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Donegal GAA Discussion Thread

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  • #452
    Jmcmen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 173 ✭✭Jmcmen


    Here we go again, another 20years of pain!!!!!


  • #453
    harpsman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,621 ✭✭✭harpsman


    are you gauranteeing an all ireland in 19 years?-id probably take that:)


  • #454
    Boom__Boom
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,115 ✭✭✭Boom__Boom


    Redsoxfan wrote: »
    Well now. This will be a huge story if true. I can't see the Democrat running with it if there is no substance to it.

    Mark McHugh rumoured to have left Donegal panel.

    Any rumours on any possible reasons for this?


  • #455
    Nidgeweasel
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,621 ✭✭✭Nidgeweasel


    BBC are reporting he's left the panel wuth Antoin McFadden, McKinnley and Gary McFadden.

    Mark was on the beer on Sunday in Sligo. Id have thought theyd have been allowed a drink after the final though? He doesnt strike me as the lad whod give it up to go to america to play either although him antoin and mckinnley would be a good age for it

    Strange, training tomorrow I suppose we will know more then but this is far from ideal.Not what you want and I doubt itll be long before Martin beag starts mouthing off if hes been disciplined.

    The McHughs and Rory Gallagher are very tight too. waiting game but worrying nees, hes an important player.


  • #456
    harpsman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,621 ✭✭✭harpsman


    Saw him in newry when he came on as sub and he was pretty brutal and in very cranky form. Suppose you dont really know whats going on in anyones personal life but if hes left cos hes unhappy with bein a sub then its very poor form


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  • #457
    Burt Macklin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 433 ✭✭Burt Macklin


    Disastrous news if true. Any update since on what exactly happened?


  • #458
    petitegall
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6 ✭petitegall


    Anyone who knows anything about the county side will know exactly why he has been booted off the panel. The only surprise is that it took so long. This has been coming as far back as 2011.

    Cue the out rage from the sunshine supporters...


  • #459
    overshoot
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,277 ✭✭✭overshoot


    id always heard he played better hungover :pac:


  • #460
    harpsman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,621 ✭✭✭harpsman


    petitegall wrote: »
    Anyone who knows anything about the county side will know exactly why he has been booted off the panel. The only surprise is that it took so long. This has been coming as far back as 2011.

    Cue the out rage from the sunshine supporters...
    What- discipline?


  • #461
    Syferus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,966 ✭✭✭Syferus


    Jim survived cutting Cassidy but if he doesn't break out of his mould and try and get McHugh back this is only going to hugely hurt Donegal. The heartbeat of Donegal and as close to irreplaceable a player as there is in the country.


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  • #462
    Nidgeweasel
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,621 ✭✭✭Nidgeweasel


    Syferus wrote: »
    Jim survived cutting Cassidy but if he doesn't break out of his mould and try and get McHugh back this is only going to hugely hurt Donegal. The heartbeat of Donegal and as close to irreplaceable a player as there is in the country.

    Murphy, McFadden and Lacey are irreplacable. McHugh is a huge loss but hes not his father......


  • #463
    Syferus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,966 ✭✭✭Syferus


    Nidgeweasel wrote: »
    Murphy, McFadden and Lacey are irreplacable. McHugh is a huge loss but hes not his father......

    Yeah, he's probably better. Lacey is at the tail-end of a great career and McHugh was more essential than any other player in the system Donegal run.

    Donegal have went as McHugh has went under Jim and any other view is recasting history to suit the present situation.


  • #464
    overshoot
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,277 ✭✭✭overshoot


    Syferus wrote: »
    Yeah, he's probably better. Lacey is at the tail-end of a great career and McHugh was more essential than any other player in the system Donegal run.

    Donegal have went as McHugh has went under Jim and any other view is recasting history to suit the present situation.
    yep only mchugh is off form, thats why the whole team have been terrible!

    id fully agree with nidgewiesel, its the simple reason why dublin took out lacey in the 2011 semi, he was the pivot point of the attack and whatever bit we did have ended with him that day. Thompson, McGlynn & mcHugh took some of that focus off him in 2012. Paddy mcGrath who allowed McGlynn to move out from the full back line and got forward plenty himself too is probably also worth a mention.
    mchugh while highly important, would not be a bigger loss than lacey in terms of what made that counter attack tick. maybe ahead mcglynn (the player of the year awards would differ in option also), but definitely not top 3

    to put him on a higher pedestal than the 2012 top scorer and the captain is also ludicrous if your talking about recasting history.

    i dont think anybody has been performing well enough this year to be deemed indispensable, although im only basing that on a couple of games


  • #465
    2moreMinutes
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,003 ✭✭✭2moreMinutes


    petitegall wrote: »
    Anyone who knows anything about the county side will know exactly why he has been booted off the panel. The only surprise is that it took so long. This has been coming as far back as 2011.

    Cue the out rage from the sunshine supporters...
    Yup, rumours and counter rumours.....


  • #466
    Nidgeweasel
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,621 ✭✭✭Nidgeweasel


    Syferus wrote: »
    Yeah, he's probably better. Lacey is at the tail-end of a great career and McHugh was more essential than any other player in the system Donegal run.

    Donegal have went as McHugh has went under Jim and any other view is recasting history to suit the present situation.

    Sorry to nitpick, but can you clarify, do you honestly consider Mark to be a better footballer than Martin was? Or even more important to the team than Martin was?


  • #467
    Nidgeweasel
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,621 ✭✭✭Nidgeweasel


    Diver has confirmed it.
    Mark McHugh is one of four players confirmed to have dramatically quit the Donegal senior football panel. The 23-year-old Kilcar man has been joined in making an exit by panellists Gary McFadden, Antoin McFadden and Thomas McKinley.

    McHugh was an All-Star winner in 2012 and one of the key cogs of the team that won the All-Ireland. Having missed the win over Armagh earlier this month because of a hamstring injury, he did not start Sunday’s Division 2 final against Monaghan at Croke Park, but came on as a sub late in the first half. However, he took no part in Tuesday night’s training session in Convoy.

    “He has left the panel,” Donegal selector Damian Diver confirmed. “He hasn’t been enjoying his football. He has been troubled by a hamstring injury and his form has been indifferent. He just wasn’t enjoying it and wanted to take time out. “It can be hard to keep it going mentally. He felt that he wanted a break and take some time to find himself. “Any player you lose at this stage of the year, it’s a blow, but we’ll have to get around it.”

    The news comes as a blow to Donegal, in the wake of a six-point defeat to Monaghan and just over three weeks before they take on Derry in their Ulster Championship opener at Celtic Park. Asked if McHugh could return, Diver said “The door is always open – to any player.”

    However it is believed that McHugh could line up a move to America for the summer to play club football. McHugh was a member of the Donegal Under-21 team, managed by Jim McGuinness, that reached the 2010 All-Ireland final. The player, a final year student at Sligo IT, is understood to have grown disillusioned about certain aspects of his position within the Donegal set-up in recent times.

    Neither McHugh or McGuinness were available for comment on the matter. Gary McFadden, Antoin McFadden and Thomas McKinley were members of the 2012 All-Ireland-winning panel, with the latter two back in the fold this year having stepped away for 2013. The three have, following Sunday’s game at Croke Park, informed the management that they are to leave the panel.

    - See more at: http://donegalnews.com/2014/04/disillusioned-mark-mchugh-one-of-four-players-to-leave-donegal-panel/#sthash.xwvdseeV.6A0NsD2l.dpuf

    I'd have thought a quick look at his celtic cross would lift any disillusion. Enjoy the summer away Mark. Lets hope someone steps up and another lad gets a chance to fulfil a dream.


  • #468
    Boom__Boom
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,115 ✭✭✭Boom__Boom


    Nidgeweasel wrote: »
    Gary McFadden, Antoin McFadden and Thomas McKinley were members of the 2012 All-Ireland-winning panel, with the latter two back in the fold this year having stepped away for 2013. The three have, following Sunday’s game at Croke Park, informed the management that they are to leave the panel.

    Any word on what's the story with the other 3 lads?

    Would these lads have been in line to be dropped from the Championship panel anyway in the normal manner of trimming of a league panel and so they walked before being cut loose or would they have been more than likely kept around as Championship squad members?

    If it's a case of 3 likely Championship panel members and 1 likely starter leaving the panel a few weeks before the start of the Championship because they weren't happy with Jim McGuinness it will really put McGuinness under serious pressure.


  • #469
    Nidgeweasel
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,621 ✭✭✭Nidgeweasel


    Boom__Boom wrote: »
    Any word on what's the story with the other 3 lads?

    Would these lads have been in line to be dropped from the Championship panel anyway in the normal manner of trimming of a league panel and so they walked before being cut loose or would they have been more than likely kept around as Championship squad members?

    If it's a case of 3 likely Championship panel members and 1 likely starter leaving the panel a few weeks before the start of the Championship because they weren't happy with Jim McGuinness it will really put McGuinness under serious pressure.

    To be honest none of them are big losses. Gary Mc is a fine footballer and had a great year for the Glen but don't think he cuts it at intercounty.

    And to be honest, there is no pressure on Jim from where I am looking at it. He is the boss. End of story. He owes us not a jot.


  • #470
    Boom__Boom
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,115 ✭✭✭Boom__Boom


    Nidgeweasel wrote: »
    To be honest none of them are big losses. Gary Mc is a fine footballer and had a great year for the Glen but don't think he cuts it at intercounty.

    Cheers - didn't really recognise the names.

    However you would think if these lads thought there was a chance of picking up an Ulster medal or an All-Ireland you'd say they'd probably stick around, even if they weren't getting much game time. A whole different kettle of fish killing yourself in training if you know the management don't really rate you and you are only really there to make up the numbers and the odds of getting game-time is tiny and you reckon the odds on winning anything are remote.

    Will be interesting to see if wee Martin says anything and can't be much fun for Ryan McHugh.


  • #471
    Boom__Boom
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,115 ✭✭✭Boom__Boom


    Nidgeweasel wrote: »
    And to be honest, there is no pressure on Jim from where I am looking at it. He is the boss. End of story. He owes us not a jot.

    Not immediate pressure on his position but more general pressure (if that makes any sense) and it's very hard to see Jim in the job in a few months given all the talk about this likely to be his last year.

    Thinking back to October 2012 very few would have predicted that being the situation a year and a half later.


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  • #472
    Redsoxfan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,458 ✭✭✭Redsoxfan


    Syferus wrote: »
    Yeah, he's probably better. Lacey is at the tail-end of a great career and McHugh was more essential than any other player in the system Donegal run.

    Donegal have went as McHugh has went under Jim and any other view is recasting history to suit the present situation.


    Not trying to backpedal here, but come on now....Martin McHugh is one of Donegal's greatest ever footballers.

    Of course Mark was a key player in Jim's team, both now and for the Under 21s previously.


  • #473
    Nidgeweasel
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,621 ✭✭✭Nidgeweasel


    Boom__Boom wrote: »
    Cheers - didn't really recognise the names.

    However you would think if these lads thought there was a chance of picking up an Ulster medal or an All-Ireland you'd say they'd probably stick around, even if they weren't getting much game time. A whole different kettle of fish killing yourself in training if you know the management don't really rate you and you are only really there to make up the numbers and the odds of getting game-time is tiny and you reckon the odds on winning anything are remote.

    Will be interesting to see if wee Martin says anything and can't be much fun for Ryan McHugh.

    I'd put my mortgage on Martin coming out giving it the poor mouth before long!

    You would have thought so wouldn't you but it's easy for us to say that I suppose when we aren't the ones putting in the sacrifices and not getting playing although surely it's about the collective etc. Don't know what the employment situation is for Atoin and McKinnley either. If it seems like they'll go off to the states for a few pound it's hard to really have a grumble about it.

    There is no beating around it though, McHugh is a big loss.

    It's unfortunate with Ryan and Mark but as they are probably higher profile and Mark's a starter. But it will impact on Paddy McBrearty too. And let's not forget Colm and Antoin are brothers. And Gary Mc and Big Neil and Murphy are club mates. It's really not ideal happening like this.


  • #474
    Redsoxfan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,458 ✭✭✭Redsoxfan


    No harm to them, but none of the other lads who walked today were going to figure at any stage this summer, and they may not have even made the bench at any stage. Of the three, only Gary McFadden saw any time during the league, and that was all of two minutes against Louth. I'm amazed he committed for as long as he did given the lack of game time he saw over the past three years.


  • #475
    Nidgeweasel
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,621 ✭✭✭Nidgeweasel


    Redsoxfan wrote: »
    Not trying to backpedal here, but come on now....Martin McHugh is one of Donegal's greatest ever footballers.

    Of course Mark was a key player in Jim's team, both now and for the Under 21s previously.

    Don't want to change the debate but aside from Murphy, Martin McHugh is probably the greatest footballer to ever play for the county.

    A genius. And the one you looked to when the chips were down. Our marquee player.

    Mark was hugely important to the way Donegal set up. Martin was irreplaceable.


  • #476
    Nidgeweasel
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,621 ✭✭✭Nidgeweasel


    Redsoxfan wrote: »
    No harm to them, but none of the other lads who walked today were going to figure at any stage this summer, and they may not have even made the bench at any stage. Of the three, only Gary McFadden saw any time during the league, and that was all of two minutes against Louth. I'm amazed he committed for as long as he did given the lack of game time he saw over the past three years.

    And he's that bit older too.


  • #477
    Redsoxfan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,458 ✭✭✭Redsoxfan


    Nidgeweasel wrote: »

    There is no beating around it though, McHugh is a big loss.

    It's unfortunate with Ryan and Mark but as they are probably higher profile and Mark's a starter. But it will impact on Paddy McBrearty too. And let's not forget Colm and Antoin are brothers. And Gary Mc and Big Neil and Murphy are club mates. It's really not ideal happening like this.

    Don't forget Antoin is also Jim's brother in law...

    But, regarding club loyalties, sure we might have had the same fears regarding the McGees when Cassidy was thrown off the panel. Unless there has been some fierce perceived injustice, I don't necessarily think that it will affect the other lads. Heck his own brother is nearly guaranteed to start now!

    Anyway, I'm not going to try and downplay or spin this. His form has not been good this year, but if we were hoping to see a return to our 2012 form, then surely Mark McHugh had to play some part for us this summer. And even if we were going to do without him, then having to wait until now to plan without having him is far from ideal.


  • #478
    Redsoxfan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,458 ✭✭✭Redsoxfan


    Nidgeweasel wrote: »
    And he's that bit older too.

    In my own opinion, we should have seen a bit more of Gary. Big lad, well able to take a score. A very good club player, maybe not quite good enough to really make it for Donegal, but would have liked to see him get more of a run, at least during the league (last year and this year).


  • #479
    Redsoxfan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,458 ✭✭✭Redsoxfan


    petitegall wrote: »
    Anyone who knows anything about the county side will know exactly why he has been booted off the panel. The only surprise is that it took so long. This has been coming as far back as 2011.

    Cue the out rage from the sunshine supporters...

    So, I take it you were trying to troll the Cavan folk here?
    petitegall wrote:
    Donegal are a one man team. Keep McBrearty quiet and we have them.


  • #480
    Gary Neville
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 388 ✭✭Gary Neville


    The timing of this is strange.

    Donegal were recently at a warm weather training camp in Portugal. Were the squad players that retired on that trip ? If so, it's a bit puzzling and looks very bad for all concerned.

    You would have to have a lot of sympathy for Mark McHugh - he's struggled with injury and form and the demands of playing and training for McGuinness can't be easy. Add in the fact that he must be studying for his final exams at the moment and at his age, it can't be any fun.

    It's possible that these lads got a good offer to play GAA and work in N York for the Summer and if so, who can blame them.

    It may throw Donegal's plans into disarray but maybe McGuinness can work his magic - Derry can't be too confident after the mauling from Dublin. All will be revealed in 3 weeks.


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  • #481
    Ceist_Beag
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,144 ✭✭✭Ceist_Beag


    Boom__Boom wrote: »
    Any word on what's the story with the other 3 lads?

    Reading between the lines I think the introduction of Conor Classon from out of nowhere was the final straw for the other 3 lads. I can understand it to a degree - they're putting in as much work as anyone else and not getting a look in and suddenly this lad is brought in from nowhere and gets a run out in Croke Park - it can't be great for morale.
    That aside, as others have said, they probably weren't in the running anyway for any game time in the summer so won't be a huge loss but all the same it doesn't paint a great picture of communication and mood in the camp. I think personally that the loss of Rory Gallagher is the biggest loss to the squad - from what I've heard he was the one the players looked up to and respected at least as much as if not even more so that Jim.


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