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Donegal GAA thread

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Replying To shaggykev:  "Only Nally and restricted view on sale on ticket master


Game heading for a sell out already or are ticketmaster playing silly buggers?"
There's a junior all Ireland semi finals on Friday evening with London, New York, warwickshire and Kilkenny and the winners play the junior all Ireland as a curtain raiser. I guess they'll have to be keeping a few seats back for the supporters of these teams that get to the final. And I doubt there there the first three rows of the davin stand

Ulsterchamps_32 (Donegal) - Posts: 899 - 09/07/2025 22:37:42    2624736

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Replying To Proudroyal:  "I'd imagine it's so they're around their own supporters and sitting together as 8 is max on Ticketmaster so bigger groups can sit together."
There's a definite element of that. You want to be in with your own family and friends and not dotted around everywhere and getting tickets through the club should facilitate this.

Ulsterchamps_32 (Donegal) - Posts: 899 - 09/07/2025 22:40:13    2624737

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Replying To Al_Maguire:  "There's now an article on Donegal Live that the club allocation has now doubled to 6,000 tickets. Still short on order though.

Also noted below. The club method may become a thing of the past for most matches.

"Coughlan revealed that in conversations with officials from Meath and Kerry during the week, she learned those counties don't distribute tickets through clubs unless it's for a provincial or All-Ireland final.

She believes Donegal may have to consider adopting a similar model to avoid the confusion and frustration experienced this week.""
For a number of years the only tickets you could buy from clubs in mayo was all Ireland tickets. Tickets for all other games was through season tickets or ticketmaster. Clubs were ordering tickets and people were changing their minds or picking up good ones on ticketmaster so clubs were left paying for the tickets.

Mfs (Mayo) - Posts: 270 - 09/07/2025 23:24:52    2624744

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Replying To Ulsterchamps_32:  "There's a junior all Ireland semi finals on Friday evening with London, New York, warwickshire and Kilkenny and the winners play the junior all Ireland as a curtain raiser. I guess they'll have to be keeping a few seats back for the supporters of these teams that get to the final. And I doubt there there the first three rows of the davin stand"
If Kilkenny make it some of those tickets are going to Donegal supporters.

themaddog (Wicklow) - Posts: 168 - 10/07/2025 08:36:43    2624752

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Replying To Mfs:  "For a number of years the only tickets you could buy from clubs in mayo was all Ireland tickets. Tickets for all other games was through season tickets or ticketmaster. Clubs were ordering tickets and people were changing their minds or picking up good ones on ticketmaster so clubs were left paying for the tickets."
Thats fair enough but club members should have been told in advance if theÿ weren't getting tickets through their clubs so they could have got tickets on Ticketmaster. As it stands a lot of club members don't have tickets for Sunday's match.
I can see a huge drop in club membership next year because of the mess created by Croke Park.

Scenicparish (Donegal) - Posts: 661 - 10/07/2025 08:50:39    2624753

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Replying To Scenicparish:  "There is no guarantee. However Club Members should be entitled to purchase tickets through their clubs before they go on general sale through Ticketmaster.

In other words if Donegal have 13k Members that amount of tickets should have been set aside and resold through Ticketmaster at a later date if they weren't purchased through the clubs.

Club Members are the heartbeat of the GAA in each County. Surely they should get tickets before they are sold randomly on Ticketmaster."
At the very least, there should be better communication from the GAA on how tickets will be allocated, so that fans and club members know well in advance what the Annual plan for tickets will be.

Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1419 - 10/07/2025 10:00:51    2624762

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Replying To BeardedBorderGael:  "For some supporters it will be simply because they've always done so, also some older supporters may not be tech savvy or have the ability to order online.
It may also be the case that if their county was to reach the Final (when no tickets are on general sale) that their club may give priority to those members who ordered tickets with them throughout the championship."
Senior clubs in cork got 20 stand and 24 terrace each for final. Once executive members, sponsors, players, trainers etc are looked after there isn't any tickets left for ordinary members.

Mfs (Mayo) - Posts: 270 - 10/07/2025 10:08:32    2624766

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Replying To Commodore:  "At the very least, there should be better communication from the GAA on how tickets will be allocated, so that fans and club members know well in advance what the Annual plan for tickets will be."
In the gaa website there is a section dedicated to its purpose, vision and values.2 points that are worth notig
Value
Community and Club is at the heart of our Association
Vision
Communication - striving for a more connected Association

The club is clearly not at the heart of the association when it comes to tickets and by the look of things they'll be striving for a long time to create a more connected organisation.

Ulsterchamps_32 (Donegal) - Posts: 899 - 10/07/2025 11:17:03    2624781

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Really hope that when all is said and done that we do get great support for the lads on Sunday. Meath will likely outnumber us, so we really need to make ourselves heard encouraging the lads. I think it's vital that we start well and not be giving a talented Meath team any opportunity to seize the initiative.

It was funny trying to explain to my young kids that this doesn't just happen all the time. They've been spoiled with sucecss since Jim came back. Forget 2026 and whatever else is down the line. We need to strike now when the iron is hot.

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9883 - 10/07/2025 12:14:09    2624796

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Replying To Mfs:  "Senior clubs in cork got 20 stand and 24 terrace each for final. Once executive members, sponsors, players, trainers etc are looked after there isn't any tickets left for ordinary members."
There's 259 clubs in Cork, only 40 in Donegal. Bit of a difference.

peiledoir20 (Donegal) - Posts: 1265 - 10/07/2025 13:50:20    2624813

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Excitement really building now with anticipation to the weekend. I managed to get a great ticket on Tuesday after turning down the opportunity to get one through the club via family. However it's really a joke of a situation with what's going on. The clubs should without question be looked after first but sure it's no real surprise given how the GAA operates these days. Another step on what's been a fantastic journey so far and hopefully there'll be at least one more after the weekend. The drive back stuck in traffic from Clones and the last day in Croker been stand outs such was the adrenaline pumping through me after each game. The two weeks hopefully will have given time for Patton to heal up more. The kick outs are such a massive part of the game now that it's imperative that he's feeling good to go as I don't think he's being right the last 2 games especially. Hopefully we're locked in from the get go and give Meath all the respect they deserve. We've plenty of experience dealing with all Division 2 has had to offer this year plus experience of playing big physical teams like Meath. Meath cannot afford too many turnovers as Donegal are lethal at exploiting. Match ups as always will be crucial but I'll be very surprised if it's not McCole on Morris. He certainly won't get the same space this week. Similar to the Monaghan game I just think there'll be too many fires for Meath to handle but we need to not give them too much leeway especially if their 2 point shooting kicks into gear. As always safe travels to everyone from both counties and really looking forward to what should be a great atmosphere.

panamasam (Australia) - Posts: 2883 - 10/07/2025 21:58:15    2624898

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The wait for the club tickets was certainly worth the wait just collected them and we in section 330 of the hogan stand almost on the halfway line. Probably the best seats ive ever had for a game in croke park

Can't wait for the game now 1 more day at work and down to Dublin for the weekend expecting a massive donegal support on Sunday

Donegal-lad27 (Donegal) - Posts: 25 - 10/07/2025 22:56:24    2624905

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Gaining primary possession off kickouts is proving to be the most important thing in the new rules. I was watching the Meath - Galway game and the meath high fielders were opting to punch the ball down in front of them rather than catch it clean. Then they had a bunch of smaller lads who knew where to be for the break. Winning breaking ball is a mix of good judgement on where to place yourself and old fashioned bravery and pure desire to put your body on the line to win ball. However at the end of the day it's such a lottery and hard to base a game plan around that.

People are talking a lot about the importance of big men around the middle , and that's true, but it's the wee men fighting for the dirty breaking ball that is the winning and losing of the match. Its such an unpredictable aspect of the game as you never really know where the ball is going to go when a midfielder sticks their fist in the air.

With that unpredictability you can see why Patton was persisting in trying to thread the needle in the first half rather than just hoofing it long when we were under pressure. Rafferty similar against Kerry when they were pressing. We were all shouting at patton to go long and trust the big lads but if you do get a kick out away to an unmarked half back or half forward it's such a valuable thing to build on. I'd say a large amount of Donegal's training will be based around kickout strategies these last two weeks. Probably they will be trying to get as much variety as possible in terms of training ground moves. Meath are very strong around the middle so just hoofing it high and long may not be our best bet even when we are under the cosh.

High_and_wide (Donegal) - Posts: 87 - 11/07/2025 09:43:08    2624930

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Replying To Donegal-lad27:  "The wait for the club tickets was certainly worth the wait just collected them and we in section 330 of the hogan stand almost on the halfway line. Probably the best seats ive ever had for a game in croke park

Can't wait for the game now 1 more day at work and down to Dublin for the weekend expecting a massive donegal support on Sunday"
stay humble

ModernMaharaja (Donegal) - Posts: 110 - 11/07/2025 10:51:42    2624940

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Replying To ModernMaharaja:  "stay humble"
I am humble was just a comment in regards to tickets as I had,people this week asking why bother going with my club for tickets

Id of been happy sitting anywhere in the stadium as I have been for the near 30 years ive been following donegal

Donegal-lad27 (Donegal) - Posts: 25 - 11/07/2025 15:57:01    2624984

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Best of luck Sunday folks, yee are deserving favourites however nobody in Donegal will be dismissing us.

As regards the ticket situation I totally agree with most of you.

Whoever wins Sunday , the people who stood in the wind and rain during the league have a less chance of getting a ticket than a person who never went to a game all year. Imagine a child who has been to every game in the league and championship been told they cant go to final ?

Its the same every year, There is people coming from every corner of the world ( especially middle east ) to finals every year as they are entitled to tickets, well b###ox to that.

Needs to be revisited by gaa, should not be sending hundreds, perhaps thousands of tickets to America , middle east, Asia or Australia so rich folk can come on a weekend trip.

thelutch (Meath) - Posts: 1111 - 11/07/2025 16:51:44    2625000

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Replying To High_and_wide:  "Gaining primary possession off kickouts is proving to be the most important thing in the new rules. I was watching the Meath - Galway game and the meath high fielders were opting to punch the ball down in front of them rather than catch it clean. Then they had a bunch of smaller lads who knew where to be for the break. Winning breaking ball is a mix of good judgement on where to place yourself and old fashioned bravery and pure desire to put your body on the line to win ball. However at the end of the day it's such a lottery and hard to base a game plan around that.

People are talking a lot about the importance of big men around the middle , and that's true, but it's the wee men fighting for the dirty breaking ball that is the winning and losing of the match. Its such an unpredictable aspect of the game as you never really know where the ball is going to go when a midfielder sticks their fist in the air.

With that unpredictability you can see why Patton was persisting in trying to thread the needle in the first half rather than just hoofing it long when we were under pressure. Rafferty similar against Kerry when they were pressing. We were all shouting at patton to go long and trust the big lads but if you do get a kick out away to an unmarked half back or half forward it's such a valuable thing to build on. I'd say a large amount of Donegal's training will be based around kickout strategies these last two weeks. Probably they will be trying to get as much variety as possible in terms of training ground moves. Meath are very strong around the middle so just hoofing it high and long may not be our best bet even when we are under the cosh."
I agree with you, the most predictable thing about kick-outs now is their unpredictability.
As for kick-out strategies, great while there working but if things start to go wrong everyone especially the keeper can get the jitters and there no "out-ball" now like pulling down the man in possession, throwing the ball away and blocking the freetaker until everyone is in place.
I think all four remaining teams can have a dominant period on opposition kick-outs.
Of the four keepers just maybe the Meath man could be the weakest although whether injury related or not Patton looks, unusually for him, just a bit vulnerable.
I think "it's all on the day" is more true now under the new rules.

sligo joe (Dublin) - Posts: 972 - 11/07/2025 17:20:55    2625003

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