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Replying To peiledoir20: "How are we reading the club scene this year? 6 rounds played so far. Termon off to a flying start and won the Gaeltacht as well. Kilcar sinking fast. Second manager this season has walked from them and failed to field a reserve team in two games already. All not well in Towney." Termon going well surely. Things seem to be well organised, nice new facilities out there too. Any word on Cian McMenamin's injury? Looked a bad enough one. A pity for the lad, not long back from his previous long spell on the sidelines. Jamie Grant is another who'll be missed. I think the likes of Termon, Glenswilly & Four Masters will become serious contenders at senior level in the coming years. Population overspill from Letterkenny, coupled with good structures behind the scenes should lead to increased participation at underage. Harnessed correctly, these teams will threaten the traditional big teams like Eunans, GD and more recently NC. Similar in Donegal town, Abbotts has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and Four Masters have really upped their game at underage. Might we see the likes of St Nauls, Naomh Bríd benefit from more people settling in their catchment areas? Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9774 - 17/05/2025 08:23:16 2610154 Link
It's a week later and I'm still feeling a high from the game. It's mad what a game of football can do for the morale of an entire county. We only have 12 in our long history so it'll never not be sweet. More disappointing is that a full week later I'm still seeing and hearing talk about the melee. All I want to say is that I have spoken to countless Donegal and Armagh people in the last week and the overwhelming majority view is that while it was unsavoury scenes, these things happen and we'd rather talk about the match. One way or the other most of the pile ons I've seen and heard are from counties with no skin in the game. Like many on here, I had a great days craic with Armagh supporters in and around Clones. I was chatting away to a wee man from Lurgan the whole way through the game as we both express concerns around our heart rates in key moments! Invariably for me there has been a mutual respect between Donegal and Armagh supporters in any of the matches I've ever been to between our counties, and id encourage those reading this to take the mud slinging that you've seen online in the last week with a grain of salt. My view is that a win for an Ulster team is a win for us all. Fair play to the 30 thousand match going fans from both counties on Saturday which made it such an enjoyable day out for me with countless positive exchanges which are being ignored for the national focus on one negative one! papa_pump (Donegal) - Posts: 73 - 17/05/2025 08:49:54 2610160 Link
In terms of the game last Saturday I thought it was comfortably our best performance of the year. The main things id call out was that defensively the lads seemed much more tuned in, there was a notable uptick in how much the lads were scanning to see what was around them, and we often went with a sweeper to cover that big area that Down kept trying to exploit. Armagh still scored plenty against us but they are probably the only team in the country that can punch through us like that. Kerry could as well, but I think it would come at a greater cost to them and they'd leave themselves exposed the other way. Other positives for me were that we seemed to catch Armagh on the hop by attacking with more urgency. We kicked a few balls in that have been missing all year, and this stretched Armagh because they had to ensure proper cover inside. This left more room about the arc for us to operate in. The other note here is that at the drop of a hat we would accelerate through (eg Langans goal chance which ended in a free for McBrearty). It seemed to me that Armagh had prepared for a slower game in the heat and struggled to adapt to us really going for it in the first half. We also did a great job on Rafferty in the first half. Armaghs game is built on dominating kickouts going both ways, so if you can interfere with that you're going to have success. To his credit and Armagh as a whole they managed to find the solutions and from about the 30th minute onwards they didn't struggle again. Armagh were always going to come back into it, I'm disappointed with having let two 6 point leads and a 7 point lead slip. Armagh looked to have a stronger bench on the day and I wonder to what extent we gassed ourselves early in that heat. All in all im not too concerned tho. I also feel that it was the kind of game where we went 6 points down we'd have come back. The two teams are absolutely inseperable and I don't expect that to change if they meet again in croker later in the year; with or without Rian O Neill papa_pump (Donegal) - Posts: 73 - 17/05/2025 08:57:37 2610162 Link
Replying To Lockjaw: "Termon going well surely. Things seem to be well organised, nice new facilities out there too. Any word on Cian McMenamin's injury? Looked a bad enough one. A pity for the lad, not long back from his previous long spell on the sidelines. Jamie Grant is another who'll be missed. I think the likes of Termon, Glenswilly & Four Masters will become serious contenders at senior level in the coming years. Population overspill from Letterkenny, coupled with good structures behind the scenes should lead to increased participation at underage. Harnessed correctly, these teams will threaten the traditional big teams like Eunans, GD and more recently NC. Similar in Donegal town, Abbotts has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and Four Masters have really upped their game at underage. Might we see the likes of St Nauls, Naomh Bríd benefit from more people settling in their catchment areas?" Whatever about termon or glenswilly four masters are almost inevitable. What had they 6 players on the 20s, mccrea, monaghan, two carrs, mccahill and muldoon and then another carr on the minors with lenehan and think another panelist. Add that to few players that played 20s and some other fine club players. Four masters pretty much got to a mccrory cup final which is close to unheard off. In fairness to nc they are always some county underage players gweedore have also been good on that front. Mccumhaills also have some decent underage teams but probably not enough needed to push it on to the next level. There is a potential dip on the way for eunans. There is a big gap in succces in say ciaran moore age group down to at least 17s. That's 6 years at least and maybe longer and far too long for a club in letterkenny. Mcmenamin looked really good against cavan and was a huge loss against tyrone. I've no idea how serious it was. Glenswilly have been doing good too at underage but will suffer when murphy moves on as a player. Ulsterchamps_32 (Donegal) - Posts: 826 - 17/05/2025 11:49:09 2610191 Link
Replying To papa_pump: "In terms of the game last Saturday I thought it was comfortably our best performance of the year. The main things id call out was that defensively the lads seemed much more tuned in, there was a notable uptick in how much the lads were scanning to see what was around them, and we often went with a sweeper to cover that big area that Down kept trying to exploit. Armagh still scored plenty against us but they are probably the only team in the country that can punch through us like that. Kerry could as well, but I think it would come at a greater cost to them and they'd leave themselves exposed the other way. Other positives for me were that we seemed to catch Armagh on the hop by attacking with more urgency. We kicked a few balls in that have been missing all year, and this stretched Armagh because they had to ensure proper cover inside. This left more room about the arc for us to operate in. The other note here is that at the drop of a hat we would accelerate through (eg Langans goal chance which ended in a free for McBrearty). It seemed to me that Armagh had prepared for a slower game in the heat and struggled to adapt to us really going for it in the first half. We also did a great job on Rafferty in the first half. Armaghs game is built on dominating kickouts going both ways, so if you can interfere with that you're going to have success. To his credit and Armagh as a whole they managed to find the solutions and from about the 30th minute onwards they didn't struggle again. Armagh were always going to come back into it, I'm disappointed with having let two 6 point leads and a 7 point lead slip. Armagh looked to have a stronger bench on the day and I wonder to what extent we gassed ourselves early in that heat. All in all im not too concerned tho. I also feel that it was the kind of game where we went 6 points down we'd have come back. The two teams are absolutely inseperable and I don't expect that to change if they meet again in croker later in the year; with or without Rian O Neill" That's a good post. One point that I thought watching it is that donegal did gas themselves a little. Even at the 30 mins mark players where struggling a bit. They play at such pace and intensity in the first 30 mins. Armagh were a little slower on the attack and benefited from that in not getting as tired. I think mcguinness probably wanted to nearly have them beat by the 30 minute mark. So basically hit them with everything and knock them out. They needed a goal to do that and didn't get it and armagh are a serious team and were not going to wilt. And one that is apparent in a lot of matches is that donegal are struggling in the final quarter on the scoring front. I'd seriously consider keeping mcbrearty in reserve to the second half. It would be great to see Niall O'Donnell be able to push on fully as well. If donegal are to have a chance they need him and the likes of farrah on full throttle. Hopefully there are no major injuries either and eoghan ban can get back. Ulsterchamps_32 (Donegal) - Posts: 826 - 17/05/2025 12:03:31 2610193 Link
South of the gap farneygael3 (Monaghan) - Posts: 227 - 17/05/2025 20:04:36 2610349 Link
Replying To Ulsterchamps_32: "That's a good post. One point that I thought watching it is that donegal did gas themselves a little. Even at the 30 mins mark players where struggling a bit. They play at such pace and intensity in the first 30 mins. Armagh were a little slower on the attack and benefited from that in not getting as tired. I think mcguinness probably wanted to nearly have them beat by the 30 minute mark. So basically hit them with everything and knock them out. They needed a goal to do that and didn't get it and armagh are a serious team and were not going to wilt. And one that is apparent in a lot of matches is that donegal are struggling in the final quarter on the scoring front. I'd seriously consider keeping mcbrearty in reserve to the second half. It would be great to see Niall O'Donnell be able to push on fully as well. If donegal are to have a chance they need him and the likes of farrah on full throttle. Hopefully there are no major injuries either and eoghan ban can get back." I don't see him getting any minutes even when he is back. eddieSize5Balls (Donegal) - Posts: 134 - 18/05/2025 04:36:24 2610478 Link
Replying To farneygael3: "South of the gap" FarneyFail3 SouthOfTheGap (Donegal) - Posts: 786 - 18/05/2025 14:55:55 2610588 Link
Replying To eddieSize5Balls: "I don't see him getting any minutes even when he is back." Why wouldn't he get minutes? One of the best attacking backs when he is fit. Imagine what he would do in the last 20 minutes of a match. Scenicparish (Donegal) - Posts: 501 - 18/05/2025 16:04:26 2610604 Link
Replying To eddieSize5Balls: "I don't see him getting any minutes even when he is back." He'll get plenty minutes. Our bench didn't do much against Armagh. A player of Ban's quality will play once he's fit again greenfan (Donegal) - Posts: 639 - 18/05/2025 17:29:29 2610657 Link
Replying To eddieSize5Balls: "I don't see him getting any minutes even when he is back." U don't think Eoin Ban will see game time ?? He is one of our best players. Judging by time of post - there it's lots of cargo on board. eunans4ever (Donegal) - Posts: 1695 - 18/05/2025 20:00:48 2610735 Link
Losing EBG against Galway last year was massive, as well as Conor O Donnell in the run-up to the game. Our bench was lacking in the talent to keep the game lit, as well as us not having the fitness levels at that time of the year. I'd say training will have been tweaked in the winter and throughout the year to mitigate that this season, as well as the addition of Murphy, OMcFF and Eoin McHugh, who I never thought was up to the standard but with Jim's magic touch, we know anything is possible and he did well the last day. McMenamin is also playing better, and by his own admission, N O Donnell was a poor trainer and he's upped his game on that front, with Jim giving him an opportunity that won us the match against Armagh. Our bench is still light, and needs to improve next year, but it's better. Whether it'll win us an all-ireland, we'll find out. EBG back for Tyrone according to a source, which is pretty much the full deck of the best 15 available at this time of year, with other AI contenders struggling with injuries at a pivotal time in the calender. Match sharpness will need to be worked on in the group stages, we've a lot of lads returning from injury who will be fit, but not fully sharp. Langan, McGee, EBG, OMcFF, Gallen, McGonagle, and even Murphy after his hiatus from this level. Getting that extra week's rest from topping the group will be vital. StockholmGael (Donegal) - Posts: 144 - 19/05/2025 03:00:20 2610831 Link
That was some result for Cavan yesterday against Mayo! Imperative now that we go and hopefully get the win this Saturday! Going to be a tough game but hopefully a big support and MacCumhaill park will give us the result. Cavan away going to be tricky then on Sunday week. Hopefully some of the injuries from the Armagh game have eased, Farrah and Murphy hobbled off, so hoping it was just a bit of cramp. dgcrusader (Donegal) - Posts: 87 - 19/05/2025 10:36:37 2610878 Link
Replying To Lockjaw: "Termon going well surely. Things seem to be well organised, nice new facilities out there too. Any word on Cian McMenamin's injury? Looked a bad enough one. A pity for the lad, not long back from his previous long spell on the sidelines. Jamie Grant is another who'll be missed. I think the likes of Termon, Glenswilly & Four Masters will become serious contenders at senior level in the coming years. Population overspill from Letterkenny, coupled with good structures behind the scenes should lead to increased participation at underage. Harnessed correctly, these teams will threaten the traditional big teams like Eunans, GD and more recently NC. Similar in Donegal town, Abbotts has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and Four Masters have really upped their game at underage. Might we see the likes of St Nauls, Naomh Bríd benefit from more people settling in their catchment areas?" I agree with what you're saying right now. 3/4 years down the line four masters boys will be in their college years, travelling, moving away. Will they hold many is the question. Moving away is hitting most clubs. Whyme923 (Donegal) - Posts: 29 - 19/05/2025 11:13:50 2610891 Link
Replying To Whyme923: "I agree with what you're saying right now. 3/4 years down the line four masters boys will be in their college years, travelling, moving away. Will they hold many is the question. Moving away is hitting most clubs." That's true. Most clubs have a lot of younger players, and a few veterans, but a fair few of the lads in their mid to late twenties tend to head away for work/travel. Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9774 - 19/05/2025 11:51:45 2610912 Link
Replying To dgcrusader: "That was some result for Cavan yesterday against Mayo! Imperative now that we go and hopefully get the win this Saturday! Going to be a tough game but hopefully a big support and MacCumhaill park will give us the result. Cavan away going to be tricky then on Sunday week. Hopefully some of the injuries from the Armagh game have eased, Farrah and Murphy hobbled off, so hoping it was just a bit of cramp." It was a great result for cavan. Saturday coming is so important. It opens everything up with a win. A loss though brings on cavan away with only a week break and the a potential do or die against mayo, just to get to the last 12. Overall the provincial winners and runners up did not do well at the weekend either so donegal beware!! Ulsterchamps_32 (Donegal) - Posts: 826 - 19/05/2025 12:46:15 2610933 Link
Replying To Ulsterchamps_32: "It was a great result for cavan. Saturday coming is so important. It opens everything up with a win. A loss though brings on cavan away with only a week break and the a potential do or die against mayo, just to get to the last 12. Overall the provincial winners and runners up did not do well at the weekend either so donegal beware!!" Yeah hopefully it will be a case of forewarned is forearmed. I don't think we'd have been taking Tyrone lightly regardless of the weekend's results though. Fair play to Cavan, the 3 point margin flattered Mayo if anything. We all know from painful experience that Cavan have it in them to cause a shock. I see they have fixed our game with them for the Sunday of the June bank holiday at 2pm. Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9774 - 19/05/2025 14:06:11 2610978 Link
Replying To eunans4ever: "U don't think Eoin Ban will see game time ?? He is one of our best players. Judging by time of post - there it's lots of cargo on board." Live on the other side of the world hence the time of the post. Look, Ban is a good player and was great but he's had a. Fe injuries over the last few years and I'm just not sure whose position he takes. Probably jumped the gun though and should have said I don't think he starts, he won't but of course he would be a good sub to have ! eddieSize5Balls (Donegal) - Posts: 134 - 19/05/2025 18:05:27 2611097 Link
Replying To Lockjaw: "Yeah hopefully it will be a case of forewarned is forearmed. I don't think we'd have been taking Tyrone lightly regardless of the weekend's results though. Fair play to Cavan, the 3 point margin flattered Mayo if anything. We all know from painful experience that Cavan have it in them to cause a shock. I see they have fixed our game with them for the Sunday of the June bank holiday at 2pm." Ah will you stop fair play to Cavan . But we were well off it . Worst performance from us I have seen in a good while . Guessing you were not at the match as from Donegal...... So you could not see how bad mayo were. We were absolutely brutal. Kids leaving in tears ex mayo players in the club hous nearly in tears . Our guys looked like they just had rough of McStay and co . I blame Mcstay & Rochford 100% Cillian obviously saw writing on the walls . The 3 point lead flattered us maybe but we came back last 10 min again you obviously were nit there being from Donegal and not on tv . Would not surprise me if we came out and beat Tyrone now after that but Mcstays time is up. Sure look at how Donegal was when Rochford there back and fourth lateral passing . ..but yeah fair play to Cavan on beating the worst mayo performance v them since 1948. S1234 (Mayo) - Posts: 170 - 20/05/2025 00:46:54 2611203 Link
Replying To dgcrusader: "That was some result for Cavan yesterday against Mayo! Imperative now that we go and hopefully get the win this Saturday! Going to be a tough game but hopefully a big support and MacCumhaill park will give us the result. Cavan away going to be tricky then on Sunday week. Hopefully some of the injuries from the Armagh game have eased, Farrah and Murphy hobbled off, so hoping it was just a bit of cramp." Guessing you didn't know how poor mayo were?! As 9bviously jot at the match Cavan fair play but my God were shocking. S1234 (Mayo) - Posts: 170 - 20/05/2025 00:50:48 2611204 Link