What role has Rochford in the Donegal setup, when he was with Corafinn and Mayo they played some attacking football, but Donegal today didnt paly any football, just a hand passing game from start to finish.

jacktheboy (Donegal) - Posts: 504 - 29/05/2022 21:35:24    2420905

peiledoir20 (Donegal) - Posts: 1354 - 29/05/2022 21:48:46    2420908

Not great to watch however we had match there awful style of football as you seen monaghan and tyrone game.

We didn't move ball quick enough from kick outs we allowed them time drop back murphy did not go inside once nearly playing as full back at times we are asking to much from him. Paddy mc B wasn't too be seen and for me doesn't work hard enough win ball.

We ran down clock before extra time not one had the stones to go for it needed someone to stand up and go for it like Kevin cassidy against kildare

How tickets were allocated is to be questioned we were outnumbered alot so love to see the breakdown on how derry got so many. I wasn't disappointed with some of their supporters the booing and what they were shouting lacked class just pure soccer fans

Tom123 (Donegal) - Posts: 26 - 30/05/2022 08:30:16    2420925

I had a long old post typed out last night but I spent so long on it that the forum was closed, summed up the day really.

On the game itself, my main disappointment was how slow our build up play was. I think we showed early in that 2nd half that if you move it up the pitch quickly, Derry do not have time to get set. Once we got 1 or 2 ahead, we should have kept going as much as we could with moving it quickly and make it more of a tit-for-tat game. If Derry get a score or a shot away, no bother, just get the restart out quick and try and get up before they set their defence. But we fell into the same patterns of play from the first half and Derry reeled us in. I thought once we were 2 up we really should have seen the game out. The much vaunted "experience of Ulster finals" did nothing for us.

I completely understand not being silly with the ball and trying to gung-ho into a packed defence thinking you won't get turned over. I understand trying to engineer the space, but at the end of the day it seemed to take more out of us than it did Derry. There wasn't a huge amount of movement. Often times it was one man soloing the ball and everyone walking, until he got close enough to a teammate and then we moved again. Also I saw at least three occasions, at least, where Jason McGee or Caolan McGonagle were on their own by the square with the smallest Derry defender. The movement had engineered a favourable matchup, but nobody looked up to kick it in. I think maybe it was kicked into Caolan once in the first half where I think he assumed the keeper was coming out so he just got a first to it towards goal, but the Derry keeper had stayed on his line and picked it up easily though that's not one of the times I was thinking of) Both lads had their hands up shouting for it.

We hit some very bad wides in those opening 10 minutes before Shane O'Donnell got our first score (a player I thought did very well in the circumstances of that game). We all said we needed to be accurate but we were not. The long range shooting was off, now there was a nasty enough cross-pitch wind that would pick up at times but still. Honestly it felt like we did everything you were not supposed to do against this Derry side in the 1st half, and yet at the end of the day I still come away from that game thinking we left it behind us yet again. I also think we should have had a penalty in that final play of the match but I suppose with our penalty record in recent years we may have missed it regardless. On the ref, I thought overall he made some strange calls for both sides, but the most infuriating moment for me was late in the 2nd half of normal time, he got directly in the way of EBG and Michael Langan exchanging passes, and then he had the gall to make a gesture of "got the ball" as if the Derry defender had won it fairly!

Derry are a very good side and I think they will cause trouble in the All-Ireland series now as well.

I can't really argue with anyone saying Bonner has to go any more. Michael Murphy should have stayed inside for 90% of the game. Not because I agree with the tired arguments about his best position, but because Rogers was wreaking havoc out the field and is an incredible athlete and footballer, so keep Murphy inside and see what Rogers does. Rogers struggled with Comer against Galway around the square. And where was Ciaran Thompson? I thought he must have been injured seeing as he didn't appear, but lo and behold he comes on in extra time and nails a long range score? I also felt Niall O'Donnell should have come on earlier to give us something different in our attack.

While the season isn't over yet and I think the manner of that defeat will make it very very hard for us to lift ourselves to be honest. I am also worried about injuries. Eoghan Bán Gallagher looked to have done some severe damage to himself in the final minutes of extra-time, he could barely move. Paddy McBrearty had an attempt at a score that dropped so short people thought it was a kickpass inside - he looked in a lot of pain after with his hamstring. Jason McGee (who I thought had a brilliant game in a titanic battle with Conor Glass) didn't reappear for extra time.

As I said I am sick over that game, it hurts an awful lot. I haven't felt this sore since the 2016 Ulster final. For all we are blessed to be going to these Ulster finals, I am sick to my stomach at losing more than we win.

JoeSoap (Donegal) - Posts: 1432 - 30/05/2022 09:37:46    2420948

Well done derry. They were the better team overall and deserved their win. Derry and donegal played pretty much the same way. It's hardly an enjoyable to watch but was very predictable.

I do get very frustrated with this I feel for the player nonsense and it's not their fault attitude. If the players don't like the set up it's an amateur game and they can just leave. And if players believe it's just the managers fault (and i don't think they do) then that's a reason why they would lose. It's too easy an out to just blame the management.

From an overall point of view I'm very disappointed that we lose so many big matches there are a few things that spring to mind.
- When Donegal beat derry last year langan and niall o'donnell were to the fore with 6 points from play between them from out the field. Langan didn't score and presumably niall o'donnell is not going that well as he would have come on sooner (both were injured earlier in the year).
- Jamie brennan just didn't get into and unfortunately for him missed a sitter in the first half. Murphy missed two 45s early on. Two of them three go over and you win.
- Derry let ward and mcmenamin have all the ball they wanted going forward because they were just not going to score. Donegal could do with more of a scoring threat from the defence.
- I presume Thompson isn't flying it either because he only came on very late but not having him playing did remove another scoring option.
- For whatever length if time murphy has left and he was struggling at times as the game went on and should just leave him inside now.
- The derry goalkeeper doesn't inspire confidence and not sure why they were less committed to the full court press than say against armagh. They could have tried a few more long ones in on top of him.
The derry defence was overall that bit better than donegal. They were super hard to break down.

Anyway hopefully the players knocks are not serious and they can get back up on the horse again for the last round of the qualifiers. That's a derry team on up the and as much as donegal were beat they did leave it all on the pitch. If they do the same the next day they'll be in the quarter final.

Ulsterchamps_32 (Donegal) - Posts: 943 - 30/05/2022 09:46:09    2420950

Well done Derry, the better team by a distance.

Donegal were pitiful. It's hard to even digest how poor the approach was to the game. The management team are finished and I don't think there's any debate to be had. I don't care if what replaces them could be worse, I don't think that that's possible. They have squandered Murphy, McFadden, and McBrearty's peak years and that's just that.

Only 2 Donegal men in the match programme yesterday were "full-backs". Neither of them got a minute yesterday. All this chat about Donegal's bench being so strong and it would blow everybody away. Why name men on your bench if you're not going to unload them all at the start of extra time on a gruelling hot day in Clones. Men falling over themselves cramping throughout extra-time yet we had fit men on the sideline that could have played. We still had a sub left towards the end, why not take on our sub GK into FF or midfield?

Bonner has nurtured brilliant footballers over the last decade between his work at underage level and at the top job. But he constantly gets it wrong on the big days out. Time to call it a day.

SurelyToGod (Donegal) - Posts: 512 - 30/05/2022 11:11:21    2420990

Bonnar out and the chairman as well . there needs to be accountability..
Enough of embarrassing ourselves

red.hugh (Donegal) - Posts: 176 - 30/05/2022 11:46:12    2421014

Such a disappointing day yesterday to lose out on another Ulster final. Good luck to Derry, they just showed more gumption that we could offer to go and win it. I have defended management but I now really feel that it's time for change. And I don't just mean change of management personnel, I mean a major rethink about how we do things in this county.

Firstly, I don't know how we'd actually enforce this. I don't have the answer. Maybe it's a coaching rethink that needs to start from u15 up? But if you go to nearly any club game in the county, the pattern is plain to be seen:

- loads of men behind the ball
- very little kick passing unless it's lateral or backwards
- hand-passing, hand-passing, hand-passing
- possession is king. Players get devoured if anything remotely risky is attempted like taking a man on or kicking it long

I'm not suggesting for a minute we all go playing totally off the cuff. But surely to Jesus there is a better balance that can be struck than what we're producing at the minute? To me yesterday it was drilled into the players to be ultra patient and wait for a gap to appear. But equally as clear was that Derry were comfortable with us doing that. They were disciplined and patient themselves knowing that we weren't prepared to offer much else.

I don't think I saw Murphy at the edge of the square once? He wasn't moving freely and Rogers was forcing him the other way to great effect. It's bad when the opposition's full back is throwing shimmies and firing over points and our own forwards were discouraged from doing so.

Hard to know where we go from here in 2022. Maybe a good non-Ulster draw in the qualifiers would let us release the shackles a bit and actually play some football. That's the most galling thing for me. The national media will say we're brittle mentally, that we're over-hyped etc. But are we being allowed to play? Yesterday's mantra was "let's not dare lose" rather than "look around this dressing room lads. Are we better than Derry? Yes. Let's go and win it then so"

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 10033 - 30/05/2022 12:21:33    2421030

JoeSoap (Donegal) - Posts: 1432 - 30/05/2022 12:37:10    2421037

Donegal were always a handspring team even before jim McGuinness. I remember watching them in the 90s against Cavan and lots of lateral passing.

Some talk that the conditions in Donegal being a coastal county they they preferred to handpass in club football then kick it which goes the whole up the grades from underage

FoolsGold (Cavan) - Posts: 2897 - 30/05/2022 12:44:23    2421043

Cahair O'Kane of the Irish News put up a tweet yesterday about our wastefulness. At the end of the day I think that's the difference, and has been on many of these big losses over the last few years.

We set up very cautious and maybe the missed chances are a symptom of that general cautiousness through the team, but if you have 30 shots and only get 15 scores, you'll not win many finals.

JoeSoap (Donegal) - Posts: 1432 - 30/05/2022 12:47:44    2421047

Ulsterchamps_32 (Donegal) - Posts: 943 - 30/05/2022 13:23:50    2421070

Finally Bonner you've done enough to warrant an immediate step down! What a bad joke and a shambles! I've said previously that Murphy was the only one that could top Derrys big 4 of Rodgers, mcKinless, mcKaigues and Glass. All came to fruition yesterday as Murphy was reduced to a mere mortal, as management played right in to Derry hands(and Rodgers) by staging Murphy in Donegals half of the field. The closest he got to the Derry square was when he took that free at the end! What an injustice to Donegals all time great. This so called best full line in the country, Brennan, Murphy not there, and McBrearty nothing. Is management holding these players back? Their better than this. McMenamin and Ward let roam forward all day long and then back to the middle, absolute garbage. At the end of regulation had the ball for 2 min, don't even get a shot away!@Roryboy For us posters that know nothing about the game why don't u give us an immediate fix?Croke Park as far out as a lighthouse as far as Bonner is concerned, so sad with the talent that's there!

thelowball (USA) - Posts: 400 - 30/05/2022 14:26:06    2421109

JoeSoap (Donegal) - Posts: 1432 - 30/05/2022 14:41:29    2421116

I understand we are all sore and fed up with losing Ulster finals but I think a bit of perspective is needed as well. I am as annoyed as anyone especially with not seeing the game out in the 2nd half or trying to get up the pitch for a score in 2nd half injury time. But we lost a proper arm wrestle against a Derry team who have arrived, no doubt about that. They hammered Tyrone out the gate and Monaghan fell for the same stuff. So we pushed them all the way just like we were pushed all the way by them last year. I think Derry will make some strides now in the All-Ireland series to be honest.

Let's see if we can regroup for the qualifier. It will be hard as that game will have sapped the life out of the panel there yesterday but if we can get a favourable draw we may have a rattle in Croke Park yet.

As I said in my first post on this I can't really argue with anyone saying Bonner has to go any more, but I just want to focus on the next game and see how we get on. Let's see how the panel reacts to yesterday and how the rest of the summer goes.

JoeSoap (Donegal) - Posts: 1432 - 30/05/2022 14:47:21    2421119

Donegal need a new manager ye have always had loads of talented footballers but for some reason since jimmey mcguiness came in with his new defensive system and fair play to him he won the holy grail ye have failed to get this defensive mindset out of your players even in your club football. if ye had off went for it at any stage when ye were ahead yesterday ye would have won this final. This zero risk policy deserves no reward Cavan came close to beating ye only for the two long hopefull balls in that yielded two goals. Yesterday the only two high balls that ye sent in also could have led to two goals one save by the keeper and the other could have resulted in a penalty. Cavan were the same in division 4 of the league this year they set up each game as if they were playing dublin but somehow the penny dropped and we have been much more attack minded and are kicking the ball in much quicker since. A team as talented as this Donegal team should be allowed play football it cant be very enjoyable for this team to play such souless football. You can understand Derry playing it when you are trying to win your first final in 25 years but i hope they too go on and show that they are much more talented than yesterday,

breffnibluewhite (Cavan) - Posts: 503 - 30/05/2022 14:55:47    2421130

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 10033 - 30/05/2022 15:26:58    2421146

rorysboys (Donegal) - Posts: 2667 - 30/05/2022 15:32:57    2421149

SurelyToGod (Donegal) - Posts: 512 - 30/05/2022 15:40:30    2421151

Ulsterchamps_32 (Donegal) - Posts: 943 - 30/05/2022 15:49:35    2421156