NFL Division 1

So angry at Donegal, they cost me around 300 on a bet.

GAA-Fan wrote:So angry at Donegal, they cost me around 300 on a bet.

Indeed they were one point the wrong side of three results.
Division two League status Is a concern but more telling is the reliance on a fit first 15. The absence of Lacey, Mcgee, Gallagher, and Mcfadden for half a game are gaps they cannot fill.

Very disappointing performance from Donegal yesterday - some terrible wides cost us the game and our division 1 status. I don't buy this it's-all-about-the-26th-of-May stuff. While our conditioning may be at a lower level than Dublin's and others, the poor concentration levels that have manifest as wides and sloppy passes is something that should not be happening. 4 teams were playing for something yesterday: Mayo, Kerry and Donegal to avoid relegation and Down for pride. 3/4 delivered. It's very disappointing that we couldn't get the job done at home.

Hope Hughes is ok. I didn't see the incident but I believe he clashed with one of the dublin lads accidentally. He looked to be in a lot of pain.

Well done to the 200 or so Dublin fans that made the trip up. Truly Dublin have the best supporters in the country.

RMDrive wrote:
Well done to the 200 or so Dublin fans that made the trip up. Truly Dublin have the best supporters in the country.

Subtle. Understated. Brilliant.

Was the spring series a success?

RMDrive wrote:Very disappointing performance from Donegal yesterday - some terrible wides cost us the game and our division 1 status. I don't buy this it's-all-about-the-26th-of-May stuff. While our conditioning may be at a lower level than Dublin's and others, the poor concentration levels that have manifest as wides and sloppy passes is something that should not be happening. 4 teams were playing for something yesterday: Mayo, Kerry and Donegal to avoid relegation and Down for pride. 3/4 delivered. It's very disappointing that we couldn't get the job done at home.

Hope Hughes is ok. I didn't see the incident but I believe he clashed with one of the dublin lads accidentally. He looked to be in a lot of pain.

Well done to the 200 or so Dublin fans that made the trip up. Truly Dublin have the best supporters in the country.

totally agree RMD - as i said before you cant turn form on and off like a tap, and Donegal have been very un-Donegal like in the games i seen this year. The decision making has been rushed and hurried unlike last year were composure and patience was the order of the day.

Its going to be a short summer for Donegal i think

200 or so Dublin fans that made the trip up. Truly Dublin have the best supporters in the country.[/quote]

At least none of them spat at Karl Lacey

Some interesting thoughts on Tyrone/Kerry, Emmet, but I think that a few salient points are missing.

Some of Tyrone's early problems stemmed from team selection. Twice in the league this year, Mickey has opted to play 3 full forwards as opposed to 2, and we have lost both of those games (Cork & Kerry). Tyrone, due to lacking power in the midfield and half-forward lines, need extra bodies to both forage for broken ball and also to protect the centre of our defence. By playing Stevie O'Neill plus Ronan O'Neill AND Darren McCurry, we were sacrificing an extra worker in the hope of getting increased scores.

Playing into a strong wind, this was a disaster, and we were exposed time and again, particularly by Cooper and Galvin who had tonnes of space in which to operate. O'Neill went off due to injury and was replaced by Penrose, and he was one of our better players from then on, tackling, working and running. We started to pick up more ball around the midfield/half back area, and looked much more solid. Lesson learnt, at the second time of asking - Tyrone will be playing 2 full forwards in the championship, and everyone else will be very deep.

The other big tactical changes that you didn't remark on were the introductions of the 2 Conors, Gormley and Clarke. Their strength, drive and, in Gormley's case, leadership, rallied Tyrone. We began to contest and hit Kerry, and push them onto the back foot. Gormley remains a very fine defender.

Kerry opened Tyrone up desperately easily for 40-45 minutes. Given space, they have better footballers than we do, but we still made it far too easy for them, even allowing for the wind. What was encouraging was the way that Tyrone didn't lie down, and were another kick-out away from salvaging a most improbable draw. From a Tyrone perspective, we learnt the lessons that one normally learns from a hammering, without actually being hammered.

I should add that I know there are some posters on here who, in defeat, would have been moaning and crying about Kerry's cynical time-wasting late on, but I am not one of those. If you build a 13 point lead, you earn the right to defend it any way that you can.

Parouisa wrote:

RMDrive wrote: 200 or so Dublin fans that made the trip up. Truly Dublin have the best supporters in the country.

At least none of them spat at Karl Lacey

Indeed. No bite in them at all.

RMDrive wrote:Very disappointing performance from Donegal yesterday - some terrible wides cost us the game and our division 1 status. I don't buy this it's-all-about-the-26th-of-May stuff. While our conditioning may be at a lower level than Dublin's and others, the poor concentration levels that have manifest as wides and sloppy passes is something that should not be happening. 4 teams were playing for something yesterday: Mayo, Kerry and Donegal to avoid relegation and Down for pride. 3/4 delivered. It's very disappointing that we couldn't get the job done at home.

Hope Hughes is ok. I didn't see the incident but I believe he clashed with one of the dublin lads accidentally. He looked to be in a lot of pain.

Well done to the 200 or so Dublin fans that made the trip up. Truly Dublin have the best supporters in the country.

Didn't make it or manage to see any highlights, from twitter feeds mcbrearty seemed to be guilty of a few bad misses

OMAR wrote:

RMDrive wrote:Very disappointing performance from Donegal yesterday - some terrible wides cost us the game and our division 1 status. I don't buy this it's-all-about-the-26th-of-May stuff. While our conditioning may be at a lower level than Dublin's and others, the poor concentration levels that have manifest as wides and sloppy passes is something that should not be happening. 4 teams were playing for something yesterday: Mayo, Kerry and Donegal to avoid relegation and Down for pride. 3/4 delivered. It's very disappointing that we couldn't get the job done at home.

Hope Hughes is ok. I didn't see the incident but I believe he clashed with one of the dublin lads accidentally. He looked to be in a lot of pain.

Well done to the 200 or so Dublin fans that made the trip up. Truly Dublin have the best supporters in the country.

Didn't make it or manage to see any highlights, from twitter feeds mcbrearty seemed to be guilty of a few bad misses

Got out in the front well and the ball stuck when it was sent to him, but some of his decisions after that were poor. He seems to lack some of the score-taking confidence he shows at U21. Was far from being just him though. Murph had a poor game and should have put the ball on the ground for a free near the end instead of opting for a quick speculative lob inside. Some really poor wides all round really. But sure we're not allowed to care about the league are we.

RMDrive wrote:

OMAR wrote:mcbrearty seemed to be guilty of a few bad misses

Got out in the front well and the ball stuck when it was sent to him, but some of his decisions after that were poor.

To be fair to him, the poor lad could well have been suffering from the early effects of rabies.

Thomas Clarke wrote:

RMDrive wrote:

OMAR wrote:mcbrearty seemed to be guilty of a few bad misses

Got out in the front well and the ball stuck when it was sent to him, but some of his decisions after that were poor.

To be fair to him, the poor lad could well have been suffering from the early effects of rabies.

Ah we'll have to see what the whole story is. A strange one though and I'm sure it had a part to play in the seething Jim McGuinness that was interviewed after the game.

Thomas Clarke wrote:
The other big tactical changes that you didn't remark on were the introductions of the 2 Conors, Gormley and Clarke. Their strength, drive and, in Gormley's case, leadership, rallied Tyrone. We began to contest and hit Kerry, and push them onto the back foot. Gormley remains a very fine defender.

I tuned in to this at about the 50th minute when Tyrone were 10 points adrift and I had terrible visions of TC and Boc eating the fingers off themselves..... From there on though they drove into it and TC is correct in singling out the pair mentioned. They brought urgency and resolve to the fray, Clarke kicked 1 or possibly 2 fine points and Gormley landed a raker. He did however misplace a pass on about 66 mins. and seemed to struggle to get up to speed again.
I've always had a lot of time for Conor but is there 70 mins in him at this stage. Clarke looks a good prospect, big and strong and a bit of football to him. He's back from injury I think so will only improve. Harte, Donnelly or young McCurry don't excite me but Tyrone may have enough for Donegal come c/ship.

I'd agree with virtually of that Boxty, and I had actually walked out of my own house in disgust at half-time, never mind biting my fingernails! After much soul searching, I did return for the 2nd half.

Clarke is a huge lad for 20, and a decent footballer, though he can look a bit sluggish (musclebound) at times. Gormley will be fine for 70 minutes in the full back line, but not out the field. He is still very important, though.

Peter Harte is not progressing. He runs into trouble constantly, and it is a mystery as to how he always plays 70 minutes. Mark Donnelly has played well most of the year. McNeice is an average player who can perform a role, but ultimately you'd like to have better. McCurry has a lot of developing to do also - he is accurate and busy, but this is a big step up from U21.

Read on HS that McBrearty was bitten by a dublin player...any truth?

GAA-Fan wrote:Read on HS that McBrearty was bitten by a dublin player...any truth?

You're behind the times, GF. It was discussed on this very thread half an hour ago. RMD wisely suggested that we should wait until commenting, although some of the Dubs on Hoganstand say that it is true.

Thomas Clarke wrote:

GAA-Fan wrote:Read on HS that McBrearty was bitten by a dublin player...any truth?

You're behind the times, GF. It was discussed on this very thread half an hour ago. RMD wisely suggested that we should wait until commenting, although some of the Dubs on Hoganstand say that it is true.

I had a quick glance to see looking for the word bite and never seen it so thought it hadn't been discussed

GAA-Fan wrote:

Thomas Clarke wrote:

GAA-Fan wrote:Read on HS that McBrearty was bitten by a dublin player...any truth?

You're behind the times, GF. It was discussed on this very thread half an hour ago. RMD wisely suggested that we should wait until commenting, although some of the Dubs on Hoganstand say that it is true.

I had a quick glance to see looking for the word bite and never seen it so thought it hadn't been discussed

Ah now GF, this is a more subtle forum than HS. A cursory glance is rarely sufficient

Hello everyone and glad that ye are keeping the ship on the road. Not posting for a few months as I went through some health problems and even football was the least on my mind. Felling nearly there so the reason I am just popping in in is having spoken to a few Kerry lads who were in Omagh, thanks Tyrone boys for the reception they got over the weekend and the media tried to play up something between two sets of great supporters. Maybe Tyrone were too nice to us in the first half!. anyway see you soon PG.
sorry lads 'ship on the road'?

Real Kerry Fan wrote:Hello everyone and glad that ye are keeping the ship on the road. Not posting for a few months as I went through some health problems and even football was the least on my mind. Felling nearly there so the reason I am just popping in in is having spoken to a few Kerry lads who were in Omagh, thanks Tyrone boys for the reception they got over the weekend and the media tried to play up something between two sets of great supporters. Maybe Tyrone were too nice to us in the first half!. anyway see you soon PG.
sorry lads 'ship on the road'?

Sorry to hear RKF, hope you get better soon.

Ah surely, now that the Kingdom are on the right track again, RKF re-emerges!

Seriously, though, great to see you back again, as I had wondered how you were a few times. Hopefully you'll be with us more regularly in the near future. All the best in the recovery.

Great to have you back RKF.

Parouisa wrote:

RMDrive wrote: 200 or so Dublin fans that made the trip up. Truly Dublin have the best supporters in the country.

At least none of them spat at Karl Lacey

It's a good idea to make sure the one isn't in a glass house, before throwing arrogant, sanctimonious stones.

Thomas Clarke wrote:

Parouisa wrote:

RMDrive wrote: 200 or so Dublin fans that made the trip up. Truly Dublin have the best supporters in the country.

At least none of them spat at Karl Lacey

It's a good idea to make sure the one isn't in a glass house, before throwing arrogant, sanctimonious stones.

No. IF this happened I would not stand over it and would prefer if the person never donned the Dublin jersey again. Thats the difference - nothing sanctimonious or arrogant there at all. I don't seek to defend the indefensible.

Re your earlier para
'I should add that I know there are some posters on here who, in defeat, would have been moaning and crying about Kerry's cynical time-wasting late on, but I am not one of those. If you build a 13 point lead, you earn the right to defend it any way that you can..

I find this one of the most ridiculous statements I have ever read. You earn the right to be cynical and waste time by building a big lead?!?!? Such utter rubbish. I would hate to think you would be involved with any uderage teams with thinking like that.

I find this site increasingly hard to even look at which is a pity. Boxty and Bocerty and a couple of others are good people and their opinions are always good to read. Some are just petty and nasty. Not worth reading.

Slán go léir.