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Donegal GAA thread

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Replying To totalrecall: "One of the worst championship games I was ever at, really poor fare from both teams, poor execution of basic skills, kicking, handpassing from both teams. Lots of unforced errors. Galway would have beaten the pick of both teams. I think Galway will beat dubs comfortable" Yes agreed. Dubs missed a sight of wides. Donegal constantly ran into stupid alleys and missed a few bad ones too. Galway win on Sunday by at least 7 and probably by 10 or more. shaggykev (Donegal) - Posts: 502 - 25/06/2026 22:03:59 2681951 Link
Replying To CCFabu: "It's not arrogance to think we can play better than the last two weeks. We're Donegal supporters so obviously we're going to look at our lads and think about how they're doing Dublin had a great plan for us and frankly made us look predictable. Even with that we pushed all the way although Dublin had their own problems. If the shooting boots were on yous would have won very handily I think. Anyway I don't know why you're going looking for Donegal opinions to be annoyed at. Like you say everyone in person congratulated you and well done the Dubs. Are we supposed to just continue posting that or can we not think about what went wrong for us this year? Saying the squad looked off it or tired or something wasn't right, all that is Donegal people only talking about Donegal, not a comment on the Dubs." And the poster I replied to saying Donegal underperformed because they would beat Dublin 9 times outta 10, arrogance? sligo joe (Dublin) - Posts: 1149 - 25/06/2026 22:43:47 2681953 Link
Replying To naomh_conaill_4: "I feel like Ethan Harkin would have been a good player to have in and around the panel. McFadden Ferry and Ordhran Doherty also although I know they opted out. From the season as a whole its a sore one to take when you consider in hind sight we got the league all wrong. Monaghan and Tyrone could barely win a game and both are 1 game from a Semi Final which for Monaghan is actually highly likely. I feel so bad for the lads there because we definitely left an all Ireland behind us in the last few years and to go again will be tough." Agree fully. Not sure why Odhran didn't get a lookin last year. With the new rules he's lethal with long range 2 PT shooting. I'm sure he may come back. Yeah like there's a lot of regret here, I do fancy Kerry to win it outright easily but if one the other 7 do win it, it will be a bitter pill to swallow as that could have been us. Hope Jim is back in 2027 and he shakes up his back room staff like he did in 2014 Murphy, if he retires again, will be a loss but we have made a semi without him and we do need to sort of move on from him at this stage. Gives the younger lads more game time too. Who knows, maybe he will step into a role with Jim. I think Ryan played very well this season too and even in his twilight years, he is still a great player so I do fancy him to be back. Rest of the squad is relatively young. We just need to improve the bench a good bit. eddieSize5Balls (Donegal) - Posts: 444 - 25/06/2026 23:52:44 2681967 Link
Micheal Byrnes back on the bench for Kerry. hlynch12 (Limerick) - Posts: 137 - 26/06/2026 08:52:38 2681976 Link
Replying To naomh_conaill_4: "I feel like Ethan Harkin would have been a good player to have in and around the panel. McFadden Ferry and Ordhran Doherty also although I know they opted out. From the season as a whole its a sore one to take when you consider in hind sight we got the league all wrong. Monaghan and Tyrone could barely win a game and both are 1 game from a Semi Final which for Monaghan is actually highly likely. I feel so bad for the lads there because we definitely left an all Ireland behind us in the last few years and to go again will be tough." Yes I felt it strange that Ethan wasn't kept on, as a squad player who might come as a suprise then with more trainings and learnings etc… left footed and going by the last two years has been shooting the lights out in club championship? Maybe again it comes down to Jim and his trust in players! I agree with Lockjaw and regards to players playing for clubs, out of the 26 named, Jim's used 18/19 players, 7 other players getting nothing other than trainings! You can train all you want but when it comes to matches you can't beat match fitness! Whyme923 (Donegal) - Posts: 145 - 26/06/2026 10:03:04 2681990 Link
Championship is king, and we seemed to forget that this year. Michel Platini had a line describing English football clubs as being "lions in the winter time, but lambs in the spring", when when it came to their failings in European competition. I was guilty as anyone of over-celebrating the League win. It's not every day you hammer Kerry in Croke Park for a piece of national silver-ware after all. But you just see Kerry now getting all their key men back at the right time. Monghan are similar - they couldn't buy a win earlier in the year, but they just kept plugging away. In the NFL 2027, I think we need to give the young lads their head. Yes a lot of them will be green, and will make mistakes, and we'll flirt with relegation perhaps. But how else are they going to fully develop into county players? If we need to re-introduce the likes of Langan, Mc Gee, McGonagle, Mogan towards the tail end of the league to pick up a result or two in order to survive...cross that bridge when we come to it. Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 10396 - 26/06/2026 10:06:19 2681991 Link
Replying To Lockjaw: "Championship is king, and we seemed to forget that this year. Michel Platini had a line describing English football clubs as being "lions in the winter time, but lambs in the spring", when when it came to their failings in European competition. I was guilty as anyone of over-celebrating the League win. It's not every day you hammer Kerry in Croke Park for a piece of national silver-ware after all. But you just see Kerry now getting all their key men back at the right time. Monghan are similar - they couldn't buy a win earlier in the year, but they just kept plugging away. In the NFL 2027, I think we need to give the young lads their head. Yes a lot of them will be green, and will make mistakes, and we'll flirt with relegation perhaps. But how else are they going to fully develop into county players? If we need to re-introduce the likes of Langan, Mc Gee, McGonagle, Mogan towards the tail end of the league to pick up a result or two in order to survive...cross that bridge when we come to it." You heading up Sunday farneygael3 (Monaghan) - Posts: 732 - 26/06/2026 10:48:32 2682008 Link
Replying To hlynch12: "Micheal Byrnes back on the bench for Kerry." Burns got a easy time of it considering what he done to McHugh. Michael Murphy got some abuse. Kerry media works it magic again! TommyBermingham (Kildare) - Posts: 18 - 26/06/2026 13:08:01 2682050 Link
Replying To Lockjaw: "Championship is king, and we seemed to forget that this year. Michel Platini had a line describing English football clubs as being "lions in the winter time, but lambs in the spring", when when it came to their failings in European competition. I was guilty as anyone of over-celebrating the League win. It's not every day you hammer Kerry in Croke Park for a piece of national silver-ware after all. But you just see Kerry now getting all their key men back at the right time. Monghan are similar - they couldn't buy a win earlier in the year, but they just kept plugging away. In the NFL 2027, I think we need to give the young lads their head. Yes a lot of them will be green, and will make mistakes, and we'll flirt with relegation perhaps. But how else are they going to fully develop into county players? If we need to re-introduce the likes of Langan, Mc Gee, McGonagle, Mogan towards the tail end of the league to pick up a result or two in order to survive...cross that bridge when we come to it." We look like a team with a lot of players in decline unfortunately. No variation in our play, players look flat/stale and clueless when teams sit in deep against us. They know we have only 1 consistent 2 point shooter.they are happy to let few other boys take on a 3/10 two point shot. And even these boys are reluctant to shoot for fear of being called ashore. We are making zero use of our inside forward trio. Every time they get possession they are swamped up. Imagine Murphy inside getting direct early ball with gallen/malone or o donnell off him. We would take some stopping and then our running game would get so many more opportunities as a consequence. Opposition know we are so scripted that it's so easy to defend against us. Unfortunately I don't think our style will change in 2027. marty234 (Donegal) - Posts: 171 - 26/06/2026 23:29:55 2682163 Link
Replying To marty234: "We look like a team with a lot of players in decline unfortunately. No variation in our play, players look flat/stale and clueless when teams sit in deep against us. They know we have only 1 consistent 2 point shooter.they are happy to let few other boys take on a 3/10 two point shot. And even these boys are reluctant to shoot for fear of being called ashore. We are making zero use of our inside forward trio. Every time they get possession they are swamped up. Imagine Murphy inside getting direct early ball with gallen/malone or o donnell off him. We would take some stopping and then our running game would get so many more opportunities as a consequence. Opposition know we are so scripted that it's so easy to defend against us. Unfortunately I don't think our style will change in 2027." I think it's crazy to say a lot of players in decline to be honest. We have a good young squad for the most part. People would have said the same thing after Mayo bent us over in 2013 and look what happened in 2014. Improve the bench is key as everyone has stated here. eddieSize5Balls (Donegal) - Posts: 444 - 27/06/2026 19:13:10 2682242 Link
Replying To eddieSize5Balls: "I think it's crazy to say a lot of players in decline to be honest. We have a good young squad for the most part. People would have said the same thing after Mayo bent us over in 2013 and look what happened in 2014. Improve the bench is key as everyone has stated here." Need to improve the backroom team as well. Everything can't be built around one man's opinion. Interesting listening to Soupy Campbell on GAA + today. He said the improvement in Dylan Geaney this year probably came from Ciaran Donaghy's influence. Kerry won the all ireland last year but still strengthened their backroom team. We need something different, changing some players may not be enough to get the improvement needed. greenfan (Donegal) - Posts: 793 - 27/06/2026 22:13:30 2682293 Link
Well Joe Brolly what you think of that?? TommyBermingham (Kildare) - Posts: 18 - 27/06/2026 22:21:09 2682297 Link
Seen a lot of club games last year, most of if not all teams in the top 2 divisions. Not seen one game game this year though due to work, family etc. Ethan harkin for me should be in the squad, he is very right footed and not the fastest, but he can put the ball over the bar. Bradley - walsh from mcchumhaills was outstanding 2 years ago, also a left footer but he can ping it over from anywhere. I couldnt understand why he wasnt in the squad because for me he def deserved it, signed for finn harps that summer i think. I seen four masters a number of times last year and they have 4 or 5 players that will play for donegal. The young lad Lenihan could be the best of the lot of them. But saying all that, i hope we play the squad players/young lads, muldoon, mccahill etc in next years lge, because the squad needs strenghten. And not worry about relegation. gaeltacht81 (Donegal) - Posts: 39 - 27/06/2026 22:50:17 2682307 Link
Replying To eddieSize5Balls: "I think it's crazy to say a lot of players in decline to be honest. We have a good young squad for the most part. People would have said the same thing after Mayo bent us over in 2013 and look what happened in 2014. Improve the bench is key as everyone has stated here." 2013 was a hangover from 2012 all ireland. There no point improving the bench if you don't change things up in your management team and tactically. Your only bringing players into play the same system. After looking at first two quarters finals it's clear this system is redundant in current game. You have to let players especially in forward position to express themselves rather than playing within themselves and afraid to take on shots etc. We brought on oisin gallen an all star forward last Sunday and couldn't get any space due to our system of play. Our system needs to be getting players of this quality space and develop 1 on 1 scenarios. We also has ryan mchugh on bench so kinda makes your point about bench invalid really. I really hope jim stays but firstly we Need a top number 2 at least in management team. You look at every other top team nearly at least one ex County manager standing as a number 2. Then we need to bring variation and bit of unpredictability about our play. If not sadly we are going to be left behind and that goes for all our teams. marty234 (Donegal) - Posts: 171 - 28/06/2026 00:12:16 2682325 Link
Felt strange on quarter final weekend that were not there. The big question is why. We were second favourite all year and not to make the last eight is baffling. Something not adding up. Did we run out of legs after the killarney game if so it shudnt have happened. Hope jim stays on if he does. he needs a really good no 2 who is not afraid to voice his opinion. Even if it is an outsider so what. rorysboys (Donegal) - Posts: 2694 - 28/06/2026 11:00:23 2682359 Link
I hope this doesn't come across as bitter but watching Cork yesterday really hammered home how poor we were in Ballybofey. That match is the big question for me this year. Dublin in Croke Park will always be a battle and they kept fighting last Sunday and were just beaten by the better team on the day. But Cork at home we were cruising, to lose it like we did... who knows maybe we'd have been beaten out the gate this weekend anyway but there will be questions about that game in my mind for a long time. CCFabu (Donegal) - Posts: 358 - 28/06/2026 13:13:43 2682395 Link
Replying To farneygael3: "You heading up Sunday" Enjoy your trip? CyberJim (Donegal) - Posts: 5 - 28/06/2026 15:34:17 2682422 Link
Replying To farneygael3: "You heading up Sunday" I hope you had a good day out in Dublin. themaddog (Wicklow) - Posts: 191 - 28/06/2026 16:04:41 2682438 Link
I wonder will we see a couple of the Monaghan posters again who felt the need to post on this thread gloating after our defeats to Cork & Dublin in the wake of their defeat to 14 man Louth. Today's result just highlighted again how much they rely on their 34 year old goalkeeper for both kickouts and scores. I think it will be Kerry's title again, they got a scare yesterday and in truth got a few big decisions go their way, the 45 in particular. Tyrone gave Kerry their toughest test in Croke park last year and I think it could be the same this time around. BeardedBorderGael (Donegal) - Posts: 53 - 28/06/2026 16:17:19 2682446 Link
The new rules do not suit Ulster teams as the last 2 weekends proved. Jack L (None) - Posts: 3233 - 28/06/2026 16:39:40 2682455 Link