Donegal GAA Discussion Thread

jjdonegal

Ceist_Beag wrote: »

I actually thought Eamonn had his best game of the year yesterday. If Lacey is not 100% then Walsh should be in the next day alright. Big Neil was massive again in the second half yesterday so we can't afford to leave him out against what will probably be the strongest midfield pairing we've come across so far this year.
McLoone absolutely should start.
As for Paddy, he needs to be right for the rest of the season but I'm not sure resting him for 1 game does much for a tight hamstring - any physios on who can comment on that one?
Unfortunately jj I don't think we have the panel to afford the luxury of dropping too many from yesterday. I don't think too many players were that bad yesterday - it was mainly tactics and poor shooting that cost us the game.
On the performance yesterday the lads I would consider dropping would be McElhinney, Odhran and Colm. As I said, Leo should start the next day and Marty O'Reilly can come in along with possibly Jigger.
We have Karl, Michael and Paddy all carrying injuries, a thin panel and some lads who deserve to be dropped ... as Nidge put it, our AI ambitions are over so without an Ulster would it be better wrapping up now than facing a possible beating in Croker? I'm half serious!

Oh I agree with the performances of Eamon, etc. Its not dropped I think we need to take a risk and rest the above players as if we beat Galway it's damage limitation I'm thinking about against Mayo. We need those players with miles on the clock not to be doing 7 day turnovers.
Personally it's a risk I'd like to see taken.

Redsoxfan

smashey wrote:

Given that Tyrone play Sligo next weekend, what's the chances of a double-header somewhere?

Slim enough I reckon.

Sligo v Tyrone will be Brewster or indeed MacCumhaill Park I reckon.

Still think we end up in Sligo. Only way I can see Castlebar getting the game is because there has been no Championship game played there this year.

HighKing33

McFadden who was masterful in the Armagh game was very wasteful yesterday, similarly McNiallais. Murphy also was anonymous. When your star midfielders are out of the game how can you expect to compete?

Tactical masterclass from Malachy O'Rourke. This is how you play teams that sit deep. Hold onto the ball, probe, be patient and when you pick that pass make sure it's a killer one. If you're wreckless they'll hurt you on the break. Other teams will I suspect make note of this when playing Donegal.

Ceist_Beag

Double header it is but the crazy thing is, it's in Croker! How is that logical given the counties involved?!

Saturday, August 1
GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 4B
Sligo v Tyrone, Croke Park, 4pm (Live on Sky Sports)
Donegal v Galway, Croke Park, 6pm (Live on Sky Sports)

doc_17

That's where the sky deal really kicks in. They have the rights to both games and it's easy to have them in the same venue. Bring all the teams from mainly the northwest to Leinster to play in a half empty ground. And it'll be deserted for the start of the Sligo Tyrone game and the same for the end of the Donegal Galway game.

2moreMinutes

This is a bull**** decision by the GAA.

K-9

HighKing33 wrote: »

McFadden who was masterful in the Armagh game was very wasteful yesterday, similarly McNiallais. Murphy also was anonymous. When your star midfielders are out of the game how can you expect to compete?

Tactical masterclass from Malachy O'Rourke. This is how you play teams that sit deep. Hold onto the ball, probe, be patient and when you pick that pass make sure it's a killer one. If you're wreckless they'll hurt you on the break. Other teams will I suspect make note of this when playing Donegal.

If Paddy gets that point we'd all be wondering how Monaghan threw away a 5 point lead. Monaghan played brilliantly for 20 minutes and that was enough to win it.

fullstop

K-9 wrote: »

If Paddy gets that point we'd all be wondering how Monaghan threw away a 5 point lead. Monaghan played brilliantly for 20 minutes and that was enough to win it.

And that small margin makes all the difference with preparation for a quarter final, while Donegal have potentially 2 games in 7 or 8 days (?), the second of which would be against a Mayo team that won't have expended much energy since June (if they get past Galway before any of the crowd that have descended since yesterday accuse me of anything).

K-9

Rory wasn't putting much into more games, and I think he's right, its one more game after all and there's 3 or 4 weeks in between. We've won it through the preliminary round twice.

If Donegal got the draw people would be saying the tougher draw stood to them in the second half. I think they are just Ulster football cliches at this stage.

fullstop

K-9 wrote: »

Rory wasn't putting much into more games, and I think he's right, its one more game after all and there's 3 or 4 weeks in between. We've won it through the preliminary round twice.

If Donegal got the draw people would be saying the tougher draw stood to them in the second half. I think they are just Ulster football cliches at this stage.

Yeah but if you win the game you've a few weeks to rest before a quarter final against a qualifier who have played a lot of football. Losing the game means that even if we get past Galway, we meet a provincial winner who have only played 2 games to win the province, one of which was an absolute cakewalk. They'll be fresh as daisies and Donegal, should they win, will have played 5 championship games since May 17th. So far, 3 of them have been closely fought games.

henke

Bitterly disappointed with the result yesterday kicked the game away in fairness. If they were as economical as in the past we would have won. Funny how things change in a few weeks. After the Armagh game we were the form team and All Ireland contenders. I can't see it now to be honest hope I am proved wrong.

Redsoxfan

Doubt they will get 25,000 for the double header.

doc_17

Attendance in Salthill was only 4500 or something? I know Derry don't travel well but say they had a 1000. That would leave Galway with about 3000 for Croke park. Donegal might take 10000, Sligo won't take many as they'll probably get another hammering and the Tyrone fans will save the money for the QF. It'll have the feel of a league semi final

WallyGUFC

In fairness the weather in Galway on Saturday evening was shocking, as was the traffic. Many people turned for home when they saw every road into town choked up. Really is a nonsense having our games in Salthill, Tuam should be redeveloped.

Still though, it's the Saturday of Race Week (which many locals go to) so there won't be many up from here at all. Will be a good test for Galway but Donegal are hardened and experienced. Think this game is a season too soon.

eddie73

Croke park is no disaster, despite what people are thinking. We could have been dragged over to Castlebar for instance. Good to get another run in Croke park to be honest.

But the reality is that I think that mentally, this is going to be one extremely difficult months in donegal GAA. Preparing half a year for an ulster campaign that consisted of 4 of the top teams to fall by a point at the last hurdle must be very demoralizing. Couple this with a game with galway and a match the following week against a mighty Mayo side, before you even mention a semi final place. That would mean we have played 4 division 1 teams and a division 2 side already this year, while 2 of the provincial winners have yet to play division 1 opposition and the other provincial winner have played just 1.

We have got to credit our lads for what they have sacrificed this year. They under-performed a bit on sunday, but I still am aware of what they have put in.

Nidgeweasel

Hate those throw in times for those in west Donegal or up around gweedore. It's a sickener for them getting back home late it their brining kids or whatever.

I really don't like having these qualifier games in Croke Park anyway . You can make a point that yeah it's nice for Sligo etc but it's rotten being in there with half a stadium.

I'd actually love to see the provincial winners play their quarter final at home. Think it'd be great.

Similarly, you could argue the toss for the provincial loser having a home tie in round 4.

Sligo would have done rightly for this.

doc_17

Nidgeweasel wrote: »

Hate those throw in times for those in west Donegal or up around gweedore. It's a sickener for them getting back home late it their brining kids or whatever.

I really don't like having these qualifier games in Croke Park anyway . You can make a point that yeah it's nice for Sligo etc but it's rotten being in there with half a stadium.

I'd actually love to see the provincial winners play their quarter final at home. Think it'd be great.

Similarly, you could argue the toss for the provincial loser having a home tie in round 4.

Sligo would have done rightly for this.

Yeah I completely agree, except for one thing, there won't be even half the stadium filled!

Nidgeweasel

On the next few games, do you what it really is. We just look f*cked. Winning v Monaghan would have given us a nice wee break ahead of a quarter final.

As it is, we have two weeks for one game and then a 1 week turnaround to play a good outfit. I'd fancy us to give anyone a good rattle if we had anything left in the tank but we don't seem to have it in us. Been a slog of an Ulster campaign.

cj maxx

doc_17 wrote: »

Yeah I completely agree, except for one thing, there won't be even half the stadium filled!

Completely agree , a quarter full croke park is pretty dull . Plus as nidgie said travel from some parts is daunting .
The agrument that playing in CP is a prize for some counties loses value when its nearly empty and it takes a day travelling to and from it.
Casttlebar, breffni , clones as well as hyde and markovic could suely been a better option for those travelling

charlie14

Am I the only one who suffered a case of deja vu yesterday?
To me we set up the same as the Derry game, and had the same problems against a Monaghan team we knew were going to set up like Derry, but would be much more comfortable in that formation.
If big Neil hadn`t of broken the Derry line to set up the goal we were in trouble.
The thinking by management that the same game plan, that luckly just scrapped us through against Derry, was going to beat Monaghan, to me anyway, was naive in the extreme.

Redsoxfan

eddie73 wrote: »

We have got to credit our lads for what they have sacrificed this year. They under-performed a bit on sunday, but I still am aware of what they have put in.

The issue isn't with the sacrifice, I think most of us appreciate that, or at least we should. The issue is that we are not playing to expectations - and I think the players would acknowledge that. I doubt that they would have wanted to lose the Ulster Final while shooting 16 wides.

Before 2011, we didn't know what to expect from one game to the next. There was no standard. Going back to last September, something is not right. The intensity in our performances has largely disappeared.

We have relied on goals this year to win games - at least against Tyrone and Derry, and it helped against Armagh too. We didn't get a sniff on Sunday. I thought at half time that we needed a goal facing a four point deficit.

We lost the game in the first half. The four point lead meant that we came out under pressure to reel them in. It's a massive lead in a game that was always going to be low scoring. I'm pretty sure that this pressure contributed to our second half decision making. The timing of decisions made on the line didn't seem to help.

If Paddy kicks that last point, then all of the above is largely moot, but I don't think we can't pretend that there has been something off about our performances for a while now. I don't think we are going to be able to address this in the next few weeks, even though I wouldn't be surprised if we beat Galway. But I don't see us beating Mayo/Dublin/Kerry this summer.

jjdonegal

Obviously Croke Park is great for someone like myself in West Dublin area and it's a short train journey bit it's a disgrace for people from Donegal. Absolutely no sense in it. Double header could easily have been in Breffni or somewhere.
Croke Park needs 33,000 (I think) to break even so it's not a money motivated decision. Baffling one.

babybuilder

Donegal are going to have their hands full with the Galway midfield. Indeed they have a couple of good forwards. Paradoxically we should play our normal game against Galway and not start changing things too much. Monaghan were a different proposition.

Triboro

jjdonegal wrote: »

Obviously Croke Park is great for someone like myself in West Dublin area and it's a short train journey bit it's a disgrace for people from Donegal. Absolutely no sense in it. Double header could easily have been in Breffni or somewhere.
Croke Park needs 33,000 (I think) to break even so it's not a money motivated decision. Baffling one.

Dont forget the Sky money!

doc_17

jjdonegal wrote: »

Obviously Croke Park is great for someone like myself in West Dublin area and it's a short train journey bit it's a disgrace for people from Donegal. Absolutely no sense in it. Double header could easily have been in Breffni or somewhere.
Croke Park needs 33,000 (I think) to break even so it's not a money motivated decision. Baffling one.

Sky calling the shots. Once they get involved it all gets more costly for the supporters.

Jayop

Donegal, Sligo, and Tyrone support all have a prick of a drive to get to Dublin. Not as bad for the Galway gang with the snazzy new motorway but still a fair old trek. I'd have much preferred if the Tyrone Sligo game was in Ballybofey and the Galway Donegal game was in Sligo. Would have made life so much easier for the fans and you'd probably have had close to a full house in Sligo for your game and a decent crowd in Ballybofey for our game.

I know the players all want to play in Croker, but for our lads and yours it's nothing too special at this stage.

Jayop

doc_17 wrote: »

Sky calling the shots. Once they get involved it all gets more costly for the supporters.

Really? There's been r4 games in croke park for years before sky came in.

Redsoxfan

R4 Qualifiers last year were double headers

Tullamore:

Sligo v Cork
Tipp v Galway

Croke Park

Armagh v Meath
Monaghan v Kildare

(Pissed rain for this one)

Ceist_Beag

Redsoxfan wrote: »

R4 Qualifiers last year were double headers

Tullamore:

Sligo v Cork
Tipp v Galway

Croke Park

Armagh v Meath
Monaghan v Kildare

(Pissed rain for this one)

I don't think anyone has an issue with it being a double header. It's the venue that doesn't make any sense apart from Sky having a say in the matter. Croker is not a big deal for any of the 4 teams in the R4 double header last year. But when the 4 teams are all from the West/North West it makes absolutely no sense to drag fans from there across to the East - if the GAA cares about the fans that is!
It's just yet another example of the GAA turning it's back on fans when the money is waved in their faces as far as I'm concerned.

K-9

Tullamore and Croker made sense last year.

It seems they want one double header in Croker and they know these 2 ties will bring the biggest crowd.