Donegal GAA Discussion Thread

notice up on Ulster gaa saying no general sale, can’t actually remember the last time an Ulster final didn’t have one.

TV for me it seems

It's been a great year so far. Hopefully we can get the job done on Sunday. It's not quite bonus territory, but doubt anyone saw this as on the cards after Down beat us last year and when the draw was made. Jim has had more of an impact than I had hoped.

We are favourites based on the 2 games played so far I guess. Even if we drew in Armagh and beat them in Croke Park. Felt like we hung on in Armagh, but they finished with a much stronger team than started. They played into our hands in the Division 2 Final.

I think if they go at us from the start, they might win. If they play it cagey, I think that might suit us. They have a very good set of forwards and some power at midfield. Will be interesting to see if Jason McGee can continue his good form. Would actually prefer to see Rafferty starting over Hughes, feel Hughes a better keeper but not as good 'outfield' - will they dare play Raferrty and have him come off his line?

If we get the good weather, it will be a hell of a day in Clones, just like we like them. In 2022, Derry ran away from us in extra time - that was the sign we were done. This year, we are much fitter and younger. I doubted a lot of these players had what it takes, but am being proved wrong and happy that is the case. I hope it continues on Sunday.

He's either god or made a beast of a deal with the devil!

Some turnaround from last summer.

i criticised gallen for his one leg approach on here a few years ago , he had some game today and kicked a lovely point off the bad foot

i think ryan mchugh was probably man of the match for his tackling alone and his two or three excellent turnovers at crucial parts of the game , jason mcgee had a monster of a second half performance too both of them and brendan mccole were the integral part of the comeback , well done tonight lads great game overall

What a day in Clones on Sunday. A full house, a great atmosphere, warm sunshine, thunder and lightning, magnificent scores and a result decided in a split second. Peadar Mogan’s celebration in front of the hill will live long in the memory. It encapsulated the joy of the Donegal people as we were surrounded by the despair of those from Armagh.
Far large parts of the game Armagh had us on the rack. We were barely hanging on. They were isolating us at the back and getting their scores easier than us. They used their pace to great effect and didn’t allow us to set defensively. However they tried to defend their lead and through sheer willpower and magnificent shooting we reeled them back in.
It was clear from the warm up that Patton wasn’t fully fit. Apart from a small number of dead balls he kicked everything with his left foot. The one time in the game he went long it was a high floated ball that Armagh turned over and scored from. However it was, ultimately, a gamble that paid off. The other gamble was starting EBG. That was a very limited success but we will, hopefully, see the benefits later in the campaign.
Jim inherited a team that were psychologically fragile. The turnaround has been remarkable. The courage of the players to grind out that result, when they were beaten twice, is testament to the transformation that Jim has brought about. Paddy’s point and the two scores from Daire and Odhran Doherty were outstanding in the circumstances. The quality of our penalties was also excellent, especially considering our first choice penalty taker was no longer on the pitch. The five lads were remarkably composed and didn’t feel the need to play to the crowd like some of the Armagh players. Changing the order of the penalty takers in sudden death caused confusion in the Armagh ranks and you could see some of their players appealing to Joe McQuillan. It definitely broke their concentration.
Caithfidh mé a rá go raibh mé iontach bródúil ag éisteacht le Paddy tar éis an cluiche. Rinne sé job ar dóigh.
Finally, in case people are not aware, there is a bundle of three tickets for the next stage of the championship on sale for 50 euro. Great value even if it’s not so great for the blood pressure.

I havn't seen a Donegal crowd go that wild since beating Mayo in 2012. Someone upended their drink on me in the chaos and I didn't care a bit. It wasn't a great game for the blood pressure at all, and just didn't look pretty outside of the great score taking even if the neutral analysts lauded it. There was an incredible buzz in the crowd where I was when EBG was surprisingly unveiled, even if he wasn't fully sharp. It's a sign that the at one time huge injury list is decreasing at the right time. Armagh fans were grand, and even heard some booing from young-ish Donegal fans which were met with a few dirty looks. Tyrone at McCumhaills will be interesting. Are they spooked? We need to fortify it again under Jim after 4 losses there last season.

The bugbear I'm carrying from the last the matches is that it takes us usually five minutes or more of working the ball around to get a score, and the opposition reply within a minute. Murphy called the players out during the Tyrone analyst gig for players not actually wanting the ball. There's still a bit of the old regime's mentality still floating around in their heads. The other thing, and this might be blasphemous…I think this team plays worse when McBrearty is on the field. In addition to that, he either looks unfit, injured or like he'll not fully recover from the last big injury.

Grateful to be Ulster Champions again. That one felt very special.

Edited: Found one on Ticketmaster, they are still available.

Up Donegal

Definitely feels like momentum building again after a long while in the shadows, who know how far it will go but I’m really enjoying the ride so far.

Group winners will face winners of 2nd/3rd place preliminary quarter finals and no repeat pairings from the group stage. Ie. Donegal would not face Tyrone Cork or Clare.

Assuming Donegal were to win the group they would avoid other group winners (Kerry, Dublin etc the likely winners).

So win this weekend is big. Straight to QF with a reasonable shot at a place in the last 4.

Not to get ahead of ourselves but to be fair we could only have dreamt of this position at the conclusion of last year's Championship.

Don't want to be looking ahead but even making a semi final is something we haven't done in 10 years even with the Ulster titles won under Bonner. If we top the group fully expect to get Derry or Armagh in a QF.

Let's see how Saturday pans out first. Brian McEniff has a great piece in the Democrat (it's online). No bitterness about a league game in 1990 at all!

So much for gaago. Game not being televised is a balls. Yet Cavan v Dublin is.

So no way to watch it at all, other that going to it?

It won't be. You will get gaago streams on a dodgy box when they are actually on gaago but when it's live nowhere it won't be on anywhere unfortunately.

It is particularly strange when there is a lot of interest in Donegal this year and thousands of people would pay to watch it. Given the distance involved and the outrageous price of accommodation, some people who were in Celtic Park and Clones may not be able to go to this one, why not give them an option?

I think I read excuses/explanations why RTE/GAAGO can only cover a certain number of games before.

It's great that we have something else to give out other than the football about these days!

Good win for Cork. Concede three goals and you'll not win. Too quick a turnaround for these lads. Porous defence against a physical Cork side. Pundits predicted that we'd be tested by non-ulster opposition. Ulster provincial seems nearly pointless in this new format. Beat Clare now and hope that Tyrone beat cork to top the group.

Very disappointing display today. Our decision making was extremely poor. The number of turnovers was staggering. Cork caught us with the same kick out time after time. The three goals came from our mistakes. We still put ourselves in a position to get a result only to kick the ball away twice.
Credit to Paddy and Caolan. They nearly dragged us over the line.
We will regroup from this and we won’t be as sloppy again. I would expect a big response the next day out.

I’m still trying to make sense of that performance. When we were set defensively we coped comfortably with the Cork attack. The nine points conceded is testament to that. However when our attack broke down we were wide open and could have conceded three more goals.
There were times going forward when we had fourteen players inside the Cork 45. Space was at a premium and we consistently turned the ball over in the centre of the pitch by failing to beat the tackle. This left nobody home and Cork broke at pace exploiting the acres of space in front of our goal. Too often our defence was chasing back facing our own goal , a recipe for disaster.
We have four main ball carriers on the team. McGonagle was excellent, the others really struggled to impact the game and one had a stinker. Despite all our issues we forced ourselves back into contention. With a couple of minutes to go we had an easy point chance but tried to force a goal, a very poor decision. We then had the call that went against McGonagle for overcarrying. In the context of what had gone before this appeared to be extremely harsh. It led directly to Cork taking the lead and decided the game.
We will learn a lot from this performance. The mistakes we made won’t be repeated. We knew we weren’t the finished article yet. This is, however, a test of where Jim has brought this team. In the past this group of players did not respond well to adversity. There is no option but to respond now. Lose to Clare and our season is over. Win and we could top the group.
The fortnight break gives us the opportunity to regroup. There will be plenty of twists and turns before our championship ends.