Donegal GAA Discussion Thread

Redsoxfan

Brendan says lots of things to the national meeja.

But his analysis of the Monaghan game was spot on when he was on the Donegal Sport Hub podcast.

jjdonegal

Wish he'd keep his mouth shut at times. No need to be releasing that information in my opinion

DDC1990

Crazy stuff from Devenny. If he starts, he comes across as a gob****e. If he doesn't BD has just given away a key piece of tactical information giving Galway an extra few hours to plan.

Muppetry of the highest order. Bomber Liston did the same in Kerry last year and was destroyed for it. And that's a man with 7 All Ireland's, and a legend in the county.

jjdonegal

DDC1990 wrote: »

Crazy stuff from Devenny. If he starts, he comes across as a gob****e. If he doesn't BD has just given away a key piece of tactical information giving Galway an extra few hours to plan.

Muppetry of the highest order. Bomber Liston did the same in Kerry last year and was destroyed for it. And that's a man with 7 All Ireland's, and a legend in the county.

That was my thought re: Kerry. Not many ex players down there would dare give insights. He is an eejit for saying it. I'm led to believe he said they were holding him back with a view to the Mayo game. My Jesus; why say that and what a motivator for the Galway management. Even more worried about today now and nowhere near as confident we will beat them.

Redsoxfan

So no Lacey, Murphy and sure both Neil McGee and Big Neil have walked away in the past week, as well as all the lads who were pissed off that Leo was back.

Will we be able to field at all?

Redsoxfan

DDC1990 wrote:

Crazy stuff from Devenny. If he starts, he comes across as a gob****e.

It's like deja vu all over again!

eddie73

Redsoxfan wrote: »

So no Lacey, Murphy and sure both Neil McGee and Big Neil have walked away in the past week, as well as all the lads who were pissed off that Leo was back.

Will we be able to field at all?

I think you are being sarcastic. I Gallagher and McGee are both starting. I think that it is unlikely to see Murphy starting, we will see Leo McLoone and Martin Reilly starting imo. No murphy and possibly no mark mchugh at the beginning.


We will see Murphy at some stage today, possibly just before half time if we are getting it tight, but most likely in the 2nd half. We will see.

2moreMinutes

Redsoxfan wrote: »

So no Lacey, Murphy and sure both Neil McGee and Big Neil have walked away in the past week, as well as all the lads who were pissed off that Leo was back.

Will we be able to field at all?

I got a text earlier from Rory asking if I have a spare pair of boots so don't be worrying as we'll def get 15 to line out anyway. I'm kinda hungover though so don't be criticising me too much on here later.

Redsoxfan

Word is Rory has used his Fermanagh connection to get Sean Quigley to transfer.

Be grand.

overshoot

2moreMinutes wrote: »

I got a text earlier from Rory asking if I have a spare pair of boots so don't be worrying as we'll def get 15 to line out anyway. I'm kinda hungover though so don't be criticising me too much on here later.

are you Paul Brennan by any chance?

Redsoxfan

Well trolled Dev.

No, enough BS, come on Donegal.

2moreMinutes

I hate watching these games on TV, especially when the TV is in a pub in Galway. The bitterness is strong here!

Poor choices and wayward shooting again today isn't doing us any favours.

K-9

That Murphy lad is a handy enough FF. Might make it yet.

Ceist_Beag

Colm McFadden my humble apologies. What a performance from the big man this evening! Also Odhran well done for showing brilliant character and virtually owning the midfield second half. Absolutely superb second half, what a way to go in against Mayo now! Never doubted the lads for a minute! :P

K-9

Nope Colm was dreadful for about 40 minutes of that game, he's a luxury player at HF, not somebody you can have against Monaghan or a Mayo. We got away today despite him, how many times did he lose possession today?

Nidgeweasel

It's a pity we don't have 3 weeks off now.

Our big players stood up and delivered at the end and fired us over the line. Will bring some positivity into the camp for the next week, I think they'll fancy giving Mayo a rattle but the underlying issues remain for me.

Jaded, zero attacking strategy (for the majority), a rickety defensive structure. The major issue out of those remains that we look a tired. That first half was very worrying. Neil got the run around at times today. They've got some brilliant forwards though.

We're a solid division one outfit, hard to play against and have some tough players. That did for Galway. We can test Mayo but do we have the legs to take them all the way? Not on today's showing.

Positives though: The bench. So nice having players coming in off the bench and making a positive impact. It's critically important and a massive shame we didn't have it two weeks ago.

Odhrán was a pleasure to watch. Such a classy footballer. Ryan done alot of running and really forced the issues for us at time, you can't fault his application or his desire. Colm Anthony did well from deep and to be honest it was really him that led that bombardment toward the end.

Obviously don't have to mention Michael at the edge of the square. We know what he can do.

We got more performances today than we did in the final where it was really just Frankie and the two McHughs.

So yeah, a good result after an unconvincing performance in the main. There are signs that there is life in the old dog yet but a week won't be enough for us.

And as for Devenney-

charlie14

K-9 wrote: »

Nope Colm was dreadful for about 40 minutes of that game, he's a luxury player at HF, not somebody you can have against Monaghan or a Mayo. We got away today despite him, how many times did he lose possession today?

Unluck not to get man of the match today imo.

K-9

charlie14 wrote: »

Unluck not to get man of the match today imo.

How many times did he lose possession ?

charlie14

K-9 wrote: »

How many times did he lose possession ?

What did he score and how many scores did he set up?

K-9

charlie14 wrote: »

What did he score and how many scores did he set up?

Against Galway.

Mayo will eat McFadden for dinner.

When he gets away with it he's a joy to watch, he won't get away with it against Mayo, same as Monaghan. They'll love it.

jjdonegal

K-9 wrote: »

Against Galway.

Mayo will eat McFadden for dinner.

When he gets away with it he's a joy to watch, he won't get away with it against Mayo, same as Monaghan. They'll love it.

Have to agree. Great in patches but frustrating at times too. Odhran was excellent; Michael was just class despite clearly not being 100% in my eyes. He was lucky not to get a yellow or black late in game if Galway lad had been cute and went down!
Great last 20; scoreline flatters big time though.
As someone said if we had 3 weeks off I'd be optimistic but I cannot see us putting up any meaningful challenge next weekend. I dont think it will be quite 2013 levels but I can see Mayo running out easy victors in the end.

Nidgeweasel

Not seen a full back out of his depth as Finian Hanley since Paddy Campbell. Thought he was dreadful.

We can get joy out of Mayo's full back line next week as I think about it but not as much as we did today.

I really hope Eamonns fit. I'd set the two McGees loose on O'Shea myself. Imagine those three horses going at it. Be fantastic.

Be nice to just see a 70 minute performance in any event.

North of 32

2moreMinutes wrote: »

I hate watching these games on TV, especially when the TV is in a pub in Galway. The bitterness is strong here!

I thought the Galway crowd in Croke Park were disappointing as well.

Nidgeweasel

North of 32 wrote: »

I thought the Galway crowd in Croke Park were disappointing as well.

And them with 14 men behind the ball at the time.

Thought it really dissapointing.

babybuilder

Just back. Game of 2 halves. Delighted with second half showing. Baffled again by first half tactics which doesnt' really get our main men into the game. Lots of booing by galway fans (and a few donegal ones too) during the first half. The goal put a gloss on a poor first half performance. The ball to McFadden fom McNiallais to set up the goal was inch perfect. As the half wore on I felt that the body language between many of the players was not good.
Galway exposed the left-hand side of our defence numerous times very similar to Monaghan(right-hand side then) by direct running. Donegal players huddling around the centre of the field having no effect on the game and isolating our two forwards. No one to link up play. I felt sorry for Marty Reilly in that he wasnt brought into the game by others. Mc Brearty other than the goal was very poor. I think he's a strong player with a handy left foot but is one dimensional at times.
Totally different in the second half. The big players took hold of the match. Mind you Donegal were exposed at least 3 times by Galway when goals were on. I think Mayo would punish them. Last 20 we pushed further up and the changes worked well - Thompson, Mcloon and McElhinney in particular teamed up well with McNiallas. The management need to apply McNiallais and Ryan McHugh further up the field. Colm Mc Fadden opened up Galway with some clever runs and off loaded well but also showed some very poor shot selection.

Murphy's fetch and point was worth the admission price alone. Paddy McGrath - took a black card for the team.

charlie14

K-9 wrote: »

Against Galway.

Mayo will eat McFadden for dinner.

When he gets away with it he's a joy to watch, he won't get away with it against Mayo, same as Monaghan. They'll love it.

So who would you replace him with ?

jjdonegal

charlie14 wrote: »

So who would you replace him with ?

That's the million dollar question. Considering Colm is playing out around the half forward line there is a few options that we wouldn't have if he were inside. Are they better than Colm? On his day certainly not. He was good for the most part yesterday but we need a Dublin 2014 like performance from him next day to keep it respectable. Oh how I bloody wish we had 3 weeks.

K-9

charlie14 wrote: »

So who would you replace him with ?

Maybe it isn't about replacing him at all,

harpsman

harpsman wrote: »

Would have to take issue with a few points
1-"we should have pressured Monaghan further up the field in the 1st half and not dropped back so much".
Have you watched any of our games over the last 5 years-thats how we play. You either press teams up the field like Mayo or you drop back like Donegal- you cant do both. Also, we were playing against the wind in the 1st have so we were always going to try to contain them til half time. I certainly expected to go in behind at ht and ithink Donegal would have been quite happy goin in down a couple. The inability to score and those bad turnovers were the main problem.

2-"McFadden should be dropped."
Disagree. Think hes playing well. Sure he did kick a few wides but they were from half chances that he had to manufacture himself. Id still rather have a wide than turning the ball over after going over and back for 20 passes.

3- Leo mcloone is fast becoming the Andy reid of Donegal gaa. The longer hes off the team the more his reputation grows. Good player yes but don't think he deserved to go straiyin the last day.

Hate to say I told you so but McFadden delivered one of his best ever displays,(I predicted he would do the business against Galway) scoring 3 great points and setting up all 3 goals,in fact the scores he made or scored would have won the match on their own.
Hands up who wants him dropped now?;);)

Hulk Hands

As a Galway fan, I thought McFadden was incredible on Sat. I think McLoone should be starting also, but find it amazing to see some calling For McFadden to be the one dropped. Donegal have 4 big players now imo (aside from injured Lacey), namely McGee, Ordhran, McFadden and Murphy. All were brilliant at the weekend