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donegal2016 (Donegal) - Posts: 14 - 22/08/2016 15:00:54 1904494 Link 0 |
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McGettigan has alot of developing to do physically. He certainly knows where the posts are but needs to strengthen up as is still a little leightweight. I am biased but Jason McGee is an excellent prospect really looking forward to seeing how he develops. Do not forget Eoin McCormick as one to look forward to. I think Kieran Gallagher is another with alot of developing to do. He has the size and the skills but his temperament needs work. In this I mean he seemed very nervy again yesterday and it effected his play. Lads ye are forgetting that this team did utilize the kick pass in previous games. There was alot of success from ball kicked into Niall and Eoin McGettigan where they either got scores or created scores. Yesterday this was difficult as they were up against a very effective blanket unit. The early goal was a killer. Yes there was loads of time left but it was manner in how it was conceded. It made us very shaky and drained our defensive confidence hence Galway getting simple goal chances. Take that goal out of it and I think we could have seen a very different game despite Galway being clearly the better side on the day. They got confidence from this and our defense especially lost theirs. Providing no players are lost to senior squad I think we will see an even better team in 2 years time at U-20 level. panamasam (Australia) - Posts: 2480 - 22/08/2016 15:46:17 1904516 Link 0 |
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panamasam I agree with you, there are at least 5 or 6 of this minor team who have a great chance of making it at senior grade in the future, I don't think you can ask for more than that. Niall O'Donnell and Jason McGee are definitely going to make it and I'd expect Mogan, Kieran Gallagher, McGettigan & Aidan McLaughlin (didn't have his best game yesterday but was superb up to this) all to be knocking on the door of the senior team in the next few years. Green_Gold (Donegal) - Posts: 1734 - 22/08/2016 16:06:05 1904529 Link 0 |
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Aidan McLaughlin got a bad knock and had to be taken off. I would have Jason McGee, Niall O'Donnell, Enda (not Eoin) McCormick and Peader Mogan as the top prospects from the side. Listen this side has provided great entertainment this year and have at times played great football the first half against Monaghan and the second half against Cork. I can understand why people would compare to the seniors after yesterdays game but this side never played to not lose they played to win. Galway were excellent at the back and took full advantage of the weakness Donegal had at full back while also showing the benefits of quick ball in. Truth is the Donegal fowards were not getting the same space. Barrett said after the match that Donegal struggled to make chances as we could not run through them. I mean this is where you have to be adept in other ways of attacking which we know is a problem from the senior side. Really looking forward to U-21 and U-20 campaigns over the next few years. panamasam (Australia) - Posts: 2480 - 22/08/2016 18:29:15 1904587 Link 0 |
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Panamsam, all the players played with nerves yesterday, but was I the only at the Ulster Semi Final against Monaghan? Gallagher in midfield was head and shoulders above everyone on the pitch that day, received the man of the match award and really carried the team into the Ulster final that day, not the forget his second half performance against Antrim when McGee was black carded. Since his game against Monaghan Gallagher has been man marked in the last 3 games he played, and was hindered by the poor kickouts he had been receiving from his own goalkeeper. Also was candidate in the Democrat for the Donegal Man of the Match yesterday along switch O Donnell and Mogan. Harsh analysis of his temperament. donegal2016 (Donegal) - Posts: 14 - 23/08/2016 00:36:37 1904709 Link 0 |
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I think you answered your own question there. He played great in other games and then didn't turn up on Sunday. I would have marked him as being one of our poorer players on Sunday (only seen on TV though so hard to judge off the ball workrate). He does need to be a bit more physical. Its an element of his game that is lacking but he is a big man and if he can build on this great year he could become a massive player. Remember these guys are only 18 so are only forming and still learning the game. dstuction (Donegal) - Posts: 1208 - 23/08/2016 11:20:36 1904796 Link 0 |
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Perhaps nerves did play apart, I'm hearing he played very little football until last year due to injuries and injury prevented him to play County Minor football last year. Probably a player who will develop into a top class midfielder. Gallagher is however much quicker and athletic than McGee although McGee is the more attack minded of the two although is sometimes very wasteful with opportunities. I do believe both will carry on to Senior football but I believe Gallagher will develop quicker than McGee due a better standard of club football to look forward to with Naomh Conaill. Be interested to see how others see their development will pan out? donegal2016 (Donegal) - Posts: 14 - 23/08/2016 15:20:58 1904917 Link 0 |
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Panamasam, you followed this minor team closer than most this season so I just wanted to ask you your view on a few things. Watching the game on sunday it looked from where I was sitting that we were watching one very well coached team and one poorly coached team. Galway were obviously the team that had a proper defensive structure and a good attacking plan. Our full back line was completely exposed and had 50 meters of space to deal with. Mogan not only had to try to cover the space in front of the FB line but was our only player in our half at times apart from the FB line. Where was the Half Back line going?? I don't mind half backs attacking if there is cover in place but all 3 got caught in the wrong half when a move broke down time and time again and bar Mogan no one covered their runs. This meant when Galway counter attacked they had the option of running the ball into the huge spaces left or they went long into their full forward line and with so much space any decent ball in was always gonna favour the forwards. In saying that some of Galways kick passing was top drawer and I'm not trying to take from what they brought to the game as they played some great football and could of scored 5 or 6 goals or more. They also had a real strong defensive structure in place but our lads would continuely solo into contact and turnover the ball. Even though Galway had the blanket in place there were opportunities to go long into McGettigan who made some great runs but wasn't given the ball. We continued to run the ball the whole game and played into their hands and made it easy for them. Was this the first time they played against a blanket defense all year? Has the full back line always been as badly exposed and suspect under the high ball? Did they have a plan B or was it just a running game the adopted the whole year that was successful up until now? I don't mean to sound harsh and I'm definitely not giving out about the players who have done the county proud and I'm sure the lads will go on to have successful club and in some cases county careers. I just thought we looked a bit clueless on the sideline and as like with the seniors there was a real lack of a plan B. Mobot (Donegal) - Posts: 459 - 23/08/2016 16:57:38 1904966 Link 0 |
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I am not going to nit pick where and when I felt Kieran showed nerves if you do not mind. I do not want to be critical of young players and there is enough of that going on in the main forum with know it all experts most of which did not see Donegal play at all this year till last weekend. I have and had great confidence in this team and I know we showed no where near our best at the weekend. Yes I underestimated Galway and defensively they had Donegal sussed but we made it easy for them at times in an attacking sense with our shambolic defending. I thought this would get sorted at HT and we would kick on but it did not happen. panamasam (Australia) - Posts: 2480 - 23/08/2016 17:59:00 1905004 Link 0 |
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Sam I think the problem this year was that the players themselves had to suss out the opposition early on in games instead of setting up defensively prepare for what they had in store. I think this led to the slow starts. Teams set up to play against Donegal, while Donegal had to learn how to deal with the opposition as the game went on?? Correct me if I'm wrong but after the dominance the midfield pair showed against Monaghan, Derry completely cancel out the strength we had in that area with very direct low kick outs, taking the pair almost out of the game. And Galway it seemed had seen the direct running down the centre from Mogan, JD Boyle, McLaughlin, McCormack etc. in the second half of the Cork game and instead clogged up the defence around the D. donegal2016 (Donegal) - Posts: 14 - 23/08/2016 18:21:08 1905015 Link 1 |
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Spot on 2016 I agree with everything there. The Galway management got everything right on the day and that is it they clogged up the area around the D like you said. They also followed the Derry template regarding the kickouts too. A friend of mine who would be a neutral commented on our own kickouts. He repeated how slow and predictable they were especially in the second half. He also said if you just sat down not knowing the score you would have thought Donegal were defending a lead from how laborious they were. Where do you think it went so wrong on the day 2016? Obviously nerves were an issue not to mention playing a very good team. But I am sure like me you probably agree Donegal did not show their true potential on Sunday or maybe they did?
panamasam (Australia) - Posts: 2480 - 23/08/2016 20:08:59 1905048 Link 0 |
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Sam in my opinion this team hasn't played any where near their potential throughout the 60mins. The issue is that Ulster teams who play outside of their province are leaving their comfort zone. The lack of direct kick passing allows players to get back behind the ball, honest predictable football. To blame anyone on the day yesterday would be wrong, but the full back line had most of the influence on the result with a struggle against a long direct ball which they hadn't encountered before. The problem lies with the system played by Ulster teams and a change in style sooner rather then later will lead to a slow decline of all Ireland's coming near the province in both senior and minor. Haven't said that I felt Mogan and the half back line where to inclined to get forward and to be fair to McGee and Gallagher they did work very hard off the ball trying to cover the space and track the runners when the cover was not there. Better team won on the day I suppose.
donegal2016 (Donegal) - Posts: 14 - 23/08/2016 22:13:23 1905098 Link 0 |
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No question the better team on the day won. You do make some excellent points regarding the Ulster style of football but saying that they did beat what looked like a decent Cork side by a similar margin to what Kerry did. Of course Kerry did go on to pummel Derry who we made harder work of than we should have. I did think this team obviously excelled playing the quick transition through the hands style but they were not adverse to using the foot pass either which was effective but receiver usually had back to goal. There seemed to be alot of confusion about who was covering who at the weekend. I noted on a few occasions that the Galway runners were being allowed to run far to close to goal before we went to cover which did not help full backline at all. I don't know whether it was the early goal or what but there was serious malfunction between both lines and Peader on the day. He still had good game and covered well but was not as sharp as he had been in sniffing out the danger. Anyways good to get another perspective without the less than gracious undercurrent on the main thread.
panamasam (Australia) - Posts: 2480 - 23/08/2016 23:19:22 1905126 Link 0 |
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Excellent points, I have to admit I've drawn away from the other threads as they've been bombarded with general opinions with no real insight or truth.. As you said "Know it alls", most probably haven't been to a minor game all year, speaking only from what they have heard.
donegal2016 (Donegal) - Posts: 14 - 23/08/2016 23:59:07 1905137 Link 0 |
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We can only look onwards, next years squad? Peadar Mogan, A few Kilcar lads, Michael Mulhern and Jack Flannery are the survivors from this year, having said that I do believe Gallagher in midfield and McGrath from Aodh Ruadh are only a matter of days overage, both only weeks older than Mogan born in January. Very unlucky would have been handy to tag along with the others left over. donegal2016 (Donegal) - Posts: 14 - 24/08/2016 00:03:11 1905139 Link 0 |