Donegal GAA Discussion Thread

Redsoxfan

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Darren McGeever is a new name to me - Cloughaneely?

Cloughaneely it is! Well spotted.

Redsoxfan

Deleted User wrote: »

Cloughaneely it is! Well spotted.

Had to use Google in fairness.

Anything to Charlie?

I'm not sure. McGeever is not all that common a name around here, and most of those who are here are related, so, probably.

In fairness to your Google, I just asked Jason's sister.:D
I thought I recognised the name, but decided to double check.

AnthonyCny

I'd a dream last night Donegal let in 8 goals against Mayo.

Just putting it here in case it does actually happen!

Redsoxfan

With himself in charge, any outcome is possible.

doc_17

Where is the Donegal game this weekend

Murphy14

doc_17 wrote: »

Where is the Donegal game this weekend

Letterkenny

Redsoxfan

Murphy14 wrote:

Letterkenny

The challenge match against Mayo?

Murphy14

Redsoxfan wrote: »

The challenge match against Mayo?

Match was played in Sligo centre of excellence Donegal won by 1-11 to 0-13 Murphy goaled in first half

bob skunkhouse

rrs wrote: »

babybuilder wrote: »

I'll just stick to Donegal thanks. His philosophy is  his constant use of ultranegative tactics as demonstrated in last year's Ulster final. Instead of pushing on in the second half he set up Donegal to defend a lead. The lateral and backward passing is mind- numbing. I have gone to nearly all their games, championship and league, in the last two years.  I'm not surprised Mc Niallais and one or two others have baled.

It's a bit strange Gallagher is so defensive. He was a forward himself, surely he wouldn't like to play in that type of boring system.

He probably wouldn't but it's a results driven game these days.
A comfortable upper middle table position for this year with victories over  Dublin, Kerry, Monaghan, Roscommon securing div 1 status for next year. 
Midfield was our weakest position(s) last year, any improvement their. I don't see Hugh McF as the answer.

bob skunkhouse

Nice bit of kudos to what the inter county GAA player goes through..

Murphy at Clermont Auvergne

harpsman

RMDrive wrote: »

Can you list the philosophises of each of the Ulster counties for example? I'm struggling to understand you point here.

I'll jump in here if you don't mind-Im guessing he/she is talking about playing style-which is pretty much rugby style-keeping possession of the ball with the hands and trying to break through the opposition defence with the use of pre-rehearsed hand passing moves and zero risk by kicking the ball long.

Donegal scored 4 goals last year and the ball was only kicked twice in the build up and execution of the 4 goals-3 rehearsed hand pass moves and 1 intercept and quick movement through the hands.

If you look at the games we lost, firstly Tyrone the second half was soul-destroying to watch-going over and back and over and back. Tyrone had worked out what we were trying and the breeze meant it was more difficult to score from 50 yards although McNiallis managed it once. If you exclude that which was more of a pot shot we went about 36 minutes without creating a scoring chance between Paddy and Christy points. Absolutely brutal to watch. I for one would have found it easier to take defeat if we'd just kicked the ball in a few times instead of doing the same thing which wasnt working over and over.

In the Dublin game we did kick in the ball a bit but imo because we never did it in any other match the execution was poor.

As to other Ulster teams I guess their styles arent alot different but that doesnt make Donegals style less painful to watch.

And I'm not one of the people who blames Rory for the sun setting every night.

Redsoxfan

Team v Mayo was

MA McGinley
P McGrath
N McGee
EB Gallagher
C Ward
R McHugh
P Brennan
M Langan
H McFadden
C Thompson
E McHugh
M O'Reilly
P McBrearty
M Murphy
J Brennan

rrs

Donegal were always a hand passing type team. Even before McGuiness and Gallagher. Its called football after all,should be a limit on the hand passes.

seligehgit

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Team v Mayo was

MA McGinley
P McGrath
N McGee
EB Gallagher
C Ward
R McHugh
P Brennan
M Langan
H McFadden
C Thompson
E McHugh
M O'Reilly
P McBrearty
M Murphy
J Brennan

May I be so cheeky as to ask if you've any idea how Mayo lined out?Thanks:)

Redsoxfan

bob skunkhouse wrote:

Midfield was our weakest position(s) last year, any improvement their. I don't see Hugh McF as the answer.

Well, I don't think Hugh McFadden is the answer either, unless he improves a lot.

But, we have no Big Neil or McElhinney this weekend. Along with the losses of Kavanagh, Toye and MacNiallais and for experience alone, Hugh McFadden must be in line to start on Sunday.

Nidgeweasel

Time to call a spade as spade here. McFadden is fairly shít like.

I appreciate he is young. But unless he has improved drastically (and I don't think he has) he is certainly not the answer.

Murphy14

Midfield will be a problem has it was last year until Big Neil returns due to lack of options for midfield we end up with Murphy out there which is not ideal

dog_pig

seligehgit wrote: »

May I be so cheeky as to ask if you've any idea how Mayo lined out?Thanks:)

The only names I see mentioned in the following article are Kevin McLoughlin and Cillian O'Connor.

http://www.donegaldemocrat.ie/news/home/232805/murphy-goal-enough-to-give-donegal-narrow-victory-over-mayo-in-challenge-game.html

Gael85

Has Cillian Morrison given up the soccer?

doc_17

That's a very weak Donegal team. Gonna be the usual in Letterkenny.

Ceist_Beag

Just to give the team Doc is talking about, team named for Sunday is below (taken from Donegal Democrat)
The Donegal team selected is:
Mark Anthony McGinley
Paddy McGrath, Neil McGee, Eoghan Bán Gallagher
Paul Brennan, Caolan Ward, Ryan McHugh
Hugh McFadden, Jason McGee
Martin O'Reilly, Michael Langan, Ciaran Thompson
Jamie Brennan, Michael Murphy, Patrick McBrearty

It certainly is a new look to the team! I haven't a clue about some of these lads. Expectations will be low for Sunday.

charlie14

Ceist_Beag wrote: »

Just to give the team Doc is talking about, team named for Sunday is below (taken from Donegal Democrat)
The Donegal team selected is:
Mark Anthony McGinley
Paddy McGrath, Neil McGee, Eoghan Bán Gallagher
Paul Brennan, Caolan Ward, Ryan McHugh
Hugh McFadden, Jason McGee
Martin O'Reilly, Michael Langan, Ciaran Thompson
Jamie Brennan, Michael Murphy, Patrick McBrearty

It certainly is a new look to the team! I haven't a clue about some of these lads. Expectations will be low for Sunday.

I see the Leitrim man is in.
I hope I`m wrong here, but from that team for a home game, it doesn`t do a lot from my expectations in the league.
As in staying in Div 1.

Redsoxfan

Excited to see Ward, Jason McGee and Langan start. Might not be their day on Sunday but there is part of the future right there.

Alvin Holler

Nice to see the new faces, pretty surprised that Jason McGee and Langan are starting. I presumed that they were in the squad mainly for experience and that McGonigle, S McBrearty or Carroll would be starting ahead of them as they featured last year.

We really could do with more options in the full back line, don't think EBG is a long term solution there.

Kerry team looks fairly strong, like ourselves a mixture of youth and experience. Going to be a real test for us, would be great to start off with a win.

Nidgeweasel

So then, a new beginning.

This is a period of great change for us as we begin to bring through new players who will hopefully be with us for a long time. It needed to happen. Maybe there is too much of a massive overhaul to allow for a period of consistency (stay in division 1) as we rebuild but it is what it is.

To the four boys (Eamon, Rory, Colm, Christy) setting off into the sun not a lot more needs to be said. They've had their shoulder to the Donegal wheel for a long time. They have given everything for Donegal football and owe us nothing. They leave a massive hole behind them.

To Leo and Odhran I pray they will return. We could have really done with their experience and talent this season as we blood in new players.

Where are we at then? The simple truth is, we don't know anymore. We've been very consistent over the past number of years. 2 elements to that to my mind

1) We had a solid experienced team who could be relied upon to beat those considered below them and you'd always fancy them to pick up another couple of points here or there on any given day.

2)They were still running on fumes from McGuinness.

Both of those elements are now gone. We have a lot of inexperienced players in to cut their teeth and we don't really know where they are at in respect of senior football. We also have a new group of players who were never there under Jim. It is 3 years Anno Jimini and this is now RG on his own for me.

There is no question that Gallagher under-performed with the players he had in 2015 and 2016. There is no doubt in my mind that both of those Ulster finals would have been won with competent management. Last year was the more pertinent of the two. We have allowed Tyrone out of their box, that will spur their on and we are now on very different roads as we rebuild from the bottom up and they go on to develop as a provincial winning team looking for further success (they are nowhere near an All Ireland though).

Given the retirements and passage of time this is Gallagher's team now. The onus is on him. In an ironic way he's bought himself some time now as there is no expectation. The flipside is, this is all on him now and we can clearly see what he is made of with how he does with this 'new team'.

Me? I think he's a dud. I don't trust him and I don't particularly like him. I don't like the people he has around him and I have concerns over his ability as a manager. I fear he will be in there for another 3 years achieving very little before the penny drops.

As for the new players, good luck to them. All I want to see is them give everything and not to take any shíte. The era of us being the nice guys and party boys has thankfully been consigned to the dustbin. I never want to see us being a soft touch again and i'm looking for that bit of toughness in the league from them. We've seen it at times in the minors and u-21's and it's a positive. We have good structure underage and serious talent there waiting for their opportunity.

I don't have alot of expectation to stay up. A lot of teams will be targeting us for 2 points including the likes of Cavan who are favourite for the drop. Actually think Cavan could pose serious problems for the Dubs tody but that's for a different thread. We need to beat Cavan, Roscommon and Mayo to stay up I think. Any other results would be a bonus. I don't expect a lot from today, we are abysmal above in Letterkenny and Kerry have a better team but look it's a new start so f*ck it. Just hope they give it a good rattle.

I'm excited to see what these new boys bring to the table and it's time to look forward now. Time for a new Christy or Eamon or Karlo to take on the mantle.

Up Donegal.

LilNiall

A 3 point defeat is getting away lightly i feel. Saying that, with Neil McGee also missing today i felt a defeat was a near certainty.

It was the first time in a long time i had to buy a program to see who exactly was playing. Thought Gallagher, McGee and Thompson were impressive. Attacking wish we werent bad although too many kicks dropped short. Jigger cpuld be a nice addition. Took a few scores and knows whats expected.

Kerrys forwards, Geaney and O Donoghue took us to the cleaners. Was so bad even wondered if we had right boots on.

Next week will tell us more. Feel its nearly must win. Can we though?

babybuilder

LilNiall wrote: »

A 3 point defeat is getting away lightly i feel. Saying that, with Neil McGee also missing today i felt a defeat was a near certainty.

It was the first time in a long time i had to buy a program to see who exactly was playing. Thought Gallagher, McGee and Thompson were impressive. Attacking wish we werent bad although too many kicks dropped short. Jigger cpuld be a nice addition. Took a few scores and knows whats expected.

Kerrys forwards, Geaney and O Donoghue took us to the cleaners. Was so bad even wondered itif we had right boots on.

Next week will tell us more. Feel its nearly must win. Can we though?

Couldn't make the game today. How was the team set up? Was it half forwards dropping back and marking space? From what I heard on the radio we were cleaned out in the middle and Kerry were playing finding the forwards with good passes. Glad to hear that a couple of our subs made an impression. With so many of the old guard gone and with many new faces I'd say our current management set up will get plenty of leeway.

MactheKnife90

LilNiall wrote: »

A 3 point defeat is getting away lightly i feel. Saying that, with Neil McGee also missing today i felt a defeat was a near certainty.

It was the first time in a long time i had to buy a program to see who exactly was playing. Thought Gallagher, McGee and Thompson were impressive. Attacking wish we werent bad although too many kicks dropped short. Jigger cpuld be a nice addition. Took a few scores and knows whats expected.

Kerrys forwards, Geaney and O Donoghue took us to the cleaners. Was so bad even wondered if we had right boots on.

Next week will tell us more. Feel its nearly must win. Can we though?

Jason Mc Gee didn really feature I felt??

DDC1990

Lads thanks to ye all for the hospitality.

Lovely welcoming crowd. Sat in front of a very knowledgeable lady with her husband and son. Great insight and very fair comments.

It's rare that I feel the referee helped Kerry out, but today he missed some pretty blatant fouls on Donegal in attacking positions. The one where Murphy had a little dive was a bit petty from Deegan IMO. Murphy's jersey was clearly pulled, but because Murphy exaggerated the fall he said play on. Give the free and have a quiet word would have been the correct course of action.

Ye looked huge at midfield but the two lads are young and got well beaten physically by Barry and Moran IMO.

Defensively, the three Kerry inside forwards caused a lot of hassle both out in front and in behind.

I was very happy with how Mark Griffin handled Murphy and with how Killian Young handled McBrearty.

A good fightback in the end to cut the gap to 3. Some lovely scores and Darrach O'Connor seemed to cause us difficulty inside,and Murphy running from deep lead to a lot of scores late.