Donegal GAA Discussion Thread

Good to see Niall O'Donnell and Caolan McColgan back. And a good spread of scorers again. Hopefully nothing serious for Ryan and Paddy.

Hard to know how much we will have learned from this campaign but good to get promoted, good to be unbeaten and good to get some new faces in and see some more experienced heads back.

Any time we have played in Division 2 Finals in the past, Jim has taken them pretty seriously. Although, more time before Championship then.

From the 1-15, not sure Caulfield will start. Assume either McMenamin or MacCeallbhui (or both) will come in.

Good to see Jason McGee among the subs.

Feels like we are missing too many to get the win today. Hope we give it a go and no more injuries. And when they start the usual fight, we don't get too involved.

agreed, we look much better defensively and the improvement in the tackle is massive.

Hopefully we get the few injuries clear up in time for Derry. Not sure we are at Derrys level but would always back jim to have a plan, going to be a hell of a game

When you look at the 15 on the field at the end, what a win. Ciaran Moore, what an addition.

Derry though, it will be a massive proposition.

Well folks, 2 requests re tickets for Saturday

I have a seat but would happily swap for standing if anyone interested

And, if anyone has any ticket to sell, I know if someone looking.

from McDanger on the other thread

Assuming that the remaining provincial matches proceed according to
the bookies' odds, this is roughly what the seeding will look like:

1st seeds:
Derry
Dublin
Kerry
Galway

2nd seeds:
Armagh
Louth
Clare
Mayo

3rd seeds:
Tyrone
Donegal
Roscommon
Monaghan

4th seeds:
Meath
Cavan
Cork
Westmeath

If defeated at the weekend, Donegal will not be in a group with Derry, so one of the Kerry, Dublin or Galway. They could be in with Armagh or Mayo, but also a 50/50 chance of Louth or Clare which would be less intimidating. Then one of the 4th seeds, I'd expect Donegal to beat any of them easily, except perhaps Cork might rise their game.

So a preliminary quarter final is pretty much guaranteed, then it depends on who you draw. If Donegal ended up with Galway, Clare and Westmeath then they could top the round robin and go straight into the QFs.

No EBG or McColgan in the 26.

J McGee and B McCole for the 2 Dohertys

Hopefully McColgan for McGuinness in the subs

can't see it, it'll be Derry v Cavan i think. more than likley played Omagh

Comical performance. I just had to sit back and laugh near the end. Does winning an All Ireland even mean as much if you aren't Ulster champions? Mickey Harte would know.

properly surprised lynch was never moved from his position for our kickouts. Expected McGuinness to have a trick or 2 for the game but once exploited you’d think Harte would have sat him deeper at least. Seen clerkins/times headline of “lynch embarrassed” but for me it’s absolute management there, he stood where he was told second half. How do you not half that talk half time?

Was the difference in the game in the end. Don’t think Harte will be too worried of a few weeks off though. His focus wasn’t Ulster. We had that intensity of tackle, defence, counter that you’d expect from a McGuinness team… see how all goes now next week!

Have a stand adult and juvenile for Sunday's game to sell for face value if anyone looking. Send me a PM today.

Gone to a good home.

No surprises in the team named, although not sure Paddy will start?

No McColgan anywhere.

Hope no complacency after last weekend. Hard to see it given the history and McGuinness. But if it's in supporters it can seep into team. At least the short turnaround and so many other matches means less time for it.

Poorest first half of football by Donegal this year. Tyrone have their number so far. McBrearty not at the races. So much poor decision making. Not looking good. McGuinness needs to work his magic now. We never play well with a wet ball.

Well that was some game.

Thought we were done for more than once. But opposition did not have the energy or courage to put us out of our misery.

Back in the days of the 1st McGuinness era, few, if any, teams could kick some of the frees that were kicked against us today. Those frees, coupled with our poor shooting/decision making (under a lot of defensive pressure in fairness) was the difference. And facing a keeper who could kick the ball as well as Patten can. 1, 3, 4 and 6 on the other side were the outstanding players, but, overall we had strong contributions all over the pitch. Although before he kicked that point in extra time Paddy's value was in doubt. Gallen was very well marked.

But the way we hung in there and finished the stronger was excellent. In many ways, it was the perfect way to win. Plenty to work on and will dampen down some of the loose talk after the Derry game.

Ulster Final is a 50/50 game on the pitch. Had to laugh when Michael Murphy said Armagh were 10 years into their project and Donegal are 10 minutes (or months) into theirs. Says it all about what's on the sideline.

Up Donegal

Yeah, could not understand why Paddy took that free unless Oisin turned it down (hopefully not injured....).

In fairness to Paddy, he's not a confidence player. Whatever has gone before the final shot seems to be irrelevant.

You mean the ref? You must be joking.

What you are saying is his decision making was better than the Donegal forwards 😉

Any ref will get a few calls wrong over 90 minutes in an intense game. He was pretty consistent in his calls and kept the game moving, something that suited us.

So two major decisions you feel he got wrong. I would add the advantage he called over when Daire O'Baoill shot wide in extra time. There have been times in games where you could call three mistakes made in a minute by a ref. It's a tough job they do. I would certainly feel that he performed above the level some of the high profile Ulster refs have shown in recent times.

With regards to our forwards the number of wides, and balls dropped short, is reflective of taking on shots when it was the wrong option. A number of our attempts were clearly not playing the percentages and gifted possession back to Tyrone. We were swinging a leg at it from distance and hoping for the best. As the game developed we started to break down the Tyrone defence with better movement and more pace and were popping over scores from much closer to goal. I would expect us to be more clinical against Armagh.

Winning Ulster is massive with the way the AI draw has panned out. We cannot avoid a repeat of one of Tyrone/Derry but certainly the Ulster winner route looks less daunting where they should win 2 from 3 and face a likely battle for top with Tyrone.

The Ulster runner-up route on the other hand is a lot harder.