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Donegal GAA thread

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Replying To Commodore: "We should have won comfortably yesterday, probably by 5+ points when allowing for Galway's misses too, but we kicked the game away. Defensively I think we are learning and getting stronger, our attacking game needs some work, but its great having Oisin Gallen, Michael Langan and Conor O'Donnell on the pitch. I'm not upset by the result yesterday, there were so many other things we got right on the day, particularly defensively. We need to work on the start of the 2nd half, its when we seem to always concede a lot of points, perhaps the half time gives opposing teams a chance to adapt to us. At present we lack the depth to have a serious tilt this summer, as others mentioned our transitioning from defense to attack isn't anywhere near the likes of Derry, who right now are probably the best in the Country at it. Lots to work on, but definitely a lot of positives." Following the Galway game I felt it was our attacking game that was letting us down, defensively we were generally good against both Armagh and Galway, I also thought generally our midfield was good, but out attacking game is lacking creativity and shot selection is often poor. I disagree with Ciaran Whelan and Colm Cooper last night, as I think it was lacking even with Paddy McBrearty and Jamie Brennan playing. Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1340 - 06/03/2023 10:01:32 2462191 Link
Replying To gunman: "Did you not see McFadden being given a rigorous fitness test on his own while the rest were warming up.He was obviously not deemed fit enough to start.A fully fit McHugh would make a huge difference but we have lost a lot of point scoring being minus Murphy,McBrearty and Niall O'Donnell.What I have noticed this year is that every team seems to have tightened up defensively getting big numbers back.For a couple of years there football seemed to be opening up a bit but I can see that changing this year." Ryan McHugh would good at left wing forward, I think his days of playing wing back are over, but he play a significant role at wing forward. Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1340 - 06/03/2023 10:02:47 2462193 Link
Replying To PattyONeill: "I noticed how the TG4 co commentator (Mark Harte I think) kept calling Donegal "Tir Chonaill". I understand that it is a historical name for the region but it isn't the official name of the county. That would be like calling Antrim Dal Riada. I wonder why Donegal don't change the name of the county if they are going to be referred to as Tyrchonaill anyway." Tir Conaill was only part of modern day County Donegal, it became Donegal after being merged with Inish Eoghain, so A pundit or commentator calling us Tir Conaill men shows lack of knowledge of the regions history and is slightly disrespectful to the Inishowen based players. However I don't think its intentional or meant to be disrespectful in any way, Its really just lack of knowledge or understanding by people who are not from the area. Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1340 - 06/03/2023 10:24:55 2462200 Link
Replying To neutral: "Armagh missing quite a lot of players due to injury 8 in total a supporter told me last night is that accurate." Hi neutral: From following their own separate forum that seems about right but O Neills injury seems long term and of the others only 2-3 would be starters. AudiMan (Donegal) - Posts: 683 - 06/03/2023 10:42:40 2462204 Link
The first half made for very grim viewing. Despite defending OK and having lots of possession, we looked totally devoid of ideas going forward. I know that Armagh dropped men back and we had to patient. But there didn't seem to be any guile or variety at all. No harm to Stephen McMenamin, we know what his strengths are, but creating panic in opposition defences isn't one of them. Our shot selection was awful and we found it very difficult to get the likes of Gallen and Brennan involved. There was some improvement in the second half. Hugh offered a different option inside and we used the longer ball well on a few occasions. With a wee bit more composure and a better ref we might have eked out a draw or even a win. There's no room for error now. We need to win the last two games and hope for the best. Neither game will be easy. Ryan McHugh coming back will obviously be a welcome addition but he isn't going to be a silver bullet for our attacking issues. It seemed like Daire O'Baoíll was the only man trusted to kick pass inside. I know we've traditionally been a hand passing team, but I'm sorry, if a county footballer can't, or isn't trusted to kick pass a ball early inside you'd have to question what he's doing there. Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9759 - 06/03/2023 10:56:13 2462213 Link
Replying To Commodore: "Following the Galway game I felt it was our attacking game that was letting us down, defensively we were generally good against both Armagh and Galway, I also thought generally our midfield was good, but out attacking game is lacking creativity and shot selection is often poor. I disagree with Ciaran Whelan and Colm Cooper last night, as I think it was lacking even with Paddy McBrearty and Jamie Brennan playing." Sure Jamie Brennan was playing. Show's how much research people do. Kicking long balls inside is great but there has to be a happy medium. Top teams like Derry Dublin and Kerry would swallow us up if we persist kicking long. Possession I'm afraid is king these days. Our destiny I'm afraid rests on how mayo treat our next match. Will they want to keep momentum and play a strong team or will they play the lads who haven't got much game time rorysboys (Donegal) - Posts: 2615 - 06/03/2023 12:03:26 2462234 Link
I see Sean Cavanagh on the star saying Derry are genuine All Ireland contenders now..but I keep going back to the ulster final last year and we'll 2 points up on them and patton and Mcmemamin get a kick out mixed up and it's a free in to Derry..what does this mean..have we fallen that far in a space of a year? Or are we as good as Derry? And here's a thoughts..what would the GAA landscape look like now if we actually kept that 2 point lead and won last year's ulster championship..anyway I'm off to watch highlights of ulster semi final 2011, all Ireland semi final against cork in 2012 and all Ireland semi final against the Dubs in 2014 to cheer me up..:( RoryGall35 (Donegal) - Posts: 193 - 06/03/2023 13:13:25 2462261 Link
Replying To rorysboys: "Sure Jamie Brennan was playing. Show's how much research people do. Kicking long balls inside is great but there has to be a happy medium. Top teams like Derry Dublin and Kerry would swallow us up if we persist kicking long. Possession I'm afraid is king these days. Our destiny I'm afraid rests on how mayo treat our next match. Will they want to keep momentum and play a strong team or will they play the lads who haven't got much game time" Yeah I agree. Kicking it in long every time would be no use either as teams would just adapt. I'm talking moreso in the transition. We tend to win ball but then don't make the advantage count because we don't get the ball into attacking areas quickly enough. The counter-attack starts at speed but more often than not it slows back down to walking pace again and lateral passing. Why not trust our inside forwards' ball-winning ability more by putting good early ball in front of them? Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9759 - 06/03/2023 13:39:09 2462276 Link
Replying To Lockjaw: "The first half made for very grim viewing. Despite defending OK and having lots of possession, we looked totally devoid of ideas going forward. I know that Armagh dropped men back and we had to patient. But there didn't seem to be any guile or variety at all. No harm to Stephen McMenamin, we know what his strengths are, but creating panic in opposition defences isn't one of them. Our shot selection was awful and we found it very difficult to get the likes of Gallen and Brennan involved. There was some improvement in the second half. Hugh offered a different option inside and we used the longer ball well on a few occasions. With a wee bit more composure and a better ref we might have eked out a draw or even a win. There's no room for error now. We need to win the last two games and hope for the best. Neither game will be easy. Ryan McHugh coming back will obviously be a welcome addition but he isn't going to be a silver bullet for our attacking issues. It seemed like Daire O'Baoíll was the only man trusted to kick pass inside. I know we've traditionally been a hand passing team, but I'm sorry, if a county footballer can't, or isn't trusted to kick pass a ball early inside you'd have to question what he's doing there." Yeah good point about Stephen McMenamin, too often he was the man inside, which suited Armagh. What actually worried me was that players were often too focused on lateral passing and failed to spot space in the Armagh defensive shield, there were lots of gaps or enough space to shoot. Hopefully Ciaran Thompson can pick up the pace a little, playing Hugh McFadden inside might be an option, as he looked ok in there. I thought Conor O'Donnell played well, Michael Langan and Oisin Gallen are both getting there. Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1340 - 06/03/2023 13:39:37 2462277 Link
Replying To rorysboys: "Sure Jamie Brennan was playing. Show's how much research people do. Kicking long balls inside is great but there has to be a happy medium. Top teams like Derry Dublin and Kerry would swallow us up if we persist kicking long. Possession I'm afraid is king these days. Our destiny I'm afraid rests on how mayo treat our next match. Will they want to keep momentum and play a strong team or will they play the lads who haven't got much game time" I'm not saying we need to kick inside a lot, but having that option constantly there certainly asks more questions of the opposition. We had the beating of that Armagh side on Saturday night, we had the beating of Galway the week before, yet we really kicked both games away. Winning games is king, possession is only useful if we can outscore the opposition, we we the better side against Monaghan for 45 minutes, we were the better side against Galway and should have won by 5+ points and I thought we were the better side against Armagh for long periods and could have won it with better attacking play. I'm not blaming Paddy Carr, he hadn't much time to prepare in fairness and faced a huge number of injuries or drop outs. But we know what the issue is now, lots of video examples to work on, it can be fixed. Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1340 - 06/03/2023 13:50:29 2462286 Link
Replying To RoryGall35: "I see Sean Cavanagh on the star saying Derry are genuine All Ireland contenders now..but I keep going back to the ulster final last year and we'll 2 points up on them and patton and Mcmemamin get a kick out mixed up and it's a free in to Derry..what does this mean..have we fallen that far in a space of a year? Or are we as good as Derry? And here's a thoughts..what would the GAA landscape look like now if we actually kept that 2 point lead and won last year's ulster championship..anyway I'm off to watch highlights of ulster semi final 2011, all Ireland semi final against cork in 2012 and all Ireland semi final against the Dubs in 2014 to cheer me up..:(" You make a genuine point, we drew the Ulster final with Derry and they beat us by 2 points after extra time, there wasn't very much in it to be fair. We also beat Armagh twice, our heavy loss to them came in the qualifiers after a demoralizing loss to Derry. Having watched Tyrone yesterday, they would be my tip for the All Ireland. I still don't think Derry have enough up front for the wide open spaces of Croke Park, which is harder to mass defend in than Celtic Park. Plus in typical Rory Gallagher fashion they showed their hand in the National League again, the big dogs will pick them off in Croke Park again most likely. Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1340 - 06/03/2023 13:59:00 2462292 Link
Travelled back from Armagh Saturday bit frustrated. It was flashback in first half to games in 99-05 period where we bouncing off more physical team that picked us off on counter. First half was poor, we had plenty of possession but lacked any cutting edge. Armagh planted their line along 45 and we proved but just kept shovelling possession lateral. Teams happy enough to give frees out there as we inconsistent on long frees. Armagh content to allow McMenamin go inside on attacks as knew we weren't going to kick and if did there wouldn't be danger. I would have thought he's be better holding 6 position for breaks if we lost in contact.This meant they could press us out field as knew inside no risk long kicks until Hugh went in. It is a template more physical teams will use against us.Second half big Hugh inside meant there was a threat and Armagh had decisions to make for sweeper drop or push out. More urgency to play. Our midfield and Langan started to get though lines. Press on there kick out good. We still went 15 mins in second half without score. I saw this morning that we 3rd lowest across divisions1-55. Not creating awful lot of goals and forward power off bench limited. For championship if you looking at 17-20 points to win it, it's hard to see how we get in high numbers without Paddy, Jamie's form being mixed, and Oisin Gallen finding feet with run of games.Positives I thought McCole did well-big Hugh a full forward, Jason McGee second half. Good to see Ciaran Thompson back but not sure why McKelvey not getting more time. It will be tough to survive but if can beat Mayo - a lot of more established players poor enough sat evening so hoping for a bounce next game. It's the first Ulster campaign in a while we going in not sure where we at. Was thinking on way home, would it be better going all in on group games having more players back, not sure if we have depth to go through ulster and group games. U20 win v Mayo a positive DonegalDanny92 (Donegal) - Posts: 39 - 06/03/2023 14:17:34 2462306 Link
Yeah Derry are a good well coached team but are a bit off an All Ireland in my opinion. I think they'd need at least one more marquee forward alongside McGuigan. Paul Cassidy is a good player. He has a lovely, unique turn in his locker that catches markers out. In an era when a lot of forwards are too cautious to take on their direct opponent it's great to see a bit of skill like that. Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9759 - 06/03/2023 14:30:37 2462314 Link
I wonder will the club delegates show up tonight and do what they r supposed to for the sake of Donegal football? ryan (Donegal) - Posts: 748 - 06/03/2023 14:42:25 2462321 Link
Hugh and EBG both still working their way to full match fitness. If and when Hugh gets there I think we need him all over the pitch. Should he regain that level he was at from 2016-2020 I think the team is exponentially better and gives Mogan, EBG, and Ryan McHugh (remember him?) freedom. The limitation of having McFadden in the square is that you only have 1 man in DÓB to pick him out. Easy to double-mark him everytime DÓB gets on the ball. McFadden himself is another high-level kickpasser himself. Not panicked. If Donegal go down, they go down, but there's positives to take from the league campaign. We've identified a new starter in the full-back line which looks to be solid, we have Oisin Farrah and Conor O'Donnell getting an extended run in the team, and we now have 4 midfielders at a good level coming into match fitness which we missed in the last few years. Donegal have an easier route to Ulster final, and it will be very disappointing if they can't take advantage of that. I fear that two poor performances this month could lead to a dismal support following them to Newry next month. SurelyToGod (Donegal) - Posts: 452 - 06/03/2023 14:51:37 2462325 Link
Replying To Lockjaw: "Yeah Derry are a good well coached team but are a bit off an All Ireland in my opinion. I think they'd need at least one more marquee forward alongside McGuigan. Paul Cassidy is a good player. He has a lovely, unique turn in his locker that catches markers out. In an era when a lot of forwards are too cautious to take on their direct opponent it's great to see a bit of skill like that." Breaking lines is definitely not all about power,a bit of skill like a jink ,a dummy in taking on a defender is badly needed.Unfortunately we don't seem to have those skills.We have poor ball retention skills in tight situations and get turned over more than most teams.Whether it is because of college football or not the likes of Tyrone always produce those type of skillful players with really tight ball control. gunman (Donegal) - Posts: 1149 - 06/03/2023 14:54:35 2462327 Link
I found the first half a tough watch, all the old bad habits to the fore, slow lateral build up play, no ball going into the inside forwards. The inside forwards then go roaming out the field to get the ball, at one stage Stephen McMenamin was our sole full forward. It was like a repeat of last years Ulster final. Thankfully the second half was much better, Hugh McFadden made a huge impact, great to see him back to form. Why did we not keep Hugh at full forward for the rest of the match? He was making a difference there, giving us an option to go long. We moved the ball much faster in the second half, we are a purely running team so it's vital we do it at pace. We are definitely lacking a bit of confidence, we were very tentative at the start of the game. The defence are doing really well but our attack is toothless. I wouldn't blame the forwards, our build up play is so slow that it allows the opposition to filter everyone back. At least we know what we have to do now, beat Mayo and Roscommon and we will be safe. A lot will depend on what Mayo team turn up in Ballybofey, if they pick their best 15 we are in trouble. Green_Gold (Donegal) - Posts: 1906 - 06/03/2023 14:59:08 2462330 Link
Replying To RoryGall35: "I see Sean Cavanagh on the star saying Derry are genuine All Ireland contenders now..but I keep going back to the ulster final last year and we'll 2 points up on them and patton and Mcmemamin get a kick out mixed up and it's a free in to Derry..what does this mean..have we fallen that far in a space of a year? Or are we as good as Derry? And here's a thoughts..what would the GAA landscape look like now if we actually kept that 2 point lead and won last year's ulster championship..anyway I'm off to watch highlights of ulster semi final 2011, all Ireland semi final against cork in 2012 and all Ireland semi final against the Dubs in 2014 to cheer me up..:(" I think we are not far away because I don't think any team in Ireland is truly a cut above at the minute, there is nobody that is miles ahead aof the pack nd you'd say we would have no chance if we met them in an All-Ireland quarter final for example. With caveats of having a full deck to choose from. But there is no doubt in my mind we are lacking a bit of belief at the moment and confidence. We seem a little bit aimless at times. When we are good you see the best attributes of our football, speed and skill and real purposeful running, whether it's kickpassing or possession when we are playing well you can see it coursing through the team. But there doesn't seem to be much consistency or a pattern. I think Derry are genuine contenders because they seem absolutely ravenous - are we at that level? Sometimes it's simplistic but I don't think talent wise we are a million miles behind the top teams. So then it comes down to preparation and how much do you want it? Derry are absolutely maximising their talent pool at the minute and last year will have done wonders for their belief - they will run through walls for Rory Gallagher and for one another now. That bloody-mindedness is incredibly hard to beat, no matter how good you might be. Maybe we are falling behind. Maybe last year's Ulster final was the last kick of this brilliant period we've had. But I think we have enough talent for that not to be inevitable. CCFabu (Donegal) - Posts: 173 - 06/03/2023 15:31:09 2462346 Link
Replying To Commodore: "You make a genuine point, we drew the Ulster final with Derry and they beat us by 2 points after extra time, there wasn't very much in it to be fair. We also beat Armagh twice, our heavy loss to them came in the qualifiers after a demoralizing loss to Derry. Having watched Tyrone yesterday, they would be my tip for the All Ireland. I still don't think Derry have enough up front for the wide open spaces of Croke Park, which is harder to mass defend in than Celtic Park. Plus in typical Rory Gallagher fashion they showed their hand in the National League again, the big dogs will pick them off in Croke Park again most likely." The wide open spaces of Croke Park will suit their attacking game all the same. TheRock2121 (Donegal) - Posts: 1208 - 06/03/2023 16:45:02 2462372 Link
Replying To ryan: "I wonder will the club delegates show up tonight and do what they r supposed to for the sake of Donegal football?" And what would that be greenfan (Donegal) - Posts: 633 - 06/03/2023 17:59:32 2462401 Link