Donegal GAA Discussion Thread

Cork.

In 2006 it was devastating. We played well, we were beaten at the death by a half back who played intermediate football. Met Cork supporters afterwards who said that they didn't really care they were only interested about the hurling on the Sunday.

2009 was the lowest. I didn't make it to Crossmaglen in 2010 cos I was on holiday. Whipped. Remember seeing the players afterwards on Camden Street. Recall what McGuinness said later.

2012 was brilliant. Had been in hospital. Down in the Ulster Final was class but the Semi Final was Total Football. Scoreline didn't reflect what was witnessed.

2016 We should win but who the **** knows with this charlatan in charge.

In 2006 and 2009 the results went the way they went because we were playing above our level.

Tomorrow, let's be honest, we're playing below our level (or at least the level we all know we should be). Between 2011-2014* the results went the way they went because that's what happens when you reduce sport to a beautiful science like Jim did.

*2014 AI Final aside: let's face it, that was a freak result. As Jim said, it was the teams mistake. Paul just happened to make it.

But these past two years have just been peculiar and frustrating. We're not getting the results we know we can get. And for that I'm finding it very hard to get pumped up for tomorrow because if we win, what happens next? I have no idea. And after a few years of being so cocksure as to what we're about and what we can do it's difficult to readjust to pre-Jim uncertainty. Maybe that's what sport is about but there should be a purpose and a capturing of the imagination, both of which I can't identify.

And on that pre-Jim point KCass had an odd piece in Gaelic Life on Thursday. He said "Jim devised a plan that didn't trust his players to go out and play football". These are the same players and same football that, pre-Jim, allowed us to get tanked by Armagh and Cork in the year's previous. Couldn't help but laugh at that once. Maybe it's the absence of a Celtic Cross thats pissing in his cornflakes.

We may give Rory a hard time. And we may over idolise Jim. But as the results go on it becomes more and more apparent how much of a bloody genius Jim is. And how everyone else isn't.

Cork 2006 was a killer. That was Donegal in the 00's Summed up for me. A match for anyone 'down the country' but when push came to shove we just didn't know how to win.

Mickey Doc got injured that day iirc and had we kept him in the field I think we would have won. That cork winner (Spillane ?) was a shocker. Was akin to a Rugby drop kick at goal. Build the play up create a pocket and work it back for a kick at goal. Shocking.

Abiding thoughts that day were we took the lead too early and were unlucky with the finish. Was certain our last effort was going over but it dropped short and the whistle went.


2009 What can you say. It was so bad it was funny. The famed RSF says that was his nadir. I never thought it that bad, just comprehensively outplayed. So far off the pace it was laughable. Cracking qualifier run though.

2012. The best day of my life supporting Donegal. That was everything I ever wanted to see from a Donegal team. McGuinness came onto the field at the end to acknowledge the crowd and rather embarrassingly I just broke down in tears. Often tried to rationalise it since and I can't. Sitting in the stand crying for a good 15 minutes. Broken. All id ever wanted was to see Donegal compete in an All Ireland final. To have finally got there with boys like Christy, Eamon and Karl playing how Donegal teams should play and getting over the line was just like a dream you never really thought you'd see and it just got to me. A magical day and one that I will have till I draw my last breath. Leo McLoone winning that foul following the O'Neill goal is one of the greatest acts from a Donegal footballer I've ever seen. The ball broke and he was not being beaten to that ball. Sheer guttural desire and want. Glenties. Donegal. Nothing else mattered but getting down on that ball. What a team.


Tomorrow? Who knows. Cork have quality forwards and a better midfield. We've got a clouster on the sideline. Wouldn't be surprised to see us get beat.

Why? What has he done now?

Wow. That was the necessary response to the Ulster Final defeat.

But it was only Cork. And the fact that we didn't score goals against them would worry me for the Dublin match. But I'll think about that another time.

For now I'll enjoy a great Croke Park performances, from minor and senior, until Monday. Then I'll worry about the Dubs... Who won't be happy until they embarrass us.

hmm.

Wasn't great and we didn't seem bothered (understandable) until the last 10 minutes where we started to see a bit more aggression and purpose.

Very reminiscent of Galway last year in some ways. Any fears I had pre game left fairly early on. Even with Cork's lead I never felt we were under a serious risk of losing. Keep giving us space and time then we will beat most teams. They were fairly poor but were a good sport. Eoin Cadogan :D I started feeling sorry for him to be honest.

Some really outstanding scores. McBrearty was just a joy to watch. His last score was just ridiculous to be honest, be great to see him get a bit of consistency in his game but it's tough in Ulster.

No allays to concerns over management and we certainly will not pose Dublin any proper problems next week. It's a shame because we have the players to do so but not in the current format. In any event tonight was all the encouragement Gavin needs watching our short kickouts, lack of a proper attacking strategy and failure to control almost anything that went long through the middle.

Been thinking more generally and losing the ulster final was an absolute disaster really. We've a week to get ready for Dublin. It's not enough. You've 2 weeks to prepare for a qualifier and then another week. No momentum and I don't detect any real confidence or AI ambitions. Feels like a stay of execution more than anything. Win Ulster and you've got a lovely 3 week break bubbling over waiting for a much easier tie. Anyway it is what it is.

The 2nd thing I was thinking about generally was the new added time system. 76 minutes is a seriously tough slog. Will suit the Dubs (generally speaking, not just against us) with the way they can just hit the afterburners. Imagine if Meath had that in the 80's/90's!

I can see Dublin running out easy winners next week and it being treated as some sort of questions being answered or putting something hanging from 2014 to bed. It's not really. Akin to Kerry beating Tyrone in Killarney that time. We're not really at the races, it's a shame because I do really think we've got the players to give it a good rattle albeit how much do we miss Papa.

So yeah abit meh. Enjoyable enough run out but bigger picture is still quite sad.

Fantastic win by the minors. That was some second half turn around and again like I said about 2014 - it really has to be qualified with saying those boys wouldn't have played in Croke Park before. A great experience for them going forward and fingers crossed we can build on that. Donegal need an All Ireland at minor level.

North of 32 wrote: »

The point Murphy hit in the first half from a stationary position was just incredible. A lot of the scores today were just amazing.

The old man next to me spent 70 minutes doing a running commentary and complaining about absolutely everything. It was the worst spectator experience I've ever had. 70 minutes of a man complaining about absolutely everything. Why do these contrary ejits go to the games?

Incredible wasn't it. You could see the split second where he looks up and thinks "sh*t!! shot's on!", outside of the boot, straight over. Brilliant score. Rarely get that space open up in ulster.

Ok so a couple of things to give Rory a bit of credit. Subs were used and used quite well I felt today. The only one I felt should have been hauled off who was not was McElhinney. Thought he was very poor today and I cannot figure out why Ciaran Thompson is not given a chance in midfield as any time I've seen him he looks impressive. Secondly, our discipline was better than it has been of late but that said, when you're standing off lads they way we were at times I wondered were we overcompensating!
On the positives, Paddy, Paddy, Paddy! We knew you had that in you and finally we saw a full 70 of what the lad is all about. Thought he was brilliant today and we were even treated to a right footed point from him - rare as hens teeth them! And as the lads said, that Murphy point, what a gem. Mind you Ryan popped up with a few beauties again as well.
However, all that said, I felt the same as Nidge - this was just prolonging the summer by a week. There simply are too many weaknesses in our team this year. Kickouts have been done to death but in the second half, up until injury time, we had kicked one, just one, kick long - and that went way over it's intended targets (Frank) head. It's asking so much of the lads to receive the ball on their own 21 and look up at 15 Cork lads facing them. Too many lads just don't seem to have the energy either at the minute. Murphy clearly ain't right. Lacey, it's hard to watch him struggle out there but that's how it looked at times. Midfield, anonymous once again. Losing to Tyrone meant we were done for the year. That's not meant to sound overly negative as we're into the last 8 again but Jim has set the bar at AI contenders and this year we're well short.

As for the minors, again I was looking at this to assess are we AI contenders or not. At half time I felt not. We kicked a shocking number of wides. However that second half was brilliant. They really took control and kicked some lovely scores. The two lads in midfield, as has been said, look excellent but I felt young Aidan McLaughlin stole the show today, he was superb. Reminded me a bit of young Cian Mulligan from 2014 who played a similar role. Peader Mogan was very impressive too as the link man. If they can match that second half performance they have a real chance of finally winning a minor AI. Plus it was nice to put the '91 defeat to bed!

Ceist_Beag wrote: »

So is Neil out of the quarter now as a result of his yellow? What was it for anyway as it was given while play was stopped.

My understanding was that it either a black or two yellows would result in another suspension.

squareball1988 wrote:

Then I'll worry about the Dubs... Who won't be happy until they embarrass us.

Lol sometimes I think Donegal supporters think that we only played championship football in 92 and 14. There have been other games you know !!
I don't think there is a gripe there, we've more traditional enemies. Most people know that there was a hole in Dublins game that was well and fairly exploited in 2014.

It was not a good game to lose it did hurt, but there was no dodgy stuff, no dodgy ref, our line just got it wrong and yours got it right. We've been led to believe that the hole is plugged we have 2011 to cling to. 2014 never felt like an embarrassment tbh so that's not there to repair. Compared to say Tyrone , the 2008 game was an embarrassment, that was paid back, I wouldn't feel the same about Donegal at all. Jim McGuiness was a great manager

doc_17 wrote: »

I have to admit that I thought Dublin would probably beat in 2014 and I was delighted to get that wrong.

In fairness after the first 20 it looked like it was gonna be a sh1tshow for ye for the rest of the day.

Like Stoner said above, I don't think there's any real ill will between Donegal and Dublin but just generally a grudging respect. Don't forget where ye were at the end of the 2010 championship to where ye are now.

The rivalry isn't what Dublin-Tyrone became. But it will be.

Next week is going to be a whopper day all round. I can't wait

doc_17 wrote: »

I do think there was a bit of needle there to be honest in 2014. The biting incident in 2013 was probably something that Donegal were happy to pay back.

I dunno. It didn't seem to be that case. My abiding memories after the game were those of us wishing ye the best of luck. No ill will at all. (I was mostly referring to fans in the above post)

Maybe my memories are coloured by the fact that I was going out with a girl from Letterkenny at the time.

Don't think there's a rivalry with Dublin. We don't play each other enough. Think it's just the Dublin v rest of the country thing. Everyone loves knocking the 'jacks' down a peg or two. It's natural. And they do have an awful clueless element who attach themselves to the county team who are a bit of a stereotype- but that's natural given the population.

I've no issue with Dublin anyway. Never feared going up to Dublin to play them. Probably stems from '92 or whatever.

The media will probably build this up as 'revenge' from the 2014 thing. But it's not at all. Dublin are reigning all Ireland champions. They want to win it again. If we've seen anything from Gavin it's clear that the fact it's Donegal next is neither here nor there for them. It's the 1st of 3 games they need to win to get another all Ireland racked up. It's that simple imo.

As for Saturday. The writing is on the wall. It will be a repeat of the Easter league game which was the single biggest load of tripe i've seen in quite some time. Absolutely pointless. Anyway, we travel in hope that the last 2 years have all been a rouse.:rolleyes::(

That Kerry minor team were impressive by all accounts.

Well, that felt more like a league semi-final than a championship match. But whatever, we saw a wonderful display from Paddy McBrearty and that was satisfying.

And, to be fair, maybe we were so confident that we would outlast Cork, we didn't need to play with the sort of intensity that is required to compete with the better teams. But that's as bad a theory as the 'hard training' one.

I don't know what happened to Cork after the 50th minute. Did our defence tighten or they just fall away on their own? I watched the game back last night and didn't see any sign that we made life more difficult for them.

Our kickout strategy was worryingly one dimensional. Again, did we feel like we could get away without showing our hand yesterday and we have something up our sleeve for Dublin or are we really limited to kicking everything extremely short? The very few times we went long it didn't go well.

Everything Cork tried seemed to come down our left. Frank and Maxi seemed to have a disagreement about positioning in the first half Just before he was taken off, I could hear RG screaming at Frank even though I was in the Cusack.

McElhinney was really poor. Not sure that his public display of support for the manager will save him.

And hey, Leo McLoone - who knew he had it in him?

I really can't see us winning the next day. Any attempt to draw parallels with 2014 are irrelevant. Dublin will be missing 3 of their starting 6 backs from 2015 which is a positive for us - I don't care what their depth is, the replacements are not of the same level. But without Neil Gallagher, I have no idea how we compete at midfield. Who knows, maybe he will be able to give us 60 minutes and someone else can see out the last 17. But that's really hard to see. Dublin will either push up on our kickout and force McGinley out of his very small comfort zone, or, retreat and allow us to walk the ball up and turn us over while we feck about on their 45.

Minors? Jaysus. Game of two halfs etc. If one of McGee/Gallagher makes it to senior I will be very happy. If both do I will be over the moon. Not sure how good they really are but great that they are in an All Ireland Semi-Final.