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Donegal GAA thread

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Replying To rorysboys:  "Where's this great talent that bonner and rochford were holding back last year.. not much noise from the armchair supporters now. I've followed Donegal all my life but I guarantee this if bonner and rochford were still in charge we would still be in division one and looking forward to the Ulster championship with a hope of winning it. ."
I was never a fan of Bonner's but you are correct about the myth that we have all this great talent. We've had zero underage success for years. The fact is we don't have one good man-marking defender. And we don't have any really top quality forwards who can average 5 or 6 points a game. Paddy mcbrearty is well below his prime but he was still the best forward in the club championship last year. The shenanigans in the board room and academy are getting blamed for a lot, but the reality is we don't have the quality of player needed to compete at the top any more.

greenfan (Donegal) - Posts: 633 - 27/03/2023 12:06:29    2467021

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Replying To The keeper:  "Here we go again, the Bonner was doing a great job brigade, the I am a real Donegal supporter brigade, the talent is not there brigade, Bonner was working miracles brigade. Its getting boring at this stage kid. Move on.
Bonner had his chance with murphy the best full forward in Ireland, and played him in midfield in ulster final, where his man scored 3 points. When we had no focal point in the forward line and couldn't break Derry down.

The fact is we are a badly coached team at the moment that look miles off in terms of fitness and physical strength. That is nothing to do with talent and everything to do with pre season preparation.
The fact is we have lost players in murphy, mcbrearty, the 3 o'donnells are county material. And i am sure i forgot others.
The fact is the mess the county committee is making of everything, the whole Donegal gaa community is on a downer.
But that may not change this year, but with a full squad, the right management team and the best possible preparation for pre season next year, we are more that capable of returning to Div 1.
The sad news is there is very few great managers out there with that X factor, as we have seen post mcguinness"
It has everything to do with talent my friend. You were saying after the Kerry game about always being talent in Donegal. What I'm saying is players didn't want bonner or Rory removed because the setup was first class it's only fools like you armchair supporters who don't see it. You're blaming players who are not there this year, yet when I said we were down a few players last year you said that's what a squad is for. Double standards my friend , doesn't surprise me but as usual I'm proven right again. It'll take more than the X factor to sort this out. Shame on you, yous have done serious damage to a proud gaa county. A county I followed for more than 40 years.

rorysboys (Donegal) - Posts: 2615 - 27/03/2023 12:24:29    2467033

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Replying To rorysboys:  "It has everything to do with talent my friend. You were saying after the Kerry game about always being talent in Donegal. What I'm saying is players didn't want bonner or Rory removed because the setup was first class it's only fools like you armchair supporters who don't see it. You're blaming players who are not there this year, yet when I said we were down a few players last year you said that's what a squad is for. Double standards my friend , doesn't surprise me but as usual I'm proven right again. It'll take more than the X factor to sort this out. Shame on you, yous have done serious damage to a proud gaa county. A county I followed for more than 40 years."
Shame on yous… shame on who? What are you talking about. Fans are not the issue here, the powers that be are the problem.

Donegal_abroad (Donegal) - Posts: 1409 - 27/03/2023 14:04:28    2467080

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Replying To rorysboys:  "It has everything to do with talent my friend. You were saying after the Kerry game about always being talent in Donegal. What I'm saying is players didn't want bonner or Rory removed because the setup was first class it's only fools like you armchair supporters who don't see it. You're blaming players who are not there this year, yet when I said we were down a few players last year you said that's what a squad is for. Double standards my friend , doesn't surprise me but as usual I'm proven right again. It'll take more than the X factor to sort this out. Shame on you, yous have done serious damage to a proud gaa county. A county I followed for more than 40 years."
I take your point about us maybe overestimating the quality currently available. But I have no doubt in my mind that with better management and structure there is still a Division One squad there. Are the likes of Monaghan/Roscommon/Tyrone really that far ahead of us? I don't think so. We might not be at the levels of Kerry/Galway/Mayo/Dublin but our lads are a damn lot better than what they've shown in this year's league.

At this stage it is very tempting to write off 2023. But we have a month to go until the Down match. A good month to do some hard training under the radar. Everyone will be writing us off so the shackles will be off somewhat. The big conern is the treatment table of course. Off the top of my head there's McBrearty, Gallen, Mogan, Eoghan Ban, Langan and McHugh. All key players.

Maybe it's better if we don't prioritise Ulster this year? Concentrate on getting the lads above back and put everything into the group stages of the All Ireland? But by then, as others have suggested, we might have lost players to the US for the summer.

Any of the above is all redundant of course unless the management team for the rest of the year is clarified. O'Rourke didn't sound too committed yesterday when asked to comment.

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9759 - 27/03/2023 16:12:00    2467117

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Replying To Lockjaw:  "I take your point about us maybe overestimating the quality currently available. But I have no doubt in my mind that with better management and structure there is still a Division One squad there. Are the likes of Monaghan/Roscommon/Tyrone really that far ahead of us? I don't think so. We might not be at the levels of Kerry/Galway/Mayo/Dublin but our lads are a damn lot better than what they've shown in this year's league.

At this stage it is very tempting to write off 2023. But we have a month to go until the Down match. A good month to do some hard training under the radar. Everyone will be writing us off so the shackles will be off somewhat. The big conern is the treatment table of course. Off the top of my head there's McBrearty, Gallen, Mogan, Eoghan Ban, Langan and McHugh. All key players.

Maybe it's better if we don't prioritise Ulster this year? Concentrate on getting the lads above back and put everything into the group stages of the All Ireland? But by then, as others have suggested, we might have lost players to the US for the summer.

Any of the above is all redundant of course unless the management team for the rest of the year is clarified. O'Rourke didn't sound too committed yesterday when asked to comment."
If o rourke and Bradley go what's going to happen. Very hard to see who would come in with about 3 weeks to championship. With things not going well players will be targeted by the American clubs which could turn our group stages into a disaster. The other big fear as somebody mentioned is if we lose some of our sponsors.. this has turned disastrous it's a long time since morale was so low. Talking to a few of the supporters yesterday it was very obvious that the excitement with championship around the corner was not there. It's a shame because many's a great summer we had heading to clones and croke park.. hopefully we'll see them again but it's doubtful if it's going to be this year. But I live in hope I feel for the lads not knowing what's going to happen. Anyway hopefully we'll travel in decent numbers to newry.. still a proud donegal man

rorysboys (Donegal) - Posts: 2615 - 27/03/2023 17:28:46    2467141

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Replying To rorysboys:  "It has everything to do with talent my friend. You were saying after the Kerry game about always being talent in Donegal. What I'm saying is players didn't want bonner or Rory removed because the setup was first class it's only fools like you armchair supporters who don't see it. You're blaming players who are not there this year, yet when I said we were down a few players last year you said that's what a squad is for. Double standards my friend , doesn't surprise me but as usual I'm proven right again. It'll take more than the X factor to sort this out. Shame on you, yous have done serious damage to a proud gaa county. A county I followed for more than 40 years."
I'm a County follower for over 50 years. Managers come and go, the players should not have a say in who the manager is. How do you think Jim found the players? He picked players from all over the county, small clubs and big clubs. Managers have to go out and find the talent. The Academy will help a lot to spot the talent at an earlier age but that will take time.

Scenicparish (Donegal) - Posts: 486 - 27/03/2023 18:43:27    2467167

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Replying To Donegal_abroad:  "Shame on yous… shame on who? What are you talking about. Fans are not the issue here, the powers that be are the problem."
Totally agree!! The top table messed up replacing Bonner in the first place. We need a proper proven manager with a quality backroom team. The manager needed to be in place earlier to properly prepare team for the league and championship.

Scenicparish (Donegal) - Posts: 486 - 27/03/2023 18:49:28    2467168

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Very worrying the spin again being put out by county board on departure of Carr, player's had a meeting outline some concerns they had and Carr decided at this meeting to resign. The players did not look for him to go but expressed a number of concerns. This doesn't excuse the performance on Sunday but the statements being released by the county board are to suit a certain narrative.

Any word on tonight's meeting?? Will the turkeys be voting for Christmas again???

totalrecall (Leitrim) - Posts: 1060 - 27/03/2023 21:18:06    2467196

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Replying To rorysboys:  "Where's this great talent that bonner and rochford were holding back last year.. not much noise from the armchair supporters now. I've followed Donegal all my life but I guarantee this if bonner and rochford were still in charge we would still be in division one and looking forward to the Ulster championship with a hope of winning it. ."
Declan Bonner did a great job, under his management we won 2 x Ulster title, Division 2 title and a McKenna Cup, this current squad have a lot of medals in their pockets at the moment thanks to him. However it was becoming evident in 2022 as other posters have referenced, that things were seeming a bit stale by 2022.

Losing that 2020 Ulster final to Cavan kind of lost momentum for Declan Bonner from within the squad, and that was never recovered, and while he was still doing a good job, failure to reach an All Ireland Semi final or better seemed to drain added motivation from the squad.

I don't think Declan/Stephen were holding back talent, but I did feel that the often failed to rotate the squad properly, like Tony McClenaghan is a prime example, who was in the squad for years, but only rarely got a run out and he left the squad before the Ulster SF with Cavan last year. He is a powerful wing back, I thought he would be more suited to some of the Ulster matches were we often struggled. Also general use of the bench was a problem, we never seemed to get subs right under Declan Bonner.

Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1340 - 28/03/2023 09:27:12    2467220

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Replying To Lockjaw:  "I take your point about us maybe overestimating the quality currently available. But I have no doubt in my mind that with better management and structure there is still a Division One squad there. Are the likes of Monaghan/Roscommon/Tyrone really that far ahead of us? I don't think so. We might not be at the levels of Kerry/Galway/Mayo/Dublin but our lads are a damn lot better than what they've shown in this year's league.

At this stage it is very tempting to write off 2023. But we have a month to go until the Down match. A good month to do some hard training under the radar. Everyone will be writing us off so the shackles will be off somewhat. The big conern is the treatment table of course. Off the top of my head there's McBrearty, Gallen, Mogan, Eoghan Ban, Langan and McHugh. All key players.

Maybe it's better if we don't prioritise Ulster this year? Concentrate on getting the lads above back and put everything into the group stages of the All Ireland? But by then, as others have suggested, we might have lost players to the US for the summer.

Any of the above is all redundant of course unless the management team for the rest of the year is clarified. O'Rourke didn't sound too committed yesterday when asked to comment."
At full strength with a decent management team in place, I think we still have the potential to be a top 4-5 team, but we need traction on the field, which usually happens when a team comes out the right side of big battles.

Too many negative Donegal fans with a loser mentality, even some of the comments from these types during the Jim McGuinness era of unrivaled success was shocking, they would bring any County crashing down. Whatever we are lacking, a good coaching team will go away and work on that and develop that, if a manager is waiting for 15 superstar players key made for each role, then they'll be waiting a long time.

Nothing to lose now, I think U20 management team could step up and take over for the Championship and be under no pressure. We are in the Ulster and the All Ireland series, have a go at it and see how we fare.

Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1340 - 28/03/2023 09:37:22    2467226

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Replying To Commodore:  "At full strength with a decent management team in place, I think we still have the potential to be a top 4-5 team, but we need traction on the field, which usually happens when a team comes out the right side of big battles.

Too many negative Donegal fans with a loser mentality, even some of the comments from these types during the Jim McGuinness era of unrivaled success was shocking, they would bring any County crashing down. Whatever we are lacking, a good coaching team will go away and work on that and develop that, if a manager is waiting for 15 superstar players key made for each role, then they'll be waiting a long time.

Nothing to lose now, I think U20 management team could step up and take over for the Championship and be under no pressure. We are in the Ulster and the All Ireland series, have a go at it and see how we fare."
Are you serious about U20 management taking over its someone who has managed at a proper level we need.

neutral (None) - Posts: 358 - 28/03/2023 10:30:02    2467239

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Replying To Scenicparish:  "Totally agree!! The top table messed up replacing Bonner in the first place. We need a proper proven manager with a quality backroom team. The manager needed to be in place earlier to properly prepare team for the league and championship."
I had nothing against bonner and we had a great 2019 and 2018 under him. But the 2020 loss to cavan was terrible, mgt were too focused on dubs , and took cavan for granted and we were deservedly beaten. This was a criminal mistake in my view

We were unlucky in 2021 against Tyrone with the missed pen and the sending off and performed well against a good Tyrone side.

The ulster final we got tactically wrong in the last 10 minutes when we didn't press home the advantage and we were deservedly beaten in extra time.

I just think after five years that bonner had run his course. I also think lacey stepping aside in 2020 was a bigger loss than we realised at the time and thought Rochford brought little to the party.

The problem we have now is there was no succession plan in place, the county chairman came up with a ridiculous convoluted selection process, which took far too long to come to conclude. With the utmost respect to paddy Carr he came to the table without a backroom team on his ticket and then was given orourke., and others were then added. It was never going to work.He was doomed from the outset.

totalrecall (Leitrim) - Posts: 1060 - 28/03/2023 10:33:47    2467242

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Replying To rorysboys:  "It has everything to do with talent my friend. You were saying after the Kerry game about always being talent in Donegal. What I'm saying is players didn't want bonner or Rory removed because the setup was first class it's only fools like you armchair supporters who don't see it. You're blaming players who are not there this year, yet when I said we were down a few players last year you said that's what a squad is for. Double standards my friend , doesn't surprise me but as usual I'm proven right again. It'll take more than the X factor to sort this out. Shame on you, yous have done serious damage to a proud gaa county. A county I followed for more than 40 years."
Failed to bring a good team to an all Ireland semi final. Lost ulster finals against cavan and derry. The two he won were against fermanagh and cavan, hardly power houses of ulster.
To me if we had a real top quality manager them years, there could have been an all Ireland final appearance at the very least. Wasted years under Bonner.
So move on kid, you were not proved correct.

I believe we can forget about this year, certain players are to late coming back to the panel, if some are coming back at all.

Get the right management in place for the next few years, rebuild with all the players available, and we are still as good as anyone.
Its all about getting the right Management team in place, a management team that does not accept second best.
To many supporters and previous management were happy to win ulster and that was it.
Winners think bigger kid

The keeper (Donegal) - Posts: 711 - 28/03/2023 11:05:51    2467248

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Replying To totalrecall:  "Very worrying the spin again being put out by county board on departure of Carr, player's had a meeting outline some concerns they had and Carr decided at this meeting to resign. The players did not look for him to go but expressed a number of concerns. This doesn't excuse the performance on Sunday but the statements being released by the county board are to suit a certain narrative.

Any word on tonight's meeting?? Will the turkeys be voting for Christmas again???"
It's only a management meeting tonight I think? Not the full county committee?

SignTheContract (Donegal) - Posts: 197 - 28/03/2023 11:14:44    2467250

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Replying To neutral:  "Are you serious about U20 management taking over its someone who has managed at a proper level we need."
Yes I am serious that U20 Management team as an option to temporarily step-in just to get us through Championship, as there are no other serious candidates going to step in at this point, any potential candidates will likely wait until the season is over. There are no other obvious candidates I can see who will be willing to step in right now, unless a team is patched together, as I can't see Aidan O'Rourke and Paddy Bradley staying on at this rate.

So we need temporary management to get us through Championship while the County Board begin the search for new management, which ideally will need to be in place before the County Championship kicks-off.

Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1340 - 28/03/2023 11:25:31    2467254

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Replying To The keeper:  "Failed to bring a good team to an all Ireland semi final. Lost ulster finals against cavan and derry. The two he won were against fermanagh and cavan, hardly power houses of ulster.
To me if we had a real top quality manager them years, there could have been an all Ireland final appearance at the very least. Wasted years under Bonner.
So move on kid, you were not proved correct.

I believe we can forget about this year, certain players are to late coming back to the panel, if some are coming back at all.

Get the right management in place for the next few years, rebuild with all the players available, and we are still as good as anyone.
Its all about getting the right Management team in place, a management team that does not accept second best.
To many supporters and previous management were happy to win ulster and that was it.
Winners think bigger kid"
Your post is so anti bonner it's unreal. You mention beating Cavan and Fermanagh in Ulster finals as if they hadn't to beat teams like Tyrone to get there. You mention winning ulsters as if it's no big deal. Think big you say what planet are you on if we don't watch well be in the tailteann cup soon. It's fools like you we are where we are absolutely clueless about football won't support the team and think we're all Ireland material every year. . It must annoy you to know that I'm right again. Enjoy your day lad keep fantasising about All Irelands.

rorysboys (Donegal) - Posts: 2615 - 28/03/2023 11:34:06    2467258

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I know the whole thing is a shambles at present but what I also find extra worrying is the lack of fight shown by some of the players,
I know morale must be at an all time low for them but you are still wearing the county jersey and big money being spent on hotel stays etc the could at least make a better effort imo.
We need to get a grip of this thing rapid otherwise the days of being a force in Ulster and being a top 10 team will be distant memories.
I still believe we have the talent but they need leadership and proper management, I think they need a few weeks now of gut busting hard training, maybe forget about Ulster this year and focus on being right for the group stages.
90% perspiration,10% inspiration, I think we are falling well short on both, no more talk, just work.

Tirchonaill1 (Donegal) - Posts: 3186 - 28/03/2023 11:54:35    2467265

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Replying To rorysboys:  "Your post is so anti bonner it's unreal. You mention beating Cavan and Fermanagh in Ulster finals as if they hadn't to beat teams like Tyrone to get there. You mention winning ulsters as if it's no big deal. Think big you say what planet are you on if we don't watch well be in the tailteann cup soon. It's fools like you we are where we are absolutely clueless about football won't support the team and think we're all Ireland material every year. . It must annoy you to know that I'm right again. Enjoy your day lad keep fantasising about All Irelands."
It blows my mind that every time I go onto Hogan Stand to read some of these comments, you are always stuck in the middle of the conversation, boasting about how you are "right" every time. I struggle to see how you are "right". It's an opinion. It's clear to see that the team were starting to regress under Bonner. I posed this question yesterday to you, but where do you get all this time to talk about Donegal football. Do you have Netflix?

MurphBalls (Donegal) - Posts: 178 - 28/03/2023 12:22:07    2467281

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Replying To Tirchonaill1:  "I know the whole thing is a shambles at present but what I also find extra worrying is the lack of fight shown by some of the players,
I know morale must be at an all time low for them but you are still wearing the county jersey and big money being spent on hotel stays etc the could at least make a better effort imo.
We need to get a grip of this thing rapid otherwise the days of being a force in Ulster and being a top 10 team will be distant memories.
I still believe we have the talent but they need leadership and proper management, I think they need a few weeks now of gut busting hard training, maybe forget about Ulster this year and focus on being right for the group stages.
90% perspiration,10% inspiration, I think we are falling well short on both, no more talk, just work."
Unless you win win the provincial championship there is not much value in it.Obviously if you do win it you avoid the other provincial winners in the group stages and get the first game at home.Even if we are knocked out in Ulster getting third place out of four in a group should not be beyond us.If all the injured players are back and enough training in them we still could make a Quarter Final.

gunman (Donegal) - Posts: 1149 - 28/03/2023 12:51:49    2467296

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Replying To Commodore:  "Declan Bonner did a great job, under his management we won 2 x Ulster title, Division 2 title and a McKenna Cup, this current squad have a lot of medals in their pockets at the moment thanks to him. However it was becoming evident in 2022 as other posters have referenced, that things were seeming a bit stale by 2022.

Losing that 2020 Ulster final to Cavan kind of lost momentum for Declan Bonner from within the squad, and that was never recovered, and while he was still doing a good job, failure to reach an All Ireland Semi final or better seemed to drain added motivation from the squad.

I don't think Declan/Stephen were holding back talent, but I did feel that the often failed to rotate the squad properly, like Tony McClenaghan is a prime example, who was in the squad for years, but only rarely got a run out and he left the squad before the Ulster SF with Cavan last year. He is a powerful wing back, I thought he would be more suited to some of the Ulster matches were we often struggled. Also general use of the bench was a problem, we never seemed to get subs right under Declan Bonner."
Get your point commodore about the squad rotation under bonner. Look at mark Curran this year after sitting on the squad for 3yrs. I'd made the point last year against Armagh in the qualifiers that starting young Doherty in the corner instead of Curran was wrong but got slated by a certain poster on here.

Tyrion (Donegal) - Posts: 165 - 28/03/2023 13:37:50    2467315

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