NFL Donegal V Mayo Letterkenny 14th Feb 2009

Donegal (NFL v Mayo) -
Michael Boyle,
Declan Walsh, Neil McGee, Paddy McDaid,
Frank McGlynn, Barry Monaghan, Eamon McGee,
Neil Gallagher, Ciaran Bonner,
Rory Kavanagh, Conall Dunne, David Walsh,
Michael Doherty, Stephen Griffin, Michael Murphy.

Great to see Murphy back in the line up. Happy enough with the look of the forwards and it will be interesting to see how Walsh performs there.
It's the backs that makes me wonder though, especially 3 and 6. Will either McGee or Monaghan have the speed to stay with a fairly mobile Mayo attack? Hard to know.

looking at that tem id have to say that Mayo have a speed advantage between our forwards and Donegal backs. Bound to be a close game as it usually is between these two sides. the change of venue and time shouldnt effect the game too much altho it could tire the Mayo team having to travel so far so early. its a good 2 1/2 hour drive at about 9am. that cant be good before a match. im not blaming the Donegal team for this but no doubt the county board are trying to use it as an advantage for their team

Mayo to win by 1

Swinford2009 wrote:looking at that tem id have to say that Mayo have a speed advantage between our forwards and Donegal backs. Bound to be a close game as it usually is between these two sides. the change of venue and time shouldnt effect the game too much altho it could tire the Mayo team having to travel so far so early. its a good 2 1/2 hour drive at about 9am. that cant be good before a match. im not blaming the Donegal team for this but no doubt the county board are trying to use it as an advantage for their team

Mayo to win by 1

Ah now Swinford, what kind of rubbish is this to be coming out with? The county board are trying to use it as an advantage????? Are you on drugs? Did you see the problems and rows that this has caused in Donegal? Why would the county board want to cause that sort of problem?
As for travelling "so far" ... it's virtually the same distance. If someone complained about having to go to Westport in stead of Cbar, would you not think they were talking sh1t?
And lastly "so early". It's 9am FFS. Do ye Mayo men stay in bed until midday or something?

As for the game, I think it should be a fairly high scoring affair. As you said the Mayo forwards will probably give our backs a good run around. Hopefully we'll be able to return the favour

Are you travelling?

RMD....il admit that i was probably wrong about the county board. i read in the paper today that its causing an awful lot of fuss, i just dont see why they couldnt put the Mayo game in Ballyshannon, its a good 30mins closer to home. as for the 9am comment, maybe some of us do like staying in bed til midday and the Cbar/Wport comment....ya ur probably right, il hold my hands up and admit my mistakes like a real Mayo man

unfortunatly i wont be able to travel to the game, im stuck in college for the weekend and with it being Valentine's Day, herself doesnt see it as the best way to spend the day.

Id agree that itl be a high scoring game and if previous encounters are anything to go by then there wont be a winner until deep into injury time. always seems to be the case between Mayo & Donegal. especially in Donegal

Ah you are far too nice Swinford!!

It's a bit easier for me to convince the missus on this one. I've been living in Mayo for 10 years and married a Mayo woman so this is an important game in the RMDrive household. And lets face it, what says I love you more than going to a football game

RMDrive wrote:Ah you are far too nice Swinford!!

It's a bit easier for me to convince the missus on this one. I've been living in Mayo for 10 years and married a Mayo woman so this is an important game in the RMDrive household. And lets face it, what says I love you more than going to a football game

HaHa, that is very true. you've obviously got urself a good Mayo woman there. the bragging rights will be important come Saturday night. loser pays for dinner is it?

wish i was going to the game too but herself is from Longford so der wont be much chance of getting her to agree to go see Mayo play and we aint gonna be playing Longford anytime soon

Swinford2009 wrote:
wish i was going to the game too but herself is from Longford so der wont be much chance of getting her to agree to go see Mayo play and we aint gonna be playing Longford anytime soon

Go way outta that Swinford - there's every chance of drawing Longford in the first qualifying round this year!!

haha, no wer gonna win connaught just to beat the Dubs in croker again

Ok so I've given myself a few days to digest this one and to figure out what I witnessed on Saturday. And the simple fact is that I don't have a clue.
It was one of the strangest games I've seen in a long time. Donegal played in the first half and didn't in the second. Mayo played in the second half and didn't in the first. Obviously the Mayo comeback probably seems impressive however in actual fact they did very little to alter their play in the second half.
Murphy took two great goals early on but from that point on Mayo dominated without notching up many scores. I don't know what happened at half time but the Donegal team came out and weren't in the mood for playing at all. 2 points in the second half!! Mayo simply waltzed through the heart of the Donegal defence time after time.

Conclusions:
- 2 poor teams on display. Both will need to make massive improvements if they want to be around later in the year.
- Neither team will have learned much from the game. Donegal are not as good as their half-time lead suggested. Mayo are not as good as their comeback suggested.
- Both teams will struggle to avoid relegation. It will be a dog fight between the 2 of them and Westmeath.

Thanks RMD, iv been waiting for ya to post details of the match. were both teams really that poor? sounds like it was at least an entertaining game to be at. not too often that a team comes back from 9 points down. i agree with ya tho that its between Mayo,Donegal and Westmeath for relegation altho i would also throw in Dublin. they still have to play Kerry & Derry aswell as travelling to Donegal and Mayo, neither an easy trip