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Replying To JoeSoap: "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." Your posts have been very fair and interesting since I'd have a similar view. I really hope donegal can regroup themselves. They won't be interested at least for a few days and hope they let off steam last night. There's no doubt ulster was a primary goal but also giving the all ireland at least a bit of a rattle was also an aim. They are only one game away from a quarter and it would be a pity if they don't at least give it a rattle. For all the annoyance and frustration about this team and management over the last few years they've never downed tools in a championship match. There is no doubt that a draw against cork/louth or meath/clare would be preferable but it's only as good as players wanting and being able to get back on the horse again. Ulsterchamps_32 (Donegal) - Posts: 943 - 30/05/2022 16:04:53 2421168 Link
Replying To Ulsterchamps_32: "Your posts have been very fair and interesting since I'd have a similar view. I really hope donegal can regroup themselves. They won't be interested at least for a few days and hope they let off steam last night. There's no doubt ulster was a primary goal but also giving the all ireland at least a bit of a rattle was also an aim. They are only one game away from a quarter and it would be a pity if they don't at least give it a rattle. For all the annoyance and frustration about this team and management over the last few years they've never downed tools in a championship match. There is no doubt that a draw against cork/louth or meath/clare would be preferable but it's only as good as players wanting and being able to get back on the horse again." Hand on heart, I would be at peace with us losing our next match if we at least throw off the shackles (within reason), play Murphy at full forward and just have a right cut. The thing is though, if we empower our players and trust in their natural talent to win us matches - I think we become a much more dangerous animal and could possibly have a wee say in the AI series yet. A good blow out last night and a clear the air meeting at training during the week, and lets go again. Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 10033 - 30/05/2022 16:30:21 2421185 Link
Replying To rorysboys: "Ah look who's back the poster who refused to answer the questions I set him on how to play Derry. You are an embarrassment as I said before if you met bonner you would be all nice to him. And to cap it all you get two likes. Lol" Really , I'm an embarrassment! Look around u! Neither u nor Bonner should be seen or heard from anymore! Bonner doesn't have the cahunas to stand up and say the obvious, let me spell it out for u Rory(People of donegal that was all on me, I apologize) thelowball (USA) - Posts: 400 - 30/05/2022 16:40:14 2421192 Link
Surely time for Bonner to step down after another dismal display of football yesterday…. played right into Derrys hands by having Murphy wandering around the middle of the pitch…. If he had been placed on the edge of the square Donegal would have won and Brendan Rodgers would not have kicked 3 points.,,,, mind blowing tactics ForeverBlue2 (Cavan) - Posts: 4243 - 30/05/2022 16:44:51 2421194 Link
The funny thing is that I was thinking before the final and being very confident of victory that the 4 week break to the Q/F would be very long and might suit the qualifiers.Now we are in the qualifiers and it will be a good test for Management and team to show their character and ambition and it could be a good route to go.We have two weeks to prepare although only onw week then to the Q/F if we get through.If they are not determined to take this second chance it doesn't say much for them.Somebody said it would be nice to avoid the bigger guns but maybe a tough draw would concentrate the minds.For instance who ever comes through the Armagh,Tyrone andMayo,Monaghan games will be in a good place. gunman (Donegal) - Posts: 1196 - 30/05/2022 16:47:33 2421195 Link
Replying To rorysboys: "Ah look who's back the poster who refused to answer the questions I set him on how to play Derry. You are an embarrassment as I said before if you met bonner you would be all nice to him. And to cap it all you get two likes. Lol" To be honest Rorys Boy the only person embarrassing themselves day in day out on this forum is yourself. If most people saw Declan Bonner on the street I doubt they would give 2 ***. I know I wouldn't! You are constantly arguing with people calling out Declan Bonner when every Donegal supporter is within their own right to do so. I don't care how much he has done for Donegal and how much of a Donegal man he is, Declan deserves every last bit of this criticism he gets. Yesterday was a downright embarrassment to the people of Donegal. To everyone that follows Donegal GAA, everyone that grew up playing this great game it's just an insult to us Donegal people to play that type of football. There's only a certain amount of lying you can tell yourself but the fact of the matter is that was a complete and utter disgrace yesterday. Going into extra time I actually wanted Derry to beat us. I'm a die hard Donegal fan but yesterday was the tip of the ice berg for me and supporting this Donegal team under Declan Bonner. It's actually mentally draining watching them. I can't say I've ever been as sick of Gaelic Football as I was yesterday watching that rubbish. I hope they get hammered in the qualifiers so it eradicates any hope of Declan Bonner being reappointed because I can't put myself through that again. And if you start blaming the players then you really are as stupid as I thought because no footballer wants to play lifeless football like that. And before you think it, no I wouldn't be all nice to Bonner if I saw him on the street. I'd walk right past him and my day won't be for the better or worse for it. I couldn't give a . MurphBalls (Donegal)** - Posts: 178 - 30/05/2022 16:55:54 2421197 Link
Replying To gunman: "The funny thing is that I was thinking before the final and being very confident of victory that the 4 week break to the Q/F would be very long and might suit the qualifiers.Now we are in the qualifiers and it will be a good test for Management and team to show their character and ambition and it could be a good route to go.We have two weeks to prepare although only onw week then to the Q/F if we get through.If they are not determined to take this second chance it doesn't say much for them.Somebody said it would be nice to avoid the bigger guns but maybe a tough draw would concentrate the minds.For instance who ever comes through the Armagh,Tyrone andMayo,Monaghan games will be in a good place." The only way Donegal will make a go of the AI series is if they let the shackles off and play with freedom like they did on that day in Croke Park vs Kerry in the Super 8s. Bonner thinks he's been smart with these keep ball tactics but the only thing he's doing is holding back one of the most talented Donegal squads from showing Ireland what they are capable of. MurphBalls (Donegal) - Posts: 178 - 30/05/2022 16:58:31 2421199 Link
Replying To Ulsterchamps_32: "I should have also mentioned the derry defence yesterday. They were very good as well and that was a factor. If I were caolan ward I wouldn't be shooting too much either unless it's really on. It's just not his game. Though in order to keep a team like derry a little bit more honest you could do with at least some of your defenders being very comfortable kicking points and overall needed at least one one more player on the field who could shoot. Mccole, mcmenamin, ward, mcff and ban are not really a threat in kicking points and that's a bit too many. Mogan you wouldn't expect to kick many points and he hit three lovely ones including one off his right! I had a little look back and at times it was poor shot selection. Ryan mchugh can be quite guilty of this. He did kick one point yesterday the other ones he missed weren't really on." You're right I just watched back a bit of the game and I was harsh on McGonagle with the 2 blocked shots, to be honest it was on for him both times but the Derry player got the blocks in really well, maybe he was just that bit slow pulling the trigger but he'd made the burst on both occasions so it was the right option. Those first 10 minutes I think we did everything right in taking the sting out of Derry but we didn't score. Murphy had one bad miss with our first shot, McGonagle was blocked, Murphy missed the resulting 45, Paddy McBrearty tried to engineer a free and a free out was given, and Langan missed one from around the 45 under pressure but you'd still hope if he was on song he would nail it. JoeSoap (Donegal) - Posts: 1432 - 30/05/2022 17:05:18 2421202 Link
Replying To JoeSoap: "Hi SurelyToGod, just on the use of the bench, I saw a quote from Bonner that said we had used all three subs by half time in extra time and couldn't use any more. So not sure on the rules there. I assumed we'd no subs left otherwise I'd no idea why Eoghan Bán was left on, he couldn't walk." He only used 3 subs in the 70 minutes, when he could have used 6, with men falling down tired towards the end. Then in extra time you can name a whole new 15 if you want, so they should really have made a few changes to bring in2 or 3 fresh men at the start of extra time and still have the 3 subs left to use. Must be disheartening for subs who have worked all year when they don't get used in a game like yesterday's where extra time was involved. greenfan (Donegal) - Posts: 743 - 30/05/2022 17:19:13 2421214 Link
Replying To JoeSoap: "You're right I just watched back a bit of the game and I was harsh on McGonagle with the 2 blocked shots, to be honest it was on for him both times but the Derry player got the blocks in really well, maybe he was just that bit slow pulling the trigger but he'd made the burst on both occasions so it was the right option. Those first 10 minutes I think we did everything right in taking the sting out of Derry but we didn't score. Murphy had one bad miss with our first shot, McGonagle was blocked, Murphy missed the resulting 45, Paddy McBrearty tried to engineer a free and a free out was given, and Langan missed one from around the 45 under pressure but you'd still hope if he was on song he would nail it." Excuses .. enough of the hard luck stories .. Cavan , Mayo , Tyrone and now Derry . Bonnar out ballyshannon (Donegal) - Posts: 176 - 30/05/2022 17:20:00 2421215 Link
Replying To MurphBalls: "The only way Donegal will make a go of the AI series is if they let the shackles off and play with freedom like they did on that day in Croke Park vs Kerry in the Super 8s. Bonner thinks he's been smart with these keep ball tactics but the only thing he's doing is holding back one of the most talented Donegal squads from showing Ireland what they are capable of." Exactly. I can't for the life of me say our players arnt good enough. Maybe we are weak in one or two areas but we've players capable of doing way better than they are currently showing the last few years. The super 8's game v Kerry is a great example and shows we've the players to compete against anyone in the country. Going nowhere with yesterdays tactics. fielder (Donegal) - Posts: 137 - 30/05/2022 17:25:57 2421218 Link
Replying To greenfan: "He only used 3 subs in the 70 minutes, when he could have used 6, with men falling down tired towards the end. Then in extra time you can name a whole new 15 if you want, so they should really have made a few changes to bring in2 or 3 fresh men at the start of extra time and still have the 3 subs left to use. Must be disheartening for subs who have worked all year when they don't get used in a game like yesterday's where extra time was involved." Thanks I didn't realise that on the new 15 for ET. No doubt mistakes made from Bonner there, that's baffling altogether when you consider the players who didn't appear until way too late in the day. To be quite frank that's up there with Rory bringing Anthony Thompson back in 2016 and leaving a fully fit Leo McLoone on the bench. JoeSoap (Donegal) - Posts: 1432 - 30/05/2022 17:27:34 2421220 Link
Replying To ballyshannon: "Excuses .. enough of the hard luck stories .. Cavan , Mayo , Tyrone and now Derry . Bonnar out" ara go away with that will you, I'm not making any excuses ffs if you could bother reading through a couple pages before getting all excited that we lost so you can slate Bonner. JoeSoap (Donegal) - Posts: 1432 - 30/05/2022 17:30:45 2421225 Link
They say that the definition of madness is doing the same things over and over again, and expecting to get a different result. Many of us acknowledged before the game that at the start we would have to mirror Derry, until we had figured them out, where the gaps were. It appears that if we were in Clones until next week, we would find them. We all know that these games are a game of Chess, and that you have to move your pieces around, to create a mismatch. We moved a lot of pieces, but we didn't move the most important piece. We effectively left Michael as our furthest back outfield player. But the players inside weren't causing Derry any undue pressure, they had them all figured out. Derry had us with all our pieces where they wanted them. Michael out the field, Ward and McMenamin as ball carriers, Langan and others surrounded, the list goes on. And after a fantastic first half from Peadar Mogan, they made the required change. We didn't make any tactical switches in response. When we were defending, we kept Paddy McBrearty forward. This probably kept Chrissy McKeigue from attacking, but Paddy does not offer enough in this role, not enough movement, not enough speed. On the occasions that the Derry keeper came up the field, Paddy didn't put enough pressure on him. What would I have done differently? Personally I thought that the way Derry defended, that we should have created opportunities to work the opportunity for the forward mark. The advantage being that it would be a shot on the target, but also with the built in advantage of being able to get back into our defensive shape for the resulting kick out. And going back to my opening remark about madness, surely we could have tried Michael at full forward and tried the diagonal. And maybe posting Michael inside would've put the Derry defenders on the back foot, and this combined with the forward mark tactic could have created that bit of space required for our Langans and Thompsons to take their scores. I want to believe in Bonner and Rochford. The Ulster Championship is so claustrophobic. I hope that we can get a non Ulster draw in the qualifiers. But I just don't know how to feel today. I'm hungover from drink, but moreso I'm hungover from the result. SouthOfTheGap (Donegal) - Posts: 879 - 30/05/2022 18:11:36 2421239 Link
I see one of our manager's ex team mates has come out about online abuse again just to deflect from the inept job he is doing with the talent we have. I have not seen one personal attack on players or manager's. All anyone has done is question the management's ability to move this team on. I have nothing personal against any of our management, there is one selector from my own club. But the reality is, we are not moving forward, and if anything going backwards. So its time for change, let him see out this season. But he needs to do the right thing and step away then. Then our county board need to show some leadership and go out and actively search for a top quality manager that will inspire the talented players i know we have. Do the right thing Declan Bonner for Donegal football The keeper (Donegal) - Posts: 722 - 30/05/2022 20:46:03 2421266 Link
If Bonner was to go or be ran at the end of the season who replaces him? Rochford? McGuinness again? Champotime18 (Leitrim) - Posts: 442 - 30/05/2022 20:57:18 2421267 Link
Replying To Ulsterman: "Donegal are turgid to watch, absolutely dire." How'd yee get on against the mighty Leitrim? totalrecall (Leitrim) - Posts: 1160 - 30/05/2022 21:48:09 2421274 Link
The majority of posters on this forum make me laugh. Players never to blame did bonner kick wides yesterday did he gave away scoreable frees. Did he tell players to sit back on a two point lead did he miss scoreable frees. The answer to all these questions is no. We don't have the players stop kidding yourselves most of yous are embarrassing yourself. Maybe if some of yous go to games yous might realise it. Once Murphy , paddy and Hugh go this year we'll be heading to division 2 soon and that's when we'll know the story. . Too many know it all on here. rorysboys (Donegal) - Posts: 2667 - 31/05/2022 08:31:55 2421280 Link
Molloy hitting out at the keyboard warrior and I quote him. I know some of them personally and they never kicked a ball in there lives. Do most of yous fall into that category I bet yous do. Low lives lol rorysboys (Donegal) - Posts: 2667 - 31/05/2022 08:48:59 2421283 Link
No one is addressing the elephant in the room. Did Donegal Management put Murphy out around midfield as a tactic or did the player go out there himself? I don't know what answer is worse. If Murphy stayed inside then Rogers would have stayed in with him, which was a better scenario than Murphy around the middle. Murphy is obviously not 100%, a blind man could see that and Rogers was in perfect shape. It was the losing of the game in my opinion. KerrymanStuckInDonegal (Kerry) - Posts: 272 - 31/05/2022 09:57:35 2421297 Link