Donegal GAA Discussion Thread

SM746

Have a spare ticket on Sunday if anyone wants to save themselves 10/15e. PM me if you want to use it

Redsoxfan

Looks like Lacey for Ryan McHugh will be the only change for Sunday. All the U -21s will be rested which is no harm. Leaves us light on the bench as regards forwards however. David Walsh, Gary McFadden and Stephen McLaughlin the only options as far as I can see.

Redsoxfan

Only right to mention Donegal schools. Colaiste na Carraige won the Markey Cup yesterday (the U-18 Vocational School competition).

And of course on Monday morning, St Eunans take on Colaisti Inis Eoghain in Armagh in the McLarnon Cup Final. Win or lose, St Eunan's will then take on Colaiste na Carriage for the right to represent Ulster in the All Ireland 'B' Competition. Inishowen can win the Ulster title, but cannot go forward to the All Ireland Series as they are an amalgamation of schools.

Bit of debate on Twitter about this lately - Dungarvan Colleges won the Harty Cup last year (CBS Dungarvan plus St Augustines), so maybe something has changed or it's a provincial rule or a difference in football vs hurling....

Whatever else, good to see Donegal schools doing well, even if it is in the Junior competitions.

Nidgeweasel

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Only right to mention Donegal schools. Colaiste na Carraige won the Markey Cup yesterday (the U-18 Vocational School competition).

And of course on Monday morning, St Eunans take on Colaisti Inis Eoghain in Armagh in the McLarnon Cup Final. Win or lose, St Eunan's will then take on Colaiste na Carriage for the right to represent Ulster in the All Ireland 'B' Competition. Inishowen can win the Ulster title, but cannot go forward to the All Ireland Series as they are an amalgamation of schools.

Bit of debate on Twitter about this lately - Dungarvan Colleges won the Harty Cup last year (CBS Dungarvan plus St Augustines), so maybe something has changed or it's a provincial rule or a difference in football vs hurling....

Whatever else, good to see Donegal schools doing well, even if it is in the Junior competitions.

I didn't quite get to grips with this myself.

So if CNC beat Eunans that's it for them. But if Eunans win it they can go into an AI semi final?

Redsoxfan

Nidgeweasel wrote: »

So if CNC beat Eunans that's it for them.

If Inishowen beat St Eunan's that's it for them.

But if Eunans win it they can go into an AI semi final?

Win or lose on Monday, St Eunans play Carrick next. Winner of that game goes to All-Ireland Semi-Final.

Nidgeweasel

Redsoxfan wrote: »

If Inishowen beat St Eunan's that's it for them

Ah right, had crossed wires totally.

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Win or lose on Monday, St Eunans play Carrick next. Winner of that game goes to All-Ireland Semi-Final.

That's abit shíte, in my humble.

Thanks.

green and yellow

An impressive win for Colaiste na Carraige yesterday. Some talented youngfellas 'in through'.
They beat Virginia College 3-08 to 1-10, scoring a goal close to the final whistle, in a tight game.

Redsoxfan

green and yellow wrote: »

An impressive win for Colaiste na Carraige yesterday. Some talented youngfellas 'in through'.
They beat Virginia College 3-08 to 1-10, scoring a goal close to the final whistle, in a tight game.

Following the game on Twitter, they were well on top at the start but missed a lot of chances, which gave Virginia some confidence I suppose.

Stephen McBrearty should have been playing I guess - seems to have had a very bad run with injuries.

The last time a Carrick team won this competition (as Carrick VS back in 1985) they had John Joe Doherty and Noel Hegarty in their team as far as I know. John Joe had played in a Junior B County Championship Final the year before.

Redsoxfan

Nidgeweasel wrote: »

That's abit shíte, in my humble.

Thanks.

FWIW, I agree. But this was known in advance. I still haven't seen an explanation of why Inishowen were allowed to enter a team for the the Ulster Championship but cannot represent Ulster in the All Ireland series.

Whatever, if Inishowen win, I hope people just enjoy the moment and don't moan about something after the fact. Either way, we'll still have a Donegal team in the All Ireland Semi-Final and Carrick vs St Eunans will be another all Donegal affair to look forward to.

For the record, I went to Eunans but am relatively neutral as regards Monday's game. I'll be going to Croke Park and not Armagh myself in any event.

Redsoxfan

Last night's results mean that a win today virtually assures us of promotion (points difference means that we would have to be hammered in our last two games not to finish at least second).

SM746

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Last night's results mean that a win today virtually assures us of promotion (points difference means that we would have to be hammered in our last two games not to finish at least second).

True lets hope we get the result we need now. Down two away games after this. Monaghan two home games so they are definitely up I'd imagine.

SM746

I would honestly say one of worst ref performances I've ever seen. On another note; so bloody wasteful! Big result needed in BShannon

2moreMinutes

Only followed it on Twitter today but seems like we were indeed very wasteful with our kicking today. No harm in having a few below par performances at this time of year though in the grand scheme of things.

Redsoxfan

A shorter than normal report today. There’s not much to say when you score 10 points in 75 minutes.

The signs were there against Monaghan to be honest, we weren’t great and they were poor. We got out of jail against Meath, but there was no late reprieve today in Newry.

Down defended well, did well to slow us in possession by fair means and foul, and while we created enough chances to win, I didn’t think we deserved anything from the game.

Just one thing - Conor Lavery - he's good isn't he? Might we have considered man marking their most dangerous player? He seemed to have the freedom of the park.

Does this defeat do any long term damage? Probably not, but two things – Jim McGuinness stresses that the League is about building confidence, so today has to be seen as a negative in that regard. And, for the second week running, we struggled to overcome a team that set up defensively. Our scoring has declined in each of the last four games after we hit 2-19 first day out.

Refwatch – the man in black from Tyrone was poor enough alright, but that’s not why we lost.

Tl;dr? Donegal poor, Down organised.

Redsoxfan

And another thing - whatever about bringing on Paddy McBrearty, I'm very disappointed in Jim bringing on Jigger. The young fella has a big game tomorrow at 11am and is expected to play on Wednesday as well. His school manager asked that he not be played.

2moreMinutes

Redsoxfan wrote: »

And another thing - whatever about bringing on Paddy McBrearty, I'm very disappointed in Jim bringing on Jigger. The young fella has a big game tomorrow at 11am and is expected to play on Wednesday as well. His school manager asked that he not be played.

I recall Jim has priors in this not caring what other managers think? Didn't he do something similar a few years back when he had apparently agreed not to play certain players? Cant remember the exact situation nor who was involved but I do know it didn't go down too well at the time.

Redsoxfan

2moreMinutes wrote: »

I recall Jim has priors in this not caring what other managers think? Didn't he do something similar a few years back when he had apparently agreed not to play certain players? Cant remember the exact situation nor who was involved but I do know it didn't go down too well at the time.

Jim's priority is the County Senior Team and that's fine. I would just like to see some consideration given to other Donegal teams. The McLarnon Final and the Ulster U-21 Championship matter more than a random league game IMHO.

The issue you might be referring to is one involving Martin McElhinney/DCU/Niall Moyna.

harpsman

Very poor 2nd half display today. Was happy enough to only be 4 back at half time as Down coulda had another goal and wind was very strong and when we kicked 2 early points it looked good. But I think we went about 25 minutes after that with only a point from a '50 to show from it.
Our kickouts with the wind very poor-straight down Mckernans throat- who was best player on the field, by a mile.
Player wise McElhinney, McFadden and McGees good,McNiallis v quiet and rest a mixed bag. Brilliant point by McLoone but again v poor tackling. Some awful handpassing by Frank(again) and Toye to name 2.

Redsoxfan

Some stats via Damian Dowds of the Inishowen Independent on Twitter

Donegal scored 10 of 30 chances, 12 wides, 6 short, 2 blocked
Down scored 10 of 21 chances, 7 wides, 2 short, 2 blocked

harpsman

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Some stats via Damian Dowds of the Inishowen Independent on Twitter

Donegal scored 10 of 30 chances, 12 wides, 6 short, 2 blocked
Down scored 10 of 21 chances, 7 wides, 2 short, 2 blocked

"Lies,damn lies and statistics".

No doubt Down fully deserved their win. Had much more penetration throughout.

Redsoxfan

Congratulations to St Eunans College on their fifth McLarnon. Dramatic stuff in Armagh - they were two points down and scored a penalty with ninty seconds left. Tacked on a point in injury time. Jigger scored a goal for Inishowen in the opening minute but I think the rest of their scores came from Campbell and McLaughlin from frees. If I read it right on Twitter, Eunans had missed eight frees at one stage. Final score 1-7 to 1-5.

Redsoxfan

So Jigger misses out for the U-21s with a hamstring injury. Apparently he wasn't himself on Monday either. I'm afraid this really puts Jim in a bad light in my eyes, for this incident alone.

harpsman

Redsoxfan wrote: »

So Jigger misses out for the U-21s with a hamstring injury. Apparently he wasn't himself on Monday either. I'm afraid this really puts Jim in a bad light in my eyes, for this incident alone.

Hard to disagree with that. Although I wouldnt think hes too bothered about anyone missing U21 matches:).
But seriously,bringing on an 18 yr old who has 2 big matches in the next 3 days defies words imho(loath as I am to criticise Jim after all hes done for us)

Redsoxfan

No matter, Donegal 3-10 Fermanagh 0-06 in Ballybofey in the U -21 Championship. Good win against Fermanagh in the Minor League last night too.

U-21 Semi Finals
Donegal v Armagh/Antrim (two amazing comebacks by Antrim takes Armagh to a replay)
Monaghan v Cavan

Nidgeweasel

Bundoran secondary school won an ulster final yesterday. As it's Bundoran I'd imagine it's a lower level, they're not an established school really are they?

Still, good to see another success for a Donegal side.

Redsoxfan

Nidgeweasel wrote: »

Bundoran secondary school won an ulster final yesterday. As it's Bundoran I'd imagine it's a lower level, they're not an established school really are they?

Still, good to see another success for a Donegal side.

U-16 Vocational Schools I think. Donegal typically do quite well at Vocational School level (see Carrick in previous years) as far as I know.

But yes, good to see. (Magh Ene is a weird looking name - means 'The Plain of Hospitality' according to parish website).

green and yellow

Worth mentioning Colaiste na Carraige meet St Eunans tomorrow in Ballyshannon at 12.30, as winners of their respective ulster competitions, to decide who proceeds to All Ireland Schools Semi.

Redsoxfan

I think PCC Falcarragh are also in action today - here's the report from their Arthur's Cup (Ulster U-16 Vocational Schools 'A') Final win.

Edit - yes, 1.30 today in Inniskeen against Good Counsel New Ross. All-Ireland Final place at stake.

Redsoxfan

Finshed 1-11 to 0-7 in favour of St Eunans over Colaiste na Carraige in Ballyshannon. Seemed like gale force winds dictated much of the game. Was fairly even up to half time and then Eunans pulled away in the second half.

Eunans now play Scoil Aodháin (St Aidan's CBS) of Glasnevin in the All Ireland Semi-Final.


Not such good news from Inniskeen where PCC Falcarragh lost 2-22 to 1-5 to Good Counsel. Was 2-12 to 0-3 at half time so sounds like a mismatch.

Nidgeweasel

Maxi's been mouthing off. I've been wondering how long it would take him to start sniping in the press.

http://hoganstand.com/Donegal/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=212384

Donegal U21 manager Maxi Curran says the demands on rising star Darach O'Connor are too great.

The 18-year-old Buncrana schoolboy missed Donegal's Ulster U21FC quarter-final victory over Fermanagh on Wednesday night and is doubtful for the semi-final on April 2 after pulling a hamstring playing for his school Colaisti Inis Eoghain against St. Eunan's College in the MacLarnon Cup final on Monday. He had played 11 minutes of Donegal's Allianz League game against Down 24 hours earlier.

"The loss of Darach was very, very disappointing in what we feel are very unnecessary circumstances," former senior selector Curran is quoted in the Donegal News.

"For this campaign, we have had Darach for 40 minutes of two matches and one training session since last July. We have been very mindful of Darach the whole way through. His history of injury always cause us a concern.

"Having to be in a situation of playing three matches in four days was always a situation fraught with danger. Ourselves and Colaistí Inis Eoghain suffered for it. He's very young, only 18, and he has a lot to deal with. "These are big games. Darach had to play in the National League, an Ulster final and an U21 championship game in the space of four days and he's still a Leaving Cert student. It's a lot to deal with and it's an unfortunate situation."

Couple of points on this.

1) He's right and the lad shouldn't have played.

2) I don't think he should be airing dirty laundry in public. Have a word with the manager. Maybe I'm expecting too much but i'd rather we kept ranks and dealt with things like this internally instead of trhough the media.

3) Cycnical to suggest he just wanted an indirect pop at Jim and this gave him the opportunity?