say he was trying to move him out of the way.

But it was certainly dangerous and a definite red card. After what happened in Tralee this year, a two match ban seems reasonable.

The problem is with connolly and in particular Keane getting off last year that county boards feel they can and should appeal everything.

Redsoxfan

Nidgeweasel wrote:

Ridiculous if true. I won't grumble if Neil gets off but for goodness sake.

Nidgeweasel wrote:

Talk that an appeal will be lodged today.

Aye. Wtf like. Unless the referee report is way off. Still, not a fan of weaseling out of things.

digiman

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Aye. Wtf like. Unless the referee report is way off. Still, not a fan of weaseling out of things.

Will there be tickets for general sale on any of the websites? I don't see anything on the Gaga website or tickets.ie. Does anyone know if Supervalu have them on sale yet?

Redsoxfan

digiman wrote:

Will there be tickets for general sale on any of the websites? I don't see anything on the Gaga website or tickets.ie. Does anyone know if Supervalu have them on sale yet?

Dunno about SuperValu. Clubs were taking names last week. Would imagine tickets will be on sale next week.

LilNiall

With the results over the weekend especially for Mayo and Tyrone, things look to have opened up a bit. Tyrone/Cavan now having extra games and shorter recovery would be much more appealing if we get past the elephant in the room of Monaghan.

There is definitely problems with Donegal at present but most others have their own areas that need addressed.