NFL Division 1 - 2020

[J70]

1-5 to 0-2 at half time in Ballyshannon.

Monaghan will have the wind in the second half.

McManus doesn't look fit at all, although the wet, slippy conditions are making it hard to gather any ball that goes in to any forward.

The Ward goal and a couple of fine points from Langan at the end made it a much better scoreline for Donegal.

Donegal had a very good 10 - 15 minutes against the wind at the start of the 2nd half, that ended the game competitively even before the red and 2nd black.
They made little of the wind disadvantage, even your goalie got good milage out of his kickouts against the wind.
I thought Monaghan did alright except when it came to passing the ball in the last 1/3, they just couldn't get it into their game that the pitch was a bog with absolutely no bounce and adjust accordingly.

The pitch is always a bog there. And it's invariably windy on the top of that hill.

We haven't lost in Ballyshannon since 2009.

We have won once in Letterkenny since 2007.

Make sense of that!

I'm glad our next encounter will be Clones in sunny June

I'll be honest... I've not lamented not meeting Monaghan the last few years!

[macdanger2]

How many chances are some of these Mayo players going to get?  3 of those forwards that started and were substituted during the course of the game today have been given 3 or 4 games each to prove themselves over the course of this league.  Bar a 3 minute cameo by one of them at the end of the Donegal game, all 3 have been poor.  They aren't even close to the standard unfortunately.  Not sure what Horan is looking at, if he's looking at anything at all.  I fully expect him to play all 3 again in Galway and again all 3 will be substituted.

That's the part I don't get , James durcan is not as good as James Carr or Brian reape imo but reape seems to be completely out of the frame and Carr seems not his favorite either

I'm pretty sure Horan will have Carr starting come championship

[GaillimhIarthair]

Really poor performance overall from our lads in Navan yesterday.  We were just not at it in any shape or form at all for the first 25 - 30 mins and were blessed to be only 4 down at HT.  As has been outlined above by AFA, our kickout were atrocious throughout the entire game.  Gleeson needs a ton of work as he just does not seem comfortable at all with short KO's in particular.  He is also very poor to see options on the pitch, I can think of a few occasions when Sean Kelly was free on the stand side during the second half and GOD on the terrace side in the first and he either didnt see or ignored them - we simply will not do anything of note in the Summer unless this issue is fixed.

Paul Conroy and to a lesser extent Shane Walsh won us that game yesterday - Conroys point from the terrace side late in the 2nd half was as good a score as I have seen in a long while not withstanding some of Walsh's efforts through the league.  Indeed Shane hit a trade mark score himself late on.  Neither made the highlights reel last either either which I found bizarre!  Comer was a massive loss on the day - his abrasive and very direct style was especially missed in the 1st has as we looked rudderless up front.

Our 2 central defenders got pulled out of position a little too easy yesterday and we were in trouble every time Meath ran at us, again, something the management team will need to have a look at.  I was on the terrace side so wasnt aware of any of the sideline antics far side but there was a lot of off the ball stuff from both sides through the game with Kelly in particular getting a lot of treatment.  In fairness to the ref, I though he did reasonably well through the game.

Improvement needed for our final two home games as Mayo will be fighting tooth and nail to avoid relegation and the Dubs will be their usual efficient selves.  An extra game of a league final would also be of great benefit to both the team and management IF we get there as we have plenty to improve on.

[Shamrock Shore]

Does McEntee ever stop whingeing?

[Craigyhill Terror]

Due to complete failure to steward properly, I'd say Tyrone will lose home advantage, at least for the game v Donegal, possibly more if Croke Park have the cojones.

I think that was the last Tyrone game due to be played at Healy Park for over a year. Drainage works are due to start soon on the pitch.

The NFL Wikipedia page has the game v Donegal at Omagh.
Lucky bastrds, Monaghan lost a home advantage fixture in the NFL,  for mild shennanigans at half time v Kildare, started by Kildare who had a player red carded.

Wikipedia is wrong, Donegal v Tyrone is in Ballybofey

[galwayman]

Does McEntee ever stop whingeing?

Shtop - I was wondering was I the only one that has noticed this. Every single f**king game he's whingeing and moaning about the ref afterwards. It can't always be the refs fault like ffs.
It doesn't do him or his team any good to be at that crap.

[galwayman]

Any of the Galway posters in Navan today?
Did we improve our kick outs today?

I was in Navan alright.

This was the worst day out for the Galway kick outs yet, I'm only slightly exaggerating when I say that the main reason Galway nearly lost that match today was our kick outs. The number of scores Meath got from unforced Galway errors on the restarts had to be seen to be believed. This was really reinforced when after Meath got a point to bring it back to two points late on, the next one was a crucial kickout, exactly the time for Galway to pull out a prepared manoeuvre to guarantee possession from the restart. Instead a really tame, poor short and low kickout to Mulkerrin (I think) who had to go very low to gather with a Meath player already on top of him, he fouled the ball resulting in a tap over free in for Meath and a one point match. At that stage one Galway supporter in my vicinity questioned "Are they practising them at all?", I'm sure they are but it was easy to see why the question was asked.
Even on a time when Galway won a great mark from D'Arcy, he then proceeded to hand pass it straight to a Meath player under no pressure and 20 seconds later it was in the Galway net. Meath did much better on engineering short kickouts in the second half into a huge breeze than Galway did at any point during the match. It's just down to pumping it out long and hoping for the best at the moment, there's blame both on Gleeson who is not quick enough to see some of the opportunities that are there and on the management for not putting in place some better system for the outfield players to engineer space for themselves.
It is the number one issue that needs to be rectified for me, the likes of Dublin in high summer would destroy Galway on their current kick out strategy.

Big wind in Navan which Meath had for the first half but even playing into that, Galway started very poorly and Meath were the much better team for the first 25/30 minutes before Galway started to make any inroads, this was the time of the match that would frustrate Meath fans most, they should have really put themselves into an unassailable position. To be honest Galway were blessed to go into the changing rooms only 4 points down although we had started to play a bit better down the stretch of the first half.

A lot of players were sub par for Galway today, it was a really lethargic showing in general. Meath had great success running and handpassing through the middle of the Galway defence. Daly didn't hold the centre as well as he has in previous matches, he had a couple of nice tackles but way down on his standard to date but he was accompanied by a good number of other Galway players who didn't play up to standard.

In all fairness to him Paul Conroy came on in the 27th minute and basically won that game for Galway today. He's been knocking around for a long time now but that was one of his finest ever performances in the maroon and white.
Won two vital frees to get things going in the first half, took a fine mark and score, passed Steede in for the goal and his final score from play was an absolute beauty from near the side terrace in the corner, just lightly caressed the side footed kick of the ball towards the goal judging the wind to perfection.

People may call it harsh on Farragher to get such a quick hooking but subbing him for Conroy was the winning of the game, Galway turned it completely around for the following twenty five minutes either side of the HT whistle to hit 1-6 without reply.
It was a very tough station for anyone in the FF line in the first half but even so Farragher's work rate and run making for his team mates looking to play the ball in was nowhere near the standard required. Varley was far better at providing an outlet. The one ball he did take from a kick pass was in his hand for about a half second because he didn't feel the defender coming for the tackle and he lost it straight away. In contrast the first ball Conroy got it stuck in there and he was fouled for a free in.

Steede starting to show well on the scoreboard and he initially intercepted the misplaced Meath kick pass that led to his goal but he's loose enough in general play, three passes intercepted today and they were ones that should never have been taken on, there's a balance to have between adventure and needlessly giving the ball away.

The absence of Comer was certainly felt out there but D'Arcy did ok considering, he seems quite limited but couldn't fault the effort.

Shane Walsh was in and out of the game but Galway wouldn't have got any result without him either. He threatened to cut loose a couple of times in the second half but his shots and passing was slightly off, his score from play to put Galway one up was another absolutely superb solo score though, real clutch play. Bizarre to me that League Sunday didn't show either it or Conroy's final point on the highlights package this evening, they were the two best scores of the day.

Lot of talk/whinging from McEntee after the match about the cynicism of the Galway players, and certainly from a number of the restarts in the first half Galway players did their best to block and hinder the Meath runners but equally in that first half I saw Johnny Heaney dragged to the ground on a Galway counter attack to stop him going up the pitch. On at least two separate occasions Sean Kelly was dragged into incidents when on a yellow card by Meath players clearly looking to gain the numerical advantage. The locals are going to be one eyed about it but there was two teams at it out there from what I could see.

It all got very heated in the run up to half time when Galway started to get back into the match and being polite I'll just say that some of the Meath fans were somewhat overly raucous in their interjections during this stage of the match, the antics on the sideline from some of the Meath backroom team were of the same character and fuelled the charged atmosphere as well. John Concannon has to take more than a fair share of the blame here as well, needlessly getting involved with incidents on the pitch and sideline.

Having heard McEntee's interview with LMFM after the match, I was really struck by how much his comments post match throughout the league and again today reminded me of every post match interview Cian O'Neill gave during the 2018 league, can the refs really be the cause of every single loss? It's not the same man in the middle for each game so how likely is it?
While it's very easy to understand his frustration at results, particularly today when Meath did play well and deserved some kind of a result, maybe it'd be more worthwhile longer term if he did a better self assessment, did Meath convert enough of their possession dominance in the first half 25 minutes into scores? I would posit that they clearly did not, with the aid of a very stiff breeze why was this? Did he made any - or enough - adjustments when Conroy came into the forward line for Galway and proceed to do absolute wreck? Easy say it's bad luck or the ref instead.

Galway have a mountain of work to do ahead of welcoming our neighbours to Salthill on the 15th but even more so in the longer term. I'm fairly confident in saying that if Galway don't improve on their retention of possession on kick outs moving forward in 2020 that we won't get near as far as PJ wants to go.

Good report as usual AFA. I haven't been at every game so far as you have so it's harder for me to comment with authority on it - but definitely in every game I have been at the kickouts have been dreadful (even against Tyrone until they were reduced to 13 when it then became tap it to the corner back who will be completely on his own).
Gleeson is obviously a good shot stopper but kicking is more important in the modern game imo.
Bernie Power has been inconsistent when he has played but there's no doubt his ball striking is superior to Gleeson's.
I think they may need to make a change here.
Even Lavelle - for all the criticism he got - was a good striker of the ball in general.

[macdanger2]

Team P W D L +/- Pts.
Galway  5 4 0 1 22 8
Kerry  5 3 1 1 4 7
Tyrone  5 3 0 2 -14 6
Dublin  5 2 2 1 4 6
Donegal  5 2 1 2 18 5
Monaghan  5 2 1 2 2 5
Mayo  5 1 1 3 -14 3
Meath  5 0 0 5 -22 0


To be relegated:

Mayo 2/9
Donegal 6/1
Monaghan 15/2
Tyrone 16/1
Dublin 100/1

To win the league:

Dublin 15/8
Galway 9/4
Kerry 5/2
Tyrone 8/1
Monaghan 16/1
Donegal 20/1

[Dinny Breen]

Meath doing a Kildare on it, said last year after they qualified for the Super 8 they wouldn't win a game for 12 months. Impossible task for a lot of teams to step up. Kildare/Meath's/Cavan's even the Roscommon's of the world.

[ballinaman]

Should Horan have made a couple of changes earlier in the game larryin? The subs all seemed to have made an impact when they came on.

He can't keep picking some of those lads that started. Can he?

I think he is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea here. On the one hand, he had a lot of what would be first choice players who are out through injury or at least not match fit. If he starts panicking and throwing some of them on he is risking further injuries to his better players and enforced absences during the championships coming up soon. It's Hobson's choice I'm afraid.
On the other hand, some of the newer players are showing potential and sooner or later, he will have to let a raft of the old guard go. Unless he bloods replacements in, he will be in even more trouble than he is right now.
I thought a few likely lads showed up last year and this year to date has been even more promising. We have always had problems getting youngsters to mature enough to play at championship level but the last few years, and this one especially, there has been quite a few.
Ossian Mullin looks the real deal already and Tommy Conroy, Towey, O'Donoughe and a few others are developing nicely. Throw in Matty Ruane and probably Fionn McDonagh from last year and things are looking good for the future.
Maybe not too good at present but dammit!, Tiocfaidh ar lá arís very soon.

The names you mention as positive I will give you yeah. In fact I think I mentioned them in an earlier post and would raise you Swanee O Hora as well. They are fairly obvious as well. On the other hand there are lads wheeled out every week that are as obviously not at it at all. These are JH's projects so if he is caught between devil and deep blue sea ....... If you look back at recent panels, there were young lads that were indulged for years that never were good enough.

I reckon Mullin will he gone to Australia at the end of championship.

[Cunny Funt]

Meath doing a Kildare on it, said last year after they qualified for the Super 8 they wouldn't win a game for 12 months. Impossible task for a lot of teams to step up. Kildare/Meath's/Cavan's even the Roscommon's of the world.

To be fair Meath chances of staying up wasn't helped with the amount of injuries they got. They can take some comfort from their competitive performances v Galway, Mayo and Kerry.

Who will join Meath in Div 2 is the big question now. Mayo look most likely but they have a great knack for avoiding relegation so will come as no surprise if we get a few more twist and turns in the relegation dogfight.

[rosnarun]

Should Horan have made a couple of changes earlier in the game larryin? The subs all seemed to have made an impact when they came on.

He can't keep picking some of those lads that started. Can he?

I think he is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea here. On the one hand, he had a lot of what would be first choice players who are out through injury or at least not match fit. If he starts panicking and throwing some of them on he is risking further injuries to his better players and enforced absences during the championships coming up soon. It's Hobson's choice I'm afraid.
On the other hand, some of the newer players are showing potential and sooner or later, he will have to let a raft of the old guard go. Unless he bloods replacements in, he will be in even more trouble than he is right now.
I thought a few likely lads showed up last year and this year to date has been even more promising. We have always had problems getting youngsters to mature enough to play at championship level but the last few years, and this one especially, there has been quite a few.
Ossian Mullin looks the real deal already and Tommy Conroy, Towey, O'Donoughe and a few others are developing nicely. Throw in Matty Ruane and probably Fionn McDonagh from last year and things are looking good for the future.
Maybe not too good at present but dammit!, Tiocfaidh ar lá arís very soon.

The names you mention as positive I will give you yeah. In fact I think I mentioned them in an earlier post and would raise you Swanee O Hora as well. They are fairly obvious as well. On the other hand there are lads wheeled out every week that are as obviously not at it at all. These are JH's projects so if he is caught between devil and deep blue sea ....... If you look back at recent panels, there were young lads that were indulged for years that never were good enough.

I reckon Mullin will he gone to Australia at the end of championship.

do you know this or are you just guessing?
Horan has done in this league what Rochford
shoul have started 3 years agohould have started 3 years ago bringing  genuine change to the team and people have to keep the faith and trust Horan  . no one is going to remember relegation if may win the All Ireland and there is the nucleus of a very good new team there  and the young lads are getting bett with every Game, new leaders are emerging without the older hands on board .In Particular Coen and Diarmauid along with Aidan are now running the show even with Coen playing out of position he has come on in leaps in bounds this year.
at time the team is not gelling  and our kick outs are killing us but Is slowly coming together and I think we will see more of these lads in the summer than  you think

[Main Street]

Due to complete failure to steward properly, I'd say Tyrone will lose home advantage, at least for the game v Donegal, possibly more if Croke Park have the cojones.

I think that was the last Tyrone game due to be played at Healy Park for over a year. Drainage works are due to start soon on the pitch.

The NFL Wikipedia page has the game v Donegal at Omagh.
Lucky bastrds, Monaghan lost a home advantage fixture in the NFL,  for mild shennanigans at half time v Kildare, started by Kildare who had a player red carded.

Wikipedia is wrong, Donegal v Tyrone is in Ballybofey

I understood that, Tyrone have no home advantage to lose when punishments are being dished out.

[galwayman]

Should Horan have made a couple of changes earlier in the game larryin? The subs all seemed to have made an impact when they came on.

He can't keep picking some of those lads that started. Can he?

I think he is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea here. On the one hand, he had a lot of what would be first choice players who are out through injury or at least not match fit. If he starts panicking and throwing some of them on he is risking further injuries to his better players and enforced absences during the championships coming up soon. It's Hobson's choice I'm afraid.
On the other hand, some of the newer players are showing potential and sooner or later, he will have to let a raft of the old guard go. Unless he bloods replacements in, he will be in even more trouble than he is right now.
I thought a few likely lads showed up last year and this year to date has been even more promising. We have always had problems getting youngsters to mature enough to play at championship level but the last few years, and this one especially, there has been quite a few.
Ossian Mullin looks the real deal already and Tommy Conroy, Towey, O'Donoughe and a few others are developing nicely. Throw in Matty Ruane and probably Fionn McDonagh from last year and things are looking good for the future.
Maybe not too good at present but dammit!, Tiocfaidh ar lá arís very soon.

The names you mention as positive I will give you yeah. In fact I think I mentioned them in an earlier post and would raise you Swanee O Hora as well. They are fairly obvious as well. On the other hand there are lads wheeled out every week that are as obviously not at it at all. These are JH's projects so if he is caught between devil and deep blue sea ....... If you look back at recent panels, there were young lads that were indulged for years that never were good enough.

I reckon Mullin will he gone to Australia at the end of championship.

do you know this or are you just guessing?
Horan has done in this league what Rochford
shoul have started 3 years agohould have started 3 years ago bringing  genuine change to the team and people have to keep the faith and trust Horan  . no one is going to remember relegation if may win the All Ireland and there is the nucleus of a very good new team there  and the young lads are getting bett with every Game, new leaders are emerging without the older hands on board .In Particular Coen and Diarmauid along with Aidan are now running the show even with Coen playing out of position he has come on in leaps in bounds this year.
at time the team is not gelling  and our kick outs are killing us but Is slowly coming together and I think we will see more of these lads in the summer than  you think

It's obvious Horan is using the league to blood players. Some look like they are there to stay (Mullin in particular).
And come championship ye have several guys to come straight into the team - Ruane, Harrison, Barrett, Cillian O Connor, Jason Doherty for starters. Eoin O Donoghue hasn't played much in the league either and is a likely c'ship starter also.
When ye have a full deck ye will be a completely different proposition.
Last year is really the only time Mayo have done well in the league. Usually ye scrape survival and improve as the year goes on.

[ballinaman]

Should Horan have made a couple of changes earlier in the game larryin? The subs all seemed to have made an impact when they came on.

He can't keep picking some of those lads that started. Can he?

I think he is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea here. On the one hand, he had a lot of what would be first choice players who are out through injury or at least not match fit. If he starts panicking and throwing some of them on he is risking further injuries to his better players and enforced absences during the championships coming up soon. It's Hobson's choice I'm afraid.
On the other hand, some of the newer players are showing potential and sooner or later, he will have to let a raft of the old guard go. Unless he bloods replacements in, he will be in even more trouble than he is right now.
I thought a few likely lads showed up last year and this year to date has been even more promising. We have always had problems getting youngsters to mature enough to play at championship level but the last few years, and this one especially, there has been quite a few.
Ossian Mullin looks the real deal already and Tommy Conroy, Towey, O'Donoughe and a few others are developing nicely. Throw in Matty Ruane and probably Fionn McDonagh from last year and things are looking good for the future.
Maybe not too good at present but dammit!, Tiocfaidh ar lá arís very soon.

The names you mention as positive I will give you yeah. In fact I think I mentioned them in an earlier post and would raise you Swanee O Hora as well. They are fairly obvious as well. On the other hand there are lads wheeled out every week that are as obviously not at it at all. These are JH's projects so if he is caught between devil and deep blue sea ....... If you look back at recent panels, there were young lads that were indulged for years that never were good enough.

I reckon Mullin will he gone to Australia at the end of championship.

do you know this or are you just guessing?
Horan has done in this league what Rochford
shoul have started 3 years agohould have started 3 years ago bringing  genuine change to the team and people have to keep the faith and trust Horan  . no one is going to remember relegation if may win the All Ireland and there is the nucleus of a very good new team there  and the young lads are getting bett with every Game, new leaders are emerging without the older hands on board .In Particular Coen and Diarmauid along with Aidan are now running the show even with Coen playing out of position he has come on in leaps in bounds this year.
at time the team is not gelling  and our kick outs are killing us but Is slowly coming together and I think we will see more of these lads in the summer than  you think

Guessing but he was no.1 player identified at the trials pre Christmas, James Horan in interview on mayonews podcast said "he"ll be playing for mayo in 2020 season". That's me reading between lines.