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With the success Jim has brought us I think we all need to just trust the man and what he says, if he's making a point then you can bet your bottom dollar he has a good reason for making it. Tirchonaill1 (Donegal) - Posts: 3674 - 26/01/2026 19:12:27 2653428 Link 0 |
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Was Luke Barrett any addition? I hear this statement that he's a great coach but he was late getting involved with Loughmacrory so how much impact did he have in their championship win. He had some of the best minor teams we've ever produced at county level and only won an Ulster League title. Jim must not regard him either as a top coach or he'd still be there. If he achieves something with Derry then yes, he'll have proved himself but for now I'm not so sure. I also think Jim doesn't like the question of Rory and how much of the 2012 win was down to Rory. I think if Donegal win it again under Jim he'll want it in his own right to put that 2012 question to bed. Jim will be happy to coach the team how he sees it and I'm delighted to see him do so and long may it continue. I thought his interview and remarks about the 25 final was spot on and well overdue. Tir Conaill Abu (Donegal) - Posts: 1682 - 26/01/2026 19:52:29 2653435 Link 1 |
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Jim was making a fair point, a bunch of sports journalists are now butt hurt by him dismissing podcast or newspaper tactical feedback. Since Saturday night's post match press conference, a lot of them have been happily sticking the boot-in to Jim at every opportunity, taking his comments out of context at will. The level of arrogance by some of these people, many of whom have no experience coaching at a high level, basically questioning an All Ireland level manager on his tactics after the first League match of the year in January. The buzz statements in recent weeks has been about Zonal defense being redundant based on the All Ireland final, but that doesn't explain why Donegal lost that final, there were a number of factors, but mainly that opening 15 minutes is where it all went wrong and that was more about midfield and kickouts and maybe team selection. I fail to see justification for journalists who did poor match analysis, to be butt hurt and vindictive towards Jim McGuinness for not listening to their perspective. Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1577 - 26/01/2026 20:30:32 2653441 Link 1 |
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Forget Siege mentality, I feel like there is a genuine press siege going on at times. I remember watching Sean Quinn documentary, watching him being followed by a film crew, where he gave them insight into his private life, like playing cards with his friends for 50c per game. Then at the end of the documentary, they make him out to be a reckless gambler who threw it all away. If you read articles about Jim McGuinness over the last year or so, he is painted as someone who won't listen to input from others, is difficult, stuck in his own tactical bubble. But if you closely, is he really? He runs a strict camp, he won't tolerate people leaking inside information, he sets extremely high standards. Is he wrong to get annoyed when he sees his methods being shared in a book he was unaware of, methods he was using to try and get Donegal to the next level? He is no different to any top manager Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1577 - 26/01/2026 20:48:58 2653443 Link 0 |
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Hi Sligojoe you have to understand zonal defending is not going man to man. Armagh didn't pick up sean o shea. They got criticised. Tyrone pushed out on paudie Clifford and o shea and did good job but left serious space inside for David Clifford. They were criticised then for not doubling up on David. Donegal man mark the main threat ie David Clifford in this case and then went zonal with the rest. You can't change your whole defensive set up in a final when you haven't done the other all year. You have to trust it. Our big problem in final was getting our hands on the ball. Our defence caused kerry serious problems when we got that possession. If he'd have marked paudie pundits would have been saying why was gavin white (motm) not picked up or joe o connor. Id argue they did more damage than paudie in the final. I'd make the point it's a lot of expert pundits having a go at Jim rather than stating the actual and the consequences if we did go man to man on Paudie Clifford. Lazy analysis in my opinion. Jim will know himself where we fell short. In my opinion it's about getting more primary possession from the restarts than your opposition. You starve the opponent of possession. marty234 (Donegal) - Posts: 161 - 26/01/2026 22:42:58 2653461 Link 0 |
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"You can't change your whole defensive set up in a final when you haven't done the other all year." - is it not on Jim though to have had a plan B in place to at least try when it was clear as day plan A wasn't working? Fail to prepare and all that.
TrueBlue35 (Dublin) - Posts: 323 - 27/01/2026 09:48:08 2653481 Link 1 |
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We have had the discussion on this forum for a few years now about our lack of man-to-man defenders. That is surely why Jim plays a zonal defence. Brendan McCole is probably our only natural man marking defender. You have to play with the cards you are dealt. I can't see us deviating too far from that this year. As other posters have pointed out, our main problem against Kerry was that they dominated midfield in the first half and we were starved of possession. Green_Gold (Donegal) - Posts: 1938 - 27/01/2026 10:41:40 2653497 Link 0 |
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not to go over the final all over again but I really think not starting Hughie was the biggest error from Jim on the day. Langan was completely outnumbered in the middle of the field for that first half and the Kerry performances were all 10/10 there. CCFabu (Donegal) - Posts: 284 - 27/01/2026 14:43:42 2653549 Link 0 |