Donegal GAA Discussion Thread

Redsoxfan

Keith Duggan and Frank McGlynn. Telling it like it is.

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/donegal-ready-to-prove-they-have-a-lot-left-to-offer-1.1807013?page=1

Nidgeweasel

Interesting read although not a lot of ground breaking information we probably didn't already know.

We badly need a performance tomorrow. I think the players will know that themselves and I hope they aren't nervous. That's something that Jim has excelled at thus far anyway, keeping their heads where they need to be.

Nervous about tomorrow now personally, alot riding on it, outside of progressing in Ulster.

harpsman

Nidgeweasel wrote: »

Interesting read although not a lot of ground breaking information we probably didn't already know.

We badly need a performance tomorrow. I think the players will know that themselves and I hope they aren't nervous. That's something that Jim has excelled at thus far anyway, keeping their heads where they need to be.

Nervous about tomorrow now personally, alot riding on it, outside of progressing in Ulster.

Yes. Big one tomorrow. Almost make or break for season. Looks like another bad weather day. Anyway heres hopin the lads can pull out a big one and derry fail to deliver again.
Ps have a spare tkt if anyone wants it. Headin from dublin in morn so early start.
Cmon Donegal

SM746

Also have a spare ticket if anyone wants it. Let me know in next 40mins if ya want it as I'll be out of reception after that when I enter the North

ArnoldJRimmer

Absolutely delighted with that. By no means a vintage performance, but it was always about getting out of there with a result. Some great scores in the second half when it mattered. Should be in an Ulster Final now

harpsman

Just home from celtic Park-a tired but proud Donegal man. A scintillating ten minutes after half time when we outscored them 1-5 to nothing.
Bit worrying that we struggled to close out the game but a good performance and a great win none the less. 2 McGees,Lacey,thompson, McGlynn, McLoone and Murphy very good. mcHugh very good 2nd half but he was a liability at corner back.McElhinney did well too when he came on. Mcbrearty and Gallagher poor but Im sure big Neil nowhere near fully fit.
Plenty to work on but promising start. now for Fermanagh/Antrim.

babybuilder

Absolutely delighted with today's performance although again Derry have shown again what an average championship side they are. Good to see Donegal tightening up at the back with more players breaking forward into areas where there is a bit more space.

I thought that in the first half Donegal should have scored at least one goal and several points whereas Derry never threatened our goals. We should have been two or three points ahead at halftime. The half backs and half forwards played well enough which is great when midfield are having an off day. Mc Hugh, Lacey, McNeillis( " McNicholls" LOL), McGlynn and Thompson kept us in it.

Up from McBrearty wasn't good missing with his left when he should have used his right and kicking two into the keepers hands is a cardinal sin in football. Mc Fadden wasn't linking well and was well marked. Murphy was supplied with 2 or 3 good diagonal passes which is nice to see.

Still not 2012 standards but we live in hope.

SM746

Delighted to be proven wrong :-) hopefully we can kick on from this and overcome whoever we get in the semi.

Redsoxfan

Just in the door. YES! Great to win, and we played well enough at times. Was happy enough to be going in two points down, even if we probably missed better chances that Derry in the second half. Third quarter burst got us over the line, just like 2012. I wasn't that nervous at the end, we didn't really look like conceding a goal all afternoon.

Sublime from Murphy on the sideline - we were right behind him. Noticed that Jim seemed to tell him to go for it.

Paddy McBrearty - very poor first half - four shots, one hit the post, two dropped short and one wide. Just seen him tweet about losing his shooting boots. Good to see him get a point in the second half, even if he really should have gone for goal.

Colm - no lack of effort, but as we have seen before, the ball wouldn't stick. Got a hard time from his man, but you need to be able to deal with that. It took long enough, but Jim eventually lost patience with him. Didn't even have a handy free to kick all afternoon.

Papa - one bad kick over the line but generally was very accurate.

Midfield - was shocked at McElhinney missing out. Not sure what was going on there. Christy had a good half, I was surprised when he didn't come out for the second, but McElhinney played well, gave us drive, kicked a score. Big Neil - a bit ponderous in possession at times, but got through some good work in defence. MacNiallais - I am not sure really, I need to watch it and keep an eye on him but I don't think he starts the next day if everyone is fit. I guess you need to acknowledge that Fergal Doherty going off had a positive influence on our performance.

Paddy McGrath - great to see him back. Very spiky all afternoon.

Lacey - very good. Rumours of his demise have been greatly exaggerated. Great to see him getting a point and Tony Thompson too. I thought Frank had a good game too. The McGees were good as well.

Leo - great to see him have a good game. He belongs at half forward in future.

David Walsh did well when he came on.

Bottom line - Jim McGuinness is still a top class manager. We're lucky to have him.

SM746

Sublime from Murphy on the sideline - we were right behind him. Noticed that Jim seemed to tell him to go for it.

Same as! He said twice; "over the bar". You were in viewing distance of the eejit wearing the Derry no 8 jersey. Nice to see his goading stopped about 2mins into 2nd half

Redsoxfan

Oh yeah, great to see our Minors win as well. Looked the much better team in the first half, but made heavy weather of things. Derry didn't look great. On they go. Not sure when they will play their semi final, hopefully before the Seniors on the 22nd but not sure how it works with LC.

Redsoxfan

SM746 wrote: »

Same as! He said twice; "over the bar". You were in viewing distance of the eejit wearing the Derry no 8 jersey. Nice to see his goading stopped about 2mins into 2nd half

Yep. Noticed him down to my left, but couldn't hear him. They didn't have much to cheer about thankfully.

Ceist_Beag

Delighted to get out of Derry with a win. For me some of there were plenty of positives from yesterday, albeit against a much weaker Derry performance than I was expecting.
Firstly it was the pattern of 2012 again - containment in the first half followed by an explosive third quarter and then containment again. Quite why we didn't push on in the second half I don't know - we had Derry on the ropes and could have completely killed the game. But as RSF said, I never really felt Derry could close the gap after we opened that lead. Also the swarming tactics from 2012 were there to see again yesterday. There was some brilliant tackling and great discipline in defence.
I don't know what McIvor was giving out about in the post match interview - the only contentious incident in the game for me was the lack of a black card for Bradley in the first half.
Lacey put in a great performance, Thompson gave his usual 100% and McLoone showed what he offers going forward (100% agree with RSF tho, center half forward, not back for me, he still carries the ball into the tackle far too often). The full back line was solid and great to see Paddy put in a full 70. The kick outs from Durcan were very good and I thought McElhinney was excellent when he came on.
In the forwards I would have a few concerns. Jigger did well in his first outing and Murphy was sublime at the start of the second half (but I would much prefer if we left him at the edge of the square a lot more). Paddy showed well and was brave enough to take on a few shots but dropping two into the keepers hands was disappointing and the goal misses could have cost us against better opposition.
The biggest concern was the lack of form from Colm - I know he was well marked but he didn't even look like scoring and I was surprised he lasted as long as he did. Jim has a call for the next day - play him and hope he plays his way back into form, or drop him and hope it gives him the push he needs. I think he will still be vital if we want to get beyond the quarter finals so hopefully Jim knows how to get him going again.

2moreMinutes

SM746 wrote: »

Sublime from Murphy on the sideline - we were right behind him. Noticed that Jim seemed to tell him to go for it.

Same as! He said twice; "over the bar". You were in viewing distance of the eejit wearing the Derry no 8 jersey. Nice to see his goading stopped about 2mins into 2nd half

I was sitting a few rows behind that lad too and to say he was annoying during the first half is putting it very mildly!

2moreMinutes

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Oh yeah, great to see our Minors win as well. Looked the much better team in the first half, but made heavy weather of things. Derry didn't look great. On they go. Not sure when they will play their semi final, hopefully before the Seniors on the 22nd but not sure how it works with LC.

I only arrived just before half time so missed the first half. Derry seemed very wasteful in the second half which helped matters. I was very impressed with our number 9 (think he's McMonagle from Buncrana?). Seems like a big strong lad who is well able to run with the ball. Hopefully he'll progress over the next years into a player the seniors really need.

smashey

Happy with the result yesterday and the way they went about it reminded me of 2012. The game was played on Donegal's terms, very much Donegal's terms. The way they cut through Derry after half time with Lacey and McGlynn to the fore was just like 2012 all over again. Not quite at that level yet but getting there. Great to see Paddy McGrath back to and to have the McGee brothers at their snarling best

Murphy's point from the sideline was just special.

harpsman

keane2097 wrote: »

Calculated it myself for the sake of handicapping matches.

Just using championship matches I presume?-you ll have to recalculate after weekend:D

Gary Neville

Well - now the questiions have been answered. Donegal are very much back in business.

This was a much more comprehensive victory than the scoreboard suggested. Donegal always looked to have too much class and with the wind advantage, the 2nd half outcome was inevitable.

A win in Derry without Kavanagh and a fully fit Gallagher was very impressive and when you add in Colm McFadden's negligible contribution - there is much more to come from Donegal. I expect a Tyrone v Donegal Ulster Final with Donegal winning comfortably.

Donegal had gone out to 25/1 with P Power but are now in to 14/1.

rossie1977

Gary Neville wrote: »

A win in Derry without Kavanagh and a fully fit Gallagher was very impressive and when you add in Colm McFadden's negligible contribution - there is much more to come from Donegal. I expect a Tyrone v Donegal Ulster Final with Donegal winning comfortably.

i expect a tyrone vs donegal final too but i don't think it will be comfortable. donegal to win though because i think the two games against down, monaghan and probably cavan will take alot out of tyrone come the second half against donegals grounding down style of play.

harpsman

Gary Neville wrote: »

Well - now the questiions have been answered. Donegal are very much back in business.

This was a much more comprehensive victory than the scoreboard suggested. Donegal always looked to have too much class and with the wind advantage, the 2nd half outcome was inevitable.

A win in Derry without Kavanagh and a fully fit Gallagher was very impressive and when you add in Colm McFadden's negligible contribution - there is much more to come from Donegal. I expect a Tyrone v Donegal Ulster Final with Donegal winning comfortably.

Donegal had gone out to 25/1 with P Power but are now in to 14/1.

Steady on there. Dont think we re quite back in business yet. With monaghans injuries does look like a Tyrone donegal final-think Tyrone might finally get one over on us(in jims reign).
We re certainly not all ireland material.Id be delighted if we could win Ulster and take our chances from there.

Nidgeweasel

Lets win the semi final first lads eh?

But i'd rather play Monaghan :P

Redsoxfan

harpsman wrote: »

We re certainly not all ireland material.Id be delighted if we could win Ulster and take our chances from there.

Yep. Fully expect us to win the Ulster Semi Final (sorry, Jim and the lads can take it one game at a time all they like, I am not going to play the poor mouth), regardless of who it is.

With Monaghan's injuries, I can see Tyrone winning that Quarter Final. I don't see Cavan having what it takes to beat Tyrone at this stage (but I think they will beat Armagh), so a Donegal v Tyrone Final looks very possible at this stage.

Nothing I have seen from Tyrone would especially worry me. If we can build on what we saw on Sunday, we are looking good.

I won't entertain any talk of prospects beyond that point. That's for those outside the County as far as I am concerned.

Gary Neville

harpsman wrote: »

Steady on there. Dont think we re quite back in business yet. With monaghans injuries does look like a Tyrone donegal final-think Tyrone might finally get one over on us(in jims reign).
We re certainly not all ireland material.Id be delighted if we could win Ulster and take our chances from there.

I don't think Donegal are anywhere near their 2012 level yet and it's questionable whether they ever will. Mark McHugh was a key man and it's fairly clear that his brother Ryan is a long way off Mark's standard yet. It will be critical for McFadden to get his confidence back but they next opponents are perfect. Lacey is getting back to his best and that's huge.

The big positive is that the players have restored their belief in the system.
McGuinness will be in cloud 9 - he's got a perfect Ulster Campaign to fine tune things and Donegal will be serious opponents at the business end of the season. I'm not in the least bit surprised - this is the last hurray (Colm O Rourke suggested the last sting from a dying wasp lol) and I expect McG's warriors to go out on their shields.

Nidgeweasel

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Yep. Fully expect us to win the Ulster Semi Final (sorry, Jim and the lads can take it one game at a time all they like, I am not going to play the poor mouth), regardless of who it is.

With Monaghan's injuries, I can see Tyrone winning that Quarter Final. I don't see Cavan having what it takes to beat Tyrone at this stage (but I think they will beat Armagh), so a Donegal v Tyrone Final looks very possible at this stage.

Nothing I have seen from Tyrone would especially worry me. If we can build on what we saw on Sunday, we are looking good.

I won't entertain any talk of prospects beyond that point. That's for those outside the County as far as I am concerned.

They're due one. That's what would worry me about them.

Redsoxfan

Nidgeweasel wrote: »

They're due one. That's what would worry me about them.

We were 'due' against Armagh for years. We lost five in a row 2002-2006.

Nidgeweasel

smashey wrote: »

Murphy's point from the sideline was just special.

At the time, it's funny, we all were unanimous that he should hit it and certain he'd score it too. A brilliant score but one that we all almost shrugged shoulders at the derry boys near us and go argha sure you didn't think he'd miss it did you!

Talk of the way back. He's ridiculous, Michael Murphy. Gets to the stage now where if he's given a free etc the umpire may aswell just get the flag up there and then and save himself a bit of time. So reliable it's a joke. Knew in 2007 we had something very special on our hands, never in my wildest dreams did I think he'd be that good. Great role model too for the younger ones.

Redsoxfan

Gary Neville wrote: »

Mark McHugh was a key man and it's fairly clear that his brother Ryan is a long way off Mark's standard yet.

Sorry, but what are you basing this on? How many times have you seen Ryan play for Club or County?

Nidgeweasel

Redsoxfan wrote: »

We were 'due' against Armagh for years. We lost five in a row 2002-2006.

They were much better than us though and we were mentally weak. In a final when they had their heads on it was stacked against us from the off. That's as much praise as I can manage to churn out for that shower without feeling queasy.

I just think Tyrone, with Harte in charge having had a 'relative' dry spell I'd be very wary of them. I'd much sooner avoid them if at all possible.

I do agree with what you're saying in the main about their team but Mickeys a cute ould hoor as they say.

Redsoxfan

Nidgeweasel wrote: »

They were much better than us though and we were mentally weak. In a final when they had their heads on it was stacked against us from the off. That's as much praise as I can manage to churn out for that shower without feeling queasy.

I just think Tyrone, with Harte in charge having had a 'relative' dry spell I'd be very wary of them. I'd much sooner avoid them if at all possible.

I do agree with what you're saying in the main about their team but Mickeys a cute ould hoor as they say.

Fair enough, I agree we weren't really up to the Armagh challenge. I just don't know how good Mickey Harte is tactically any more. If you gave me a choice of facing a fully fit Monaghan or Tyrone I'd pick Tyrone as I just don't think we match up well against Monaghan. Sure, the thought of revenge is great and all, but I'm not wishing for that chance.

2moreMinutes

Nidgeweasel wrote: »

Talk of the way back. He's ridiculous, Michael Murphy. Gets to the stage now where if he's given a free etc the umpire may aswell just get the flag up there and then and save himself a bit of time. So reliable it's a joke. Knew in 2007 we had something very special on our hands, never in my wildest dreams did I think he'd be that good. Great role model too for the younger ones.

Just to be the awkward one here, he did miss a relatively straight forward free yesterday early on.