Dubbydave

ClondalkinDubdub is respected on this site...respected by who exactly...? Anytime I've read his posts they're full of complete nonsense...any man that posts throwaway comments like he did on Mark McHugh obviously knows NOTHING about the game. And as for his tired clichéd ratings on Donegals system, I think you'll find that the Sunday Game analysis last night and Cliona Foleys report in today's Indo should make everyone aware that he lacks any credibility whatsoever - a Johnny come lately who obviously never played the game, knows nothing about the game and who jumped on the bandwagon of Dublins success last year....

Respect...? Lol

clondalkindub
County: Dublin
Posts: 1959

1176659 Lifford stop talking rubbish, the whole country seen that game today so your only lying to yourself. Donegal is the devil, the worst thing to ever happen to Gaelic football is Donegal and Jim mcguinness.

clondalkin I'd be right in saying that you'd be a regular reader of The Star and The Sun would I? Such nonsense! But in fairness to you you're not the only one coming out with cac like this. People seem to be living in some fantasy-land whereby each inter-county team is expected to take to the field with wanton abandon and provide spectators with helter-skelter, cavalier football every weekend. Tactics have evolved from the days where Spillane and his boys walked through teams and punched goals.

As someone mentioned earlier, I wasn't aware that there was a rule somewhere which stiplutated that attacking football was mandatory is Gaelic football? Defensive organisation is as, if not more important than an attacking strategy. Donegal have developed a system which makes them very hard to beat. It may not be pretty but by God it's effective. We also managed 1-16 yesterday without one of the best full-forwards in the game, with the scoring spread among several different players. So I'm wondering what else Jimmy can do?

I might make one suggestion what he can do, continue as he is, making Donegal supporters happy and to hell with the begrudgers.

The Donegal style is a controversial one it must be said and may ultimately lead to the changing of the rules by HQ. Already we have heard the debate about the state of gaelic football and Donegal has a lot to with that. I listened to the Sunday game and the point was made that Donegal has moved on from Last year and are less defensive now and more attacking. However the only argument for this view was that last year in the first round of Ulster they has 13 players behind the ball and this year they had only 9. Wow, only 9 players tackling the one man with the ball, a huge change in tactics then from Donegal.

We can't blame Donegal, the system works for them. For the sake of Gaelic football, lets hope they get beaten by an attractive football side and perhaps they will eventually put their diabolical system to bed.

Donegals ultra blanket, negative, sore on the eye defensive tactics are due to a manager who doesn't know anything else. This is obviously difficult to play against and will get them so far. Donegal folk on here are taking exception to the negative comments but guys it is what it is and you cant butter it up to anything else. If my county played like this I genuinely wouldn't go to watch and I am an ardent fan of over 35 years. This "Puke" football is ruining the game we love

Donegals style is smothering the skill of the game, apart from free-taking, Mc Fadden was in fine fettle yesterday. Cavan started brightly, held to level scores till about the 20th minute. The penalty was the turning point. Hyland is re-building. Very young side, the youngsters held their own yesterday considering they were playing against last year's All Ireland semi-finalists and a much more experienced side.
Donegal will beat Derry, but for the sake of skill and the ethos of our game I hope they will lose to a more natural footballing side. Perhapas Galway are the ones to watch this year.

Have to laugh at the Cavan posts here. Thought you could take your beatings better lads. Donegal won yesterday in second gear and really took the foot of the gas after going 8 points up. Donegal weren't as defensive as last year and attacked in numbers unlike last term when we had only one or two in the attacking half of the field.
Some Cavan fans are on here saying Donegal were hateful, negative etc. and totally avoiding the topic of how bad Cavan were. I honestly thought yous would have been better and it would be a tight enough game but I think Cavan were just as poor as last year and you have a serious amount of work to get through before you have any hope in Ulster. Take your beatings lads and stop lambasting Donegal as they were far the superior team yesterday.

I think the Cavan posters should be more concerned with their teams inept performance yesterday than with Donegals style of play. Without doubt the worst performance I've seen of a team in all my years going to matches. To add further embarrassment, I've just been browsing the Cavan forum and there's quite a few posts blaming the referee....lol... Donegal didn't even move out of second gear, went into first for the last 20 minutes when the game was already won allowing Cavan to tot up a few consolation scores.... 11 points from play out of a 1-16 total....defensive team...?. ...

from neutral point of view cavan were shocking, you shouldnt complain about another teams style of play if you cant string together a few passes for yourselves, poor crowd at the game as well was hard enough to watch

cacsmckilly Take it math wasn't your strongest subject at school, 9 players behind the ball would mean six in an attacking position, how many forwards in a gaelic football team?? Any takers??

Would Donegal fans accept that the reason they play this defensive tactic is because they simply do not have the players to compete in a conventional 6-2-6 formation?

Sergeant_Slash
County: Cavan
Posts: 1484

1176931 Would Donegal fans accept that the reason they play this defensive tactic is because they simply do not have the players to compete in a conventional 6-2-6 formation?

Aside from Kerry and maybe Cork who does have the players to play a conventional 6-2-6? Certainly not Cavan anyway going by yesterday's match...

ballybannongael
County: Down
Posts: 261

1176879
Donegals ultra blanket, negative, sore on the eye defensive tactics are due to a manager who doesn't know anything else. This is obviously difficult to play against and will get them so far. Donegal folk on here are taking exception to the negative comments but guys it is what it is and you cant butter it up to anything else. If my county played like this I genuinely wouldn't go to watch and I am an ardent fan of over 35 years. This "Puke" football is ruining the game we love
___________________________
I was hoping against hope to see this derogatory terminology consigned to the dustbin nearly 10 years after it was first coined, however to see it being used by a fellow Ulster Gael makes it all the more disappointing.

You're probably right Sergeant....its a case of Jim deciding to play a system that he feels will maximise the talent we have...but is that not the goal of every county?? On another note though, we did score 1-16, and even our full back line got two points, its a case of defending and attacking as a team...its not pretty, in fact i'm sure for neutrals it can be god damn awful to watch....but as a Donegal man who walked out of Crossmaglen less than 2 years ago with no hope for the future...since then we have won 5 Ulster championship matches in a row after winning none the previous 3-4 years and also to once again be one of the main topic on the Hoganstand boards - its great!!....

Lol we are oh so defensive....our defenders always stay back and most of our forwards stay back as well...

Oh no wait, we scored 1-16 including 0-4 from midfield, 0-2 from half back line and 0-1 each from our full back and corner back. Hmmmmm

Following on from my last point I'm just interested in what people think happens when our corner backs and half backs run forward and we lose the ball. Do they think they can jump in their teleport machines and be back in their defensive positions in an instant? Or is it possible that the ball travels faster than they can run back but Cavan were not good enough to exploit this? I really do wonder about the tactical knowledge of people on this site.

Also have to laugh at the people talking about sticking to 6-2-6 formation. I can just imagine a half back or full-back making a run forward and then the half-forward/full-forward who is marking them reaches the half-way line and stops suddenly thinking "I cant go any further back, Im a forward!" Is this what people think they should do?

"Would Donegal fans accept that the reason they play this defensive tactic is because they simply do not have the players to compete in a conventional 6-2-6 formation?"


Nail on the head mo chara.

They have found a system to compensate for their inability to play natural free flowing football. It is their right at the end of the day, it is a horrible system and one can only hope that a fast natural attacking team puts them out sooner rather than later.

Nothing would give me more satisfaction to see them hammered by a football team.

It is an amateur game and its principal should be honesty and authenticity. If tactics go down this road any further , it should be looked at to find a way of rule change to combat negativity.

Traditional footballing counties are the posters complaining the non traditional counties are not, speaks volumes.

51longago Ah yes Mayo of course are the Gaelic equivalent of the Brazilian soccer team circa 1970. Yes Donegal have adopted a more severe defensive game in recent times but are posters that blind as to not see similarities in their own teams? The mind boggles...

Mayo are a traditional footballing county? You must have loads of trophies from playing all that lovely traditional football.

Ah well, sure at least you tried to take on Kerry man-to-man a few times bit it didnt quite work out :( Still, lovely to watch though for all us neutrals (well, the 1st half anyway usually when it was still sort of close)

Without getting into whether I agree with it or not... there was nothing new from Donegal yesterday, and the Donegal fans who think there was are showing your ignorance. Defending and hunting in numbers and attacking with about 4 fellas runing out of the backs was the game plan at this stage last year also, it then got even more defensive as the year went until we seen waht happened against Dublin.

As for the clip in the Sunday game where they counted nine players, that was nine players in picture, it rolled on and there was the whole full back line not even in picture (so that makes 12 :))

Some unbelievable nonsense on this thread.

(Some) of the Cavan people sound a lot like sore losers. That's two years in a row we've beaten you well in Breffni Park in Ulster, so i'm sure it hurts.

In terms of how we play, some of the analysis is laughable, lazy, inaccurate and untrue.

Firstly, if our players and manager were are one-dimensional as some people claim on here, then we'd lose more matches than we win. Only Dublin beat us last year and they're All-Ireland Champions.

Secondly, we have a very talented bunch of players who are working very cohesively and as a team. They are giving everything for the Donegal jersey and are giving levels of dedication that few other counties match. Our spread of scorers was very impressive yesterday, without Michael Murphy.

Lastly, those who know what they're talking about and who are honest will notice that Donegal's system looks very like Dublin's system, something that RTE and the other critics of Donegal seem to conveniently ignore all the time. Pat Gilroy isn't going to fret about what people say about him and neither will Jim McGuinness.

Whoever can beat Donegal, good luck to them. Im sure if our tactics are so dire then a team will beat us. I'm very proud of Donegal and how they've conducted themselves under McGuinness. Finally we're working as a team and there is direction.


Secondly,