Donegal GAA Discussion Thread

charlie14

downthemiddle wrote: »

I won’t be reviewing anything. Paddy McBrearty is one of the finest players ever to wear the jersey. Injuries permitting he’s at the prime of his career. He strikes fear into opposition defences. There isn’t a team in the country who wouldn’t want him playing for them.

There is definitely one advantage Paddy Mc Brearty has other than being an excellent forward. Like Michael Murphy and Ryan Mc Hugh, opposition from seeing them over the years know the damage they can cause you. They bring that fear factor that without even touching a ball they can draw opposition players creating space and opportunity for others.

Murphy14

Another impressive performance albeit against a very poor Armagh team. From a Donegal point of view our 9th Ulster final in 10 years these really are special times for our county. The spread of scorers is mighty to see we seem to have leaders all over the field. Hopefully injuries don’t catch up on us like in previous years when we got to business end of the season we were without key men. I have no doubt that the team & management will be focussed on the Ulster final but all this talk of Donegal being the only team to challenge Dublin is nonsense, for now anyway. Dun Na nGall Abu

doc_17

See, I wouldn’t have PMB and Murphy mentioned in the same sentence when it comes to the level of fear they instil into the opposition. Murphy is just on a completely different level. Paddy is a brilliant footballer, no doubt about it, but who has been better this past year? PMB or Jamie Brennan?

Now, my comment is in the context of PMB’s current injuries. Is there time to take a chance and play him while he’s finding fitness or sharpness? I think I’d rather go with what we had yesterday. But then maybe I’m completely overestimating Cavan/Down. Maybe that’s the game to give him and see what’s he’s like. But next year when PMB is fit, of course he’s a definite starter. There is no doubt about that.

Any word on SMM? We’re running out of defenders!!

MactheKnife90

downthemiddle wrote: »

I won’t be reviewing anything. Paddy McBrearty is one of the finest players ever to wear the jersey. Injuries permitting he’s at the prime of his career. He strikes fear into opposition defences. There isn’t a team in the country who wouldn’t want him playing for them.

That reply was meant for the original post you replied to and not yours sorry haha

Redsoxfan

Cavan, again.

I was more worried about Down but Cavan tore into them in the 2nd half.

charlie14

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Cavan, again.

I was more worried about Down but Cavan tore into them in the 2nd half.

Same here. You never know what you will get with Down. Cavan will be no walkover though.

Joe Don Dante

charlie14 wrote: »

Same here. You never know what you will get with Down. Cavan will be no walkover though.

yes they will, come on , call a spade a spade, it will be a poor showing if Donegal don't win by 15+

Murphy14

Ulster Final in the Athletic grounds Armagh

Redsoxfan

At least Armagh will have some part in the Ulster Final.

charlie14

Joe Don Dante wrote: »

yes they will, come on , call a spade a spade, it will be a poor showing if Donegal don't win by 15+

We may have given them a bit of a football lesson last year in the final, but at the long whistle we were 5 points ahead. We still do not know if we are better than last year and I would expect Cavan to have learned from it.
Cavan have come through a few tough tests to get to the final and they have shown they will not lie down for anyone.
I would expect us to beat them, but I would not disrespect any team that reaches an Ulster Final predicting them to lose by 15+.

Nidgeweasel

Cavan have been poor for large periods of every championship game they have played so far. If they stick to this trend and give us any sort of a sniff of this we will win.

Again, the biggest issue for Donegal ahead of the next game is complacency. I can't see that happening really. I get the sense that the lads have the bit between their teeth now and really want to push on and achieve something this year.

We seem to be going fairly well. We had a big spread of scorers yesterday, have added to our team from last year with Mogan bedding in straight away. Also, our bench is stronger given that we had Paddy McB and Farrah to come in yesterday. We have so many options and ways to play and hurt teams I just think we have too many holes for Cavan to try and plug in a week.

Stephen McMenamin will be a huge loss if he is fit, but Armagh have better forwards than Cavan and we got through the game yesterday ok.

If Donegal turn up with the right mentality they should win this game with something to spare and that's a nice place to be ahead of a final. 3 in a row would be a very fitting achievement for the county given their consistency over the past decade.


Of course all of the above doesn't take into account the pitch being a swamp and playing in a storm which of course is a leveller....

Alvin Holler

Judging by the state of the pitch, would have preferred to have the final in Breffni rather than Armagh. We've probably got a better record there than cavan too.

I think McBrearty should start. He'd give us a bit more shape up front as O'Donnell and Brennan like coming deep.

Question is who would you drop? We're probably fine with Mogan playing wing back against cavan but not sure about Dublin. Pretty harsh to drop any of the forwards but it seems a bit if a waste having both Gallen and Paddy on the bench.

Solomon Pleasant

Donegal should win ulster relatively easily from here. Once Monaghan made their exit, it was pretty much game over.

The question is Dublin. This Donegal squad is an excellent group of footballers. It’s very well balanced, strong physicality, have the ball players, can play a short and long game and we have the tactical intelligence of Rochford. We also have Murphy. The question is, have they reached their ceiling with it Ulster? Can we take Dublin on in Croker and do what Mayo couldn’t ? It’s clear Donegal are developing their game plan in a way that will empower them to be able to put up a big score - it’s the way to beat Dublin. Will be interesting to see if it works.

On the McBrearty topic, he’s a top player. Good enough to grace any team in the country. That being said, I don’t think he should start (especially when when we meet Dublin). McBrearty doesn’t have the natural stamina to be completely effective for a full game - it’s why he didn’t always start in the McGuinness era. When he’s introduced against a tiring defence, he’s pretty much unmarkable when on form and fit. He’ll be key against Dubland.

Regardless how far this team goes, they’ve been great to watch.

Let’s see how far they go.

Murphy14

Really don’t understand the debate about Paddy Mc Brearty if fit he should start even on his quiet days he is good for a number of scores and also occupies one of the opposition’s man markers

North of 32

I understood the original post about McBrearty to mean that it's been interesting to watch the other forwards develop while he's been out. There's a wider spread of scorers and it's very encouraging to see. As others mentioned, there was a period where McBrearty was the go-to man inside and this of course put a lot of pressure on him. Now there are others who can step-up and provide reliable options.

At the end of the day, when fit, McBrearty is probably the first name on the team sheet after Murphy and Patton.

Cavan_King

14-1 on lads. I don’t believe there’s even been a shorter price on an Ulster final. Just don’t go too hard on us!

Redsoxfan

On McBrearty is one of our best 15 players.

One thing struck me on Saturday - how fluid our formation is - players, especially in the forward line, move around a lot. Paddy is more of a traditional corner forward and stays in his position. Does that fit with how we are trying to play? I don't know. But if he's fit, I bet Bonner starts him.

The one criticism I would have of him is that he has never really developed his right foot - at least at intercounty level - the very best can shoot effectively of either foot. A decent defender can limit his effectiveness. It's cost us once or twice in my memory.

Anyway, I'd love to hear why he's not deemed better than any forward other than Murphy who started on Saturday.

To Sunday - I doubt we will take Cavan for granted. We eased off last year and they finished strongly. They came back from big deficits to beat Monaghan and Down. McKiernan is a fantastic player and had a monster game against us in Ballybofey in 2018 and was tremendous again last weekend. Last time we were gunning for a 3 in a row in Ulster, Monaghan came out like a team possessed and were too good for us. But, there are few similarities between that awful day in Clones in 2013 and the present time.

We've shown little sign that we aren't mentally and physically strong enough to win Ulster this year. McMenamin will be a loss of course, but he shouldn't be the difference between the winning and losing of this game. McFadden is arguably more important/influential, so hopefully he's fit. I would hope we don't see McMenanmin on Sunday for reasons I won't go into now.

Ryan McHugh plays his 100th game on Sunday. Hard to believe.

Redsoxfan

Cavan_King wrote: »

14-1 on lads. I don’t believe there’s even been a shorter price on an Ulster final. Just don’t go too hard on us!

Those are crazy odds. I am tempted to hedge.

joeguevara

Cavan_King wrote: »

14-1 on lads. I don’t believe there’s even been a shorter price on an Ulster final. Just don’t go too hard on us!

Those odds are crazy and I don’t care what anyone says are disrespectful to ye. Anything can happen on the day especially if crazy conditions. McHugh gave a good view and said that while he expected a win for us, Cavan would love all the talk about Donegal. Been there when they pulled an amazing upset on us so hopefully the odds will not make Donegal complacent.

Cavan_King

joeguevara wrote: »

Those odds are crazy and I don’t care what anyone says are disrespectful to ye. Anything can happen on the day especially if crazy conditions. McHugh gave a good view and said that while he expected a win for us, Cavan would love all the talk about Donegal. Been there when they pulled an amazing upset on us so hopefully the odds will not make Donegal complacent.

Local podcast here reckons Donegal asked for the game to be played in Breffni? Any truth in that? Armagh was a mud bath last weekend but they are meant to be relaying the sod around the goals.

Truth is we have played ye plenty over the last decade and failed to trouble yas in any game. That said,there has been a change in our lads this year. Our more experienced players are standing up and making themselves counted whereas people like, actually Jim McGuinness and the retired McGee, have pointed to this being a problem with Cavan in the past.

Joe Don Dante

it'll be over by half time lads ffs

moghrasa

Joe Don Dante wrote: »

it'll be over by half time lads ffs

If Cavan's recent form is anything to go off, that might not be a good thing!

Redsoxfan

They are re-sodding the pitch in Armagh. Weekend expected to be good.

Hope it works out.

Joe Don Dante

moghrasa wrote: »

If Cavan's recent form is anything to go off, that might not be a good thing!

that's true !!

Cavan_King

What do ya make of Bonner's comments re Murphy lads and starting mind games? I'm surprised to be honest he bothered this week given what strong favourites you are but perhaps he is sowing early seeds for a potential Dublin game a week later.

overshoot

Not mind games really, it's been said plenty of times over the past and Tyrone in particular give him big attention and while not as easy to see on the TV seems Armagh did too.
On the upside, with others stepping up he isn't as (emphasis on as) crucial to our game as he once was and double/tripple marking him leaves space for others to exploit as opposed to stopping Donegal.

Cavan_King

overshoot wrote: »

Not mind games really, it's been said plenty of times over the past and Tyrone in particular give him big attention and while not as easy to see on the TV seems Armagh did too.
On the upside, with others stepping up he isn't as (emphasis on as) crucial to our game as he once was and double/tripple marking him leaves space for others to exploit as opposed to stopping Donegal.

In fairness I'd see it the other way too. All marquee players get attention but they also often get extra leeway with refs. In the Division 2 final for example against Meath last year I thought Murphy should have got a second yellow and been sent off.

moghrasa

Cavan_King wrote: »

In fairness I'd see it the other way too. All marquee players get attention but they also often get extra leeway with refs. In the Division 2 final for example against Meath last year I thought Murphy should have got a second yellow and been sent off.

Thats a matter for the referee to decide and for Meath to raise if they have issue with it. There's no scenario when someone like Murphy is going to go over and ask to be given a yellow.

I take your point, but when you watch the likes of Michael Murphy or Aidan O'Shea, they often get walloped by players trying to get in their head, or else an inferior player trying to draw Murphy/O'Shea into a scrap so that the ref will give a yellow both ways. Look at Kerry Vs Tyrone where Tyrone brought a man off the bench to wrestle Clifford and Clifford ends up with a second yellow after being fouled and trying to avoid the scrap.

Big talented footballers have a target on their back and personally I think Bonner is right to call attention to it. For what it's worth, Graham isnt absolving himself from the mind games...starting to sound like Davy Fitz with the small little fish!

charlie14

Cavan_King wrote: »

In fairness I'd see it the other way too. All marquee players get attention but they also often get extra leeway with refs. In the Division 2 final for example against Meath last year I thought Murphy should have got a second yellow and been sent off.

Ryan Mc Hugh was getting a lot of abuse for a few years that was being let go unpunished until Bonner spoke out as well. After some of the carry on by Armagh as regard Michael Murphy I`m not surprised Bonner spoke out. I didn`t notice much leeway been given by the referee to Murphy in that game. Opposite if anything regarding a few frees which is more frustrating for a player than lads hanging out of him.

doc_17

Ryan now gets frees he shouldn’t really get whilst Murphy doesn’t get frees he should.

If Langan has another good game tomorrow he’ll have a great shout for an All Star.