Beagslife (Donegal) - Posts: 4 - 27/05/2022 11:14:09    2420458

greatpoint (USA) - Posts: 459 - 27/05/2022 14:10:48    2420495

Loughduff Lad (Cavan) - Posts: 2484 - 27/05/2022 15:30:59    2420511

Rory is an excellent coach. Hoping he gets defeated tomorrow though.

TheRock2121 (Donegal) - Posts: 1208 - 28/05/2022 14:02:15    2420600

Best of luck to the players and management today. I hope all who've traveled arrived safely. My opinion hasn't really changed since my last post but having spent alot of the week in Donegal I was surprised by alot of the pessimism by those I spoke to (which I didn't share). If Donegal can have the success on the kickouts I think they can have and bring a better intensity than the last day they can win by a couple of scores. One point I haven't read is the strength of the Donegal bench especially compared to Derry's. Combined with the kickout advantages these are two very important facets that Donegal have a distinct advantage in. The build up has very much been the Rory show, will this bring an added pressure? We'll know shortly.

panamasam (Australia) - Posts: 2891 - 29/05/2022 14:13:05    2420750

This is dire stuff. I don't think there's anything else that can be said.

Rolo2010 (Donegal) - Posts: 746 - 29/05/2022 16:18:48    2420784

Embarrassing stuff there, holding out for the draw and not going for it.

ahsure. (Galway) - Posts: 1750 - 29/05/2022 17:44:05    2420807

Puketastic so far. If I had a newly painted wall to watch drying, I'd probably give extra time a miss

Forpucksake (UK) - Posts: 131 - 29/05/2022 17:44:09    2420808

Donegal are turgid to watch, absolutely dire.

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9838 - 29/05/2022 17:44:14    2420809

In all my years I have never seen a team (without being a man, two or three down) play out the last minute of injury time holding on to the ball purposely LOOKING for extra time. Are we that in need of extra training????

I hope it doesn't come back to bite us in the back side....

peiledoir20 (Donegal) - Posts: 1354 - 29/05/2022 17:45:07    2420811

Fair play to bbc commentary. They would nearly make you believe that you are watching a good game of football.

This is poor stuff.

Rory Gallagher has one trick in his bag and he plays it to death.

Wally (Tyrone) - Posts: 934 - 29/05/2022 18:01:14    2420817

Loughduff Lad (Cavan) - Posts: 2484 - 29/05/2022 18:19:28    2420821

A real weakness in this Donegal team's mentally. Have all the players but just can't back it up.

ardmhacha (Armagh) - Posts: 172 - 29/05/2022 18:26:50    2420824

Got Covid last week so had to give up my ticket - I feel sorry for the fella I gave it too.

Congratulations to Derry - nice to see their celebrations at the final whistle and the young people flooding onto the pitch.

Where to start for Donegal - that display really felt like a cumulation of the issues we've been discussing here for several years.

- Slow lateral buildup
- Risk adverse play
- Michael Murphy playing some sort of CHB/Midfield hybrid role.

After the smallest injection of urgency at the start of the second half we took our foot of the gas and let Derry back into it.

Watching our players playing for ET at the end was embarrassing.

I feel bad for the families who travelled today to spend a small fortune to watch that display.

Playing a team coming through the qualifiers with momentum will be a huge ask.

I'll be honest and say I don't have faith in the management team to rectify the obvious issues we've seen today and have seen all year.

We can say numerous players are either playing within themselves or off form but the management team set the team up and devise the style of play.

Most players in Ireland would look poor in our current system.

Donegal2022 (Donegal) - Posts: 13 - 29/05/2022 18:40:48    2420827

Something has to change in Donegal football, a panel of good players not allowed to play football, not even allowed to kick the ball or go for a score , not even allowed to try and play,

jacktheboy (Donegal) - Posts: 504 - 29/05/2022 19:03:02    2420838

Congratulations to derry, fully deserved there victory. They had a game plan and showed a strong mentality in second half when going behind.
As for donegal, well i can not blame the players, they worked hard, its just there is a series lack of direction that a manager instills in a team. Hunger, strong mentality, and conviction, that winning mentality that this team has not shown in our managers spell in charge.
We will get the usual posters on here that would give the donegal manager another 5 year contract, no matter how far we fall short.
My god, playing murphy out the field the entire game, when his marker was causing more damage than murphy was, and scored 3 points. Even martin mchugh said it at half time, the dog in the street would have figured that one out.
We kicked two balls in the entire game and that includes extra time.
We have players on the bench that must wonder what they have to do to get a game. Young hungry players left on bench, they confidence destroyed because we have a manager that continues to pick players that are not performing.
Nothing will change this year, but for the betterment of donegal football, this should be his last year. He should do the decent thing and step away at end of season.
I again am not blaming the players, they just need someone to lead them and put belief back into Donegal football.
This is not a rant after a defeat, as i am truly disheartened at where we are going. We have returned to the days where Donegal have become soft and lack any real belief.

The keeper (Donegal) - Posts: 722 - 29/05/2022 19:13:06    2420842

Rory Gallagher was vilified when he managed Donegal becuase his tactics were too negative. The man who replaved him tried to beat Rory Gallagher today by playing Rory Gallagher tactics and lost. You couldn't make it up!!

Rory will be laughing for a week.

Well done Derry and enjoy the celebrations.

I really do feel sorry for our players, it must be soul destroying playing under this management.

peiledoir20 (Donegal) - Posts: 1354 - 29/05/2022 19:45:01    2420860

I wasn't expecting a classic and the game more than delivered in that regard. You can paint it up as tense or a cliffhanger which it was for supporters but for the neutral what a bore it must have been. It says alot when you're saying an RG side deserved it as they went for it more but its true which is a poor indictment of the Donegal team. Of course people will be calling for the management to go which I don't argue with as most people who follow the game inside the county and out could sense things were stale and the league campaign didn't really suggest otherwise. However this lateral stick to the process crap is rife all through Donegal football. Our minors, under twenties and now seniors all lost after going beyond normal time. The county intermediate and senior club champions both lost tight affairs. You can also add LYIT to the list against NUIG despite having a numerical advantage for alot of the game. Today we paid Derry too much respect some of which was earned but again highlighted our psychological flaws. When we got into a position to win the game we reverted to type and gave it back. I always come back to Martin McHugh's comments that this Donegal side are weak mentally comparing to the Cork footballers and the Galway hurlers. I am really disappointed in Rochford as expected so much more but maybe he is hamstrung. Finally was OMCFF injured and had to go off?

panamasam (Australia) - Posts: 2891 - 29/05/2022 20:28:38    2420881

It took Tyrone over a decade and a change of management to get away from that horrible backwards, sideways, handpassing possession game before they started to seriously challenge again. Last year Tyrone mixed up their game and moved the ball quickly into their forwards. Guess what? They kicked the ball again and it worked. Donegal need to do likewise. They are a better team than that awful dirge today. They need to get away from focusing solely on not losing.

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9838 - 29/05/2022 20:33:02    2420883

I said it after the Cavan game that i hadn't seen anything new from Donegal that i hadn't seen before, but today i did and i didn't like it. Its as if they were afraid to loose today. The amount of energy expelled in trying not to loose ultimately cost them the game and these lad completely ran out of steam. They did the usual blitz after half time but this time around it wasn't enough. In a way i cant believe this team didn't risk it a bit more, put it on the line, go for the jugular a bit more.

I feel sorry for Murphy especially the age he's at and wonder if he has it in him to go through another 2-3 year rebuild. He seems to have been the answer to every problem in the Donegal team over the past number of years and you talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul, your robbing both Peter and Paul. He is certainly one in generation player but Donegal haven't managed to get the best out of him and today was more of the same. And that's sad.......

ponger (Cavan) - Posts: 596 - 29/05/2022 21:14:14    2420893